No White Picket Fence may be one of the most self-aware productions Theatre St. Thomas has ever attempted.
The play is a piece of verbatim theatre created by St. Thomas University’s Robin Whittaker and Sue McKenzie-Mohr. It tells the stories of ten young women who were brought up in the foster care system and are now living well.
The material was taken entirely from research interviews McKenzie-Mohr conducted with young women who volunteered to tell their stories.
The actors sat on houses lit from within, moving around the stage as they told fragments of their stories. Titles projected onto a screen helped orient audiences as to which part of who’s story they were hearing. At times the focus would shift to the character of ‘Emily’ (Victoria McConnell) who would say nothing but in her silence convey the pain of her experience.
Kyla LaPointe is one of these young women. In the play we are introduced to her as Lotus (played by Esther Soucoup).
LaPointe introduced herself as the real ‘Lotus’ during the first of five talkbacks held after the shows. She has been emancipated from foster care for five years, but said it took her a long time to feel she could speak out about her experience.
“I found myself needing that familiarity of resiliency and strength,” she said.
The production constantly reminds you of the reality in which these stories unfold. From the professorial office shelves in the corner, to the live video stream manned by other actors and the alternating voices of ‘The Interviewer’ interjecting with additional questions.
Social activism in the form of a production is a fairly new concept in the theatre world, and new to STU. This hyper-realism allows the play to fulfill its role as a catalyst for conversation and awareness.
Kira Chisholm, who played Kari, said being a part of the project gave her a chance to get involved in advocacy.
“Having something like this, this amazing project that’s new to me, that’s like I can bring my craft and my skills and I get to help tell the stories, its been such a gift and I feel so blessed to have been a part of it,” Chisholm said.
Robyn Lippett is a social worker with Partners for Youth who participated in the talkback. She said the play brought to life questions about how to have meaningful discussions about youth agency in the foster care system as well as the challenges of the social workers trying work within a bureaucracy.
“While its important to create space for folks to come together, its also important to say that ‘We survived this, but nobody else should have to do this.’ In the play, we see folks wandering around, a lot of movement, and I think for me, that movement echoed the transient and movement and lack of stability of the system,” Lippett said.
The majority of audience members stayed for the talkback on Wednesday night, asking questions about McKenzie-Mohr’s research process, the development of the play and the possibilities of a tour.
LaPointe said while watching the play she felt part of the stigma and taboo around foster children lifted.
“I think in moments such as these where we’re advocating so strongly for positive change whether it be socially or culturally … you need to be courageous, you need to push boundaries, and you need to go for things in a way that people haven’t looked [at] them before.”
LaPointe said when looking at the issues of foster children and care it is important to always move forward, but when movement is slow, productions like No White Picket Fence help bring the issues to the forefront of the public eye.
“What I want from these types of productions is for people to see that they’re not just the government’s children, they are all of our children.”
