Our goals for the outcome of the performance helped guide our group in the creative aspect of the work. Our goals were the following:
• Working on creating an interactive yet educational performance.
• To have our audience (New Yorkers) walk away with resources on non-profit organizations and contacts working for protect tenants’ Rights.
These goals brought clarity to the group when putting the performance together. As a group we did not anticipate having New Yorkers voluntarily participate in our performance, we instead taught we would have to be very persuasive in order to have people engage with us and our prop. The outcome was quite different from what we anticipated. New Yorkers were coming up to us asking questions about our performance props even before we started setting up and this continued during the performance as well. Every one of the people we spoke to voiced their concerns and experiences living in New York City buildings with no prompting from members of our group.
We realized how important and crucial the issue of tenant’ rights were to the residents of New York City, specifically issues around poor living conditions and increase in rent in the city. The importance of our performance was realized fully when one of the people we spoke to become emotional when telling us her experience living in poor living conditions and moved into other building with similar living conditions, I sensed her frustrations.
Our group reflected on the success of the performance and come to the conclusion that our props and site were the reasoning behind the success. Our interactive prop (box), resembled a Brooklyn brownstone titled “Tenants’ Rights”, it also included a jeopardy like game for the audience to play and engage with. The other prop which was the sign stating “Protect Affordable Housing” conveyed a positive message instead of a confrontational one. The site where we did our performance was on the Fort Greene neighborhood where there was rezoning in the neighborhood and its surround communities, the message of tenants’ rights resonated with members of the neighborhood as a result.
As a group we did not anticipate learning from the people we were interacting with as well, we learned about the outstanding cost of living in the area from our audience members, one person we spoke to pointed to the building he lived in and the cost of a one-bedroom apartment there being $3,000 a month. These discussions further taught us the importance of our performance and was a learning experience.
Overall the performance was just an extension and needed resource for an issue affecting New Yorkers specific to the Fort Green area on a day to day basis.
