Past Events

Sneak Peek of “Survivor: Teen Voter Edition” Under Just Act’s direction, teens in the PA Youth Vote artistic activism program trained in devised theatre to create an interactive play about why teens don’t vote and to educate their peers about why they should vote. This is the second year that Just Act has partnered with PA Youth Vote to support teens to dive beneath the surface of “get out the vote’ to understand teen attitudes towards voting that keep them from becoming civically engaged, the root causes of these feelings and the purpose of voting.

Survivor: Teen Voter Edition was the theatrical result of four weeks of working with the teens to learn about voting, identifying the personal and systemic barriers to why teens don’t vote, and the impact of oppressive policies on inter-personal relationships between teens. They also explored the relationship of voting to ongoing issues of social injustice about which they care deeply; in particular, gun violence and mass shootings in schools, discrimination in education and climate change.

Loosely based on the reality TV show, our version was called Survivor: Teen Voter Edition which follows the story of “A.T.V.” an Aspiring Teen Voter who returns home from high school where her efforts to engage others around voting were dashed by countless peers who told her that their individual votes won’t matter, that voting won’t change a corrupt system that doesn’t care about their rights, and even that their parents don’t vote and taught them not to vote. Frustrated and isolated, ATV turns on the tv where she searches for her favorite show, “Survivor.” To her great surprise, the show appears as an edition focused on the very issues she has been having with her peer group.

Using the format of Forum Theatre, a theatrical game where audiences are called Spect-Actors and are given the responsibility to act on the oppressive situations they see in the play—such as when Rocky and Ash are overpowered by the other teens– by stopping the play, and jumping into the action as one of these characters. When the teens performed at City Hall in Philadelphia, our Survivor audience was divided into two teams—Activists and Organizers– who selected contestants from their team to step into the story and face the main characters’ challenges. The play then re-started several times and contestants improvised new actions, as Rocky or Ash, so that not only were their voices heard and understood, but so they could practice interrupting the oppressive behaviors of their peers and succeed in shifting their attitudes towards voting.

While the first challenge revolved around collective brainstorming about what characters could do to break the cycle of oppression amongst peers, the second challenge zoomed out to policies that systemically disenfranchise public school teens. Contestants jumped into the role of SuVo—aka Suppressed Teen Voter—and faced off with barriers such as Lack of Voter Education, an ever-moving Polling Place, as well as Voter ID.

The play ended with a call to action to the audience to help “vaccinate students against disinformation,” and to become informed as well as civically engaged voters.

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/pennsylvania-youth-vote-voting-politics-focusing-on-the-future/

A collaboration between Just Act with PA Youth Vote and Philly Neighborhood Networks, Summer-Fall 2021