REDIRECT 7661 https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/student-playwrights-draw-inspiration-from-the-worlds-largest-lgbtq-materials-repository/
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Student playwrights draw inspiration from the world’s largest LGBTQ materials repository

An SDA playwriting class gets creative after a visit to the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, writing scenes based on a photo collection of a gay wedding that took place in the 1950s in Philadelphia.

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Inspiration for writing a scene, or a play, can come from anywhere. Playwrights often make use of archival material and at USC, USC Libraries is fortunate to include ONE Archives, the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world, which is a treasure trove of undiscovered stories just waiting to be turned into dramatic works.

In early April, Oliver Mayer, professor of dramatic writing, took his undergraduate playwriting students on a field trip to the archives, and gave them a writing prompt utilizing an unusual photo collection there. Then, during the last week of classes, he arranged for MFA acting alums to do readings of the scenes the students wrote.

The photo collection is 18 small format black and white images of a gay wedding held in a home or apartment in Philadelphia in the 1950s. No one is identified in the photos and the wedding couple never saw the images, as the owner of the photo shop where the film was developed confiscated them. The daughter of the photo shop owner was selling the images online, and a ONE Archives donor bought them and gave them to the archives in 2012.

Michael Oliveira, a librarian who gave the SDA class a tour at the archives, located north of campus at 909 West Adams Boulevard, said the images present “so many unanswered questions.” All the window blinds in the photos are closed, he noted, and one man standing in the kitchen seems to be in distress. Another man is in drag, and it’s unclear whether he’s part of the wedding photos or not. “This wedding could have happened anywhere, and there’s so much you could imagine,” he said.

ONE Archives became part of USC Libraries in 2010, and Oliveira said that USC professors are increasingly making use of its letters, photographs, books, artwork and exhibitions in their classes. “We’ve had writing classes, library classes and history classes coming to see what’s here,” he said. Oliveira said he gave Mayer, who heads SDA’s undergraduate and MFA playwriting programs, a half dozen other ideas of material in the archives he might want to use for future classes.

Surprisingly, none of the 15 students in the class, many who were juniors and seniors, had visited ONE Archives before. Many were unaware it existed.

Some of the scenes the students wrote focused on the emotions of the men getting married, while others used the images as a jumping off point. Jonathan Pelster, a senior BA theatre major, learned from the archives trip that there was a strong connection between science fiction fandom and gay culture in Southern California, and his scene, “Qualon,” included that.

Cameryn Baker, a senior creative writing major at USC Dornsife, included in her scene reference to a character not shown in the images – a woman that one of the grooms was planning to marry as a way to hide his homosexuality from the world.

Some scenes had flashes of humorous dialogue, one included some shocking history of the grandfather of one of the grooms, and many referred to the clandestine nature of the ceremony via the shuttered blinds. “We’re risking our lives for our make-believe contract,” said one character. “We could go to prison.”

Actors Jered Hobbs MFA ’13 and Goran Ivanovski MFA ’18 read the scenes with great skill, helped out by Mayer who read stage directions and played additional characters as needed. On the first day scenes were performed, Lea Lanoue MFA ’20 performed with Hobbs and Ivanovski.

Hobbs called the writing in the scenes “kind of profound,” and both he and Ivanovski called on a full range of emotions to do justice to the words, depicting characters who were by turns scared, tearful, angry, jealous, witty or reflective.

Mayer was thrilled with the results. “It has been a wonderful exercise that has really focused the compassion and observational skills of the writers,” he said.

The project already has inspired one student to create his own collaboration with ONE Archives. Zack Rocklin-Waltch, a junior BFA acting student, asked librarian Oliveira if he could do a reading of a play he wrote, The Fire at the Edge of the Earth, at the archives. Oliveira and the archives agreed, and a reading with an audience of about 40, was held there April 18. The two-character play, produced by Wendy Hui, a ’21 design BFA, is headed for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. “The play deals with queer love and existence and the archives seemed like the perfect place,” said Rocklin-Waltch. “And the people at the archives were so gracious and open to doing it there.”

Rocklin-Waltch said his class visit to the archives was emotional. “Learning about the local queer history in L.A. and the different ways queer people have fought to be represented and respected brought me to tears just being there.” The ripple effect of the archives visit is continuing, Rocklin-Waltch said. “I’ve been telling my friends about the archives, and now one friend is applying for an internship there.”

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https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3700/course-digital-media-feature-food-mexican-american-grandmothers/
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USC Dornsife professor Sarah Portnoy and USC Annenberg professor Amara Aguilar also collaborate on a related course teaching students how to use digital media to share oral histories.
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Growing up in Santa Paula, California, Rachel Aguilar watched her as her grandmother butchered chickens for family meals and recalls the fresh beans, tortillas and salsa her abuela would make from scratch. Now, at age 92, she credits her longevity to the fresh and healthy dishes her grandmother taught her to make and that she prepared, in turn, for her own children and grandchildren.

