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Washburn High School students take social issues to the stage

From the pandemic to the murder of George Floyd, some Minneapolis students are making sense of the world with a creative approach.

MINNEAPOLIS — It's the final rehearsal before Washburn High School students go from classroom to the University of Minnesota's Rarig stage. All semester, Keaton Maile and her peers have written and even directed their own poetic scenes under guidance of teacher Crystal Spring.  

"Just knowing there are people out there that are going to see this instead of just us and our teacher, that's just like an amazing feeling to me," Maile said ahead of their first showing Wednesday.

Topics range from typical high school issues like body image, to unprecedented world events like the pandemic and the aftermath of George Floyd's murder.

"Just a lot of things that we struggle with on the daily that we need to express," Maile said. "Me being able to hear other people's stories gives me perspective and helps me learn and I think that's also really important."

One student's personal story covered the ways her skin color and hair texture are perceived.

Posted by Washburn Blackbox Acting Program on Sunday, December 12, 2021

"My journey is told through the strands of my hair," she recited. "The years where I would straighten my hair every day to fit in with the white girls in my school to being told by my parents that ever since they told me about my roots, I'm traumatized and started wearing bonnets and speaking broken English and talking Black. They called me Aunt Jemima when I would wear head a wrap."

Maile, who plans to pursue a career in theater, says students aren't forced to share information about their personal lives — but many do.

"Just knowing that this is the space to do so and if you feel that there is something wrong in the world, this is the place to do it and we don't only talk about negative things either," Maile said. "We're not just bashing the Earth, the world, right now. You know? We're talking about how to fix it and how we feel about it and working through that is what we need."

For fellow senior Talleia McHaney, who like Maile has been in the school's black box performing arts program since freshman year, one "positive" has been self growth.

"My first year, I was the most closeted introvert you would ever find," McHaney said. "I didn't need any type of counseling because this place was my counseling."

The black box program recently expanded to South High School. Washburn students return to the Rarig Center at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 16, for a final performance before winter break. In 2022, they plan to bring their show to local middle and high schools as well as some colleges.

"We've had so many ideas that we want to perform more," McHaney said.

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