Michigan State University’s Department of Theatre brought in its new season by premiering Kristen Greenridge’s “Baltimore” as a part of the Big Ten New Plays Initiative.
The 2015-16 season theme is “A Season of Journeys.” “Baltimore” is about the journey of a few college students living in a college dormitory.
The students were forced to analyze the implications after Fiona, a young white woman, posted an offensive racial drawing on the door of Alysa, another young African American student.
Guest Director Joni Starr said the play captures a conversation that needed to be held.
“Race can be an uncomfortable conversation, but that doesn’t mean we should avoid it,” she said.
“Being in ‘Baltimore’ means just creating awareness as to how to respond to racial problems on campus,“ said Christine Thibodeau, theater senior who plays Fiona.
Theatre and media and information senior Briana Bougard said the play opened up the stage for each character to voice their viewpoints.
“To me, being in ‘Baltimore’ just means being able to hear different perspectives about race from people of different cultures and different backgrounds and the viewpoints on it and how we can change them,” Bougard said.
Theatre senior Imani Bonner, who plays the students’ resident assistant, said her role in “Baltimore” challenged her usual actions and concepts.
“To me, ‘Baltimore’ means taking on a character that was very different from myself and finding a way to justify actions and concepts that are not familiar to me,” Bonner said.
Starr said the contemporary nature of the play and its relevance to MSU students is what makes it unique and different from other plays the department has done.
“The contemporary nature of it, the strong female characters, the fact that they get to play themselves,” Starr said. “They’re dressing basically in their own clothes; they’re in their own setting.”