Aguilar’s tale, as well as the oral histories of nine other Mexican and Mexican American abuelitas, or grandmothers, are part of a new museum exhibition curated by Sarah Portnoy, professor (teaching) of Spanish at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Titled “Abuelita’s Kitchen: Mexican Food Stories,” the exhibit takes those histories and combines them with recipes, kitchen artifacts and a documentary film to provide a glimpse into the role traditional dishes played in the women’s lives, and how they transmitted their culinary knowledge to their children and grandchildren.

The exhibit opens May 14 at LA Plaza Cocina in Los Angeles, with a special screening of the documentary film at the museum on May 12. The project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“Food-centered life histories have the capacity to portray the voices and perspectives of women who have traditionally been ignored or marginalized,” says Portnoy. “This project aims to amplify the voices of a group of indigenous, mestiza, Mexican American and Afro-Mexican grandmothers who have cooked, preserved, and passed on Mexican food culture, while creating communities and cultures that are unique to Southern California.”

Digital media for the exhibit was created by students in a course titled “Recording the Voices of Latinx Women & Food in Los Angeles: A Multimedia Oral History Project” co-taught by Portnoy and Amara Aguilar, professor of journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (and granddaughter of Rachel Aguilar).

The two USC professors taught students how to conduct interviews for oral histories, edit audio and video, make graphics and create a website featuring the stories. The students also conducted interviews with abuelitas (a different group from those in the exhibit), giving them the chance to partake in the passing of knowledge from generation to generation.

Food of life

Portnoy says the project aimed to capture not only traditional recipes but how food wove through the fabric of the women’s lives. Although food is often associated with joyful occasions and celebrations — and many of the stories featured these as well — Portnoy was surprised at the wide variety of emotions the dishes evoked in the grandmothers.

“They spoke of hardship, domestic abuse, slavery. There were a lot of tears,” Portnoy says. One woman, half-indigenous and half-Black, the descendant of slaves brought to Mexico, talked about an ancestor who helped feed slaves who had escaped from ships carrying them across the Atlantic. Another recounted how she spent long hours selling tamales from a cart to pay for the McDonald’s food her children desperately wanted to try.

Aguilar adds that some of the women discussed more topical food issues, such as the high rates of obesity and diabetes in the Latinx population.

“One grandmother talked about the fact that women can do more than cook. She said they can also make a difference by promoting healthy eating and nutrition. Another grandmother spoke about her work as an activist for street vendors. Many of these abuelitas are not only the centerpiece of their families, but they have also had so much impact on our communities, and it’s important to share these stories,” Aguilar says.

Portnoy says that the experience of interviewing the grandmothers was also humbling in some ways.

“It might take me a day to make these dishes, which they are preparing with such grace and ease and without stressing about it,” she explains.

Transmitting traditions

In the course, Portnoy and Aguilar taught the students about Mexican culture, especially food culture, and how to conduct oral history projects to preserve the traditions and histories of older generations.

Portnoy’s portion of the course involved an introduction to Mexican and Mexican American culture in L.A. There were field trips to Boyle Heights, Olvera Street and LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, and lectures on topics such as gentrification and the history of redlining and discrimination of Mexican communities in L.A.

Aguilar taught the students how recording an oral history differs slightly from conducting an interview and requires a few additional skills. She wanted her students to learn how to have empathy and compassion for their interview subjects, and how to convey the sense of a person’s story or personality accurately and in a way that was personal and genuine. She also instructed them on how to create digital content for distribution on different media platforms.

“They made short videos for YouTube, they created content for Instagram, and they produced and edited content we had shot for the exhibit. This project is multidimensional and is going to reach people in a lot of different ways. It is especially important in that it preserves stories of our cultures for future generations,” Aguilar says.

Portnoy adds that the students also learned lessons that went beyond the technicalities of recording oral histories. “They learned a lot from all of this, not just how to use the technology, but all of these different experiences, how to appreciate different cultures, the challenges of being an immigrant, and how to appreciate the work behind preparing complex dishes in Mexican cuisine.”

Aguilar interviewed her own grandmother for the project and joined her grandmother, father and daughter — four generations of the family — to prepare her grandmother’s traditional dish of enchiladas.

“My grandmother on my maternal side of the family has passed, and we lost all of her recipes. So, getting to do this with my paternal grandmother — to cook with her and preserve her recipes and her traditions — was just really meaningful to all of us,” Aguilar says.

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