In Good Kids, all of the characters except Deirdre are part of "The Chorus of Good Kids." Like director Will Power's chorus, Iizuka's chorus is dynamic. Its characters express a range of contradictory ideas and feelings. The chorus, as a group and as individuals, changes its mind, go back and forth, agree and disagree, and espouse contradictory ideas simultaneously.
A 2015 production of Good Kids by Hobart and William Smith Colleges "explores the ways in which social media functions much like the Greek Chorus in ancient theatre." In an interview with DC Theatre Scene, Iizuka suggests she chose a chorus to explore rape and sexual assault as communal events and issues: "Good Kids is not one or two people’s stories, but that it was a community story, many different attitudes and points of view that shape what happened and how we talk about what happened." Social media allows for expansive communities and arguably less "privacy."
Like Tectonic Theater's The Laramie Project (1998) and Stephen Karam's columbinus (2005), socially-conscious plays undertake the challenge of representing a community onstage. In Good Kids, Iizuka uses a chorus to bring those actual and virtual community members to life onstage.
The chorus of good kids makes me think of the bystander apathy effect, which states that people are less likely to intervene in a situation if others are present. The effect is famously linked with the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, NY in 1964. Several people witnessed her attack, but failed to stop it; most failed to try. Do you think the chorus of good kids demonstrate the truth of the bystander apathy effect? If being in a group encourages us not to intervene, the struggle and imperative to remember who we are as individuals within the group is even stronger. Check out this article for tips to avoid inaction.
A 2015 production of Good Kids by Hobart and William Smith Colleges "explores the ways in which social media functions much like the Greek Chorus in ancient theatre." In an interview with DC Theatre Scene, Iizuka suggests she chose a chorus to explore rape and sexual assault as communal events and issues: "Good Kids is not one or two people’s stories, but that it was a community story, many different attitudes and points of view that shape what happened and how we talk about what happened." Social media allows for expansive communities and arguably less "privacy."
Like Tectonic Theater's The Laramie Project (1998) and Stephen Karam's columbinus (2005), socially-conscious plays undertake the challenge of representing a community onstage. In Good Kids, Iizuka uses a chorus to bring those actual and virtual community members to life onstage.
The chorus of good kids makes me think of the bystander apathy effect, which states that people are less likely to intervene in a situation if others are present. The effect is famously linked with the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, NY in 1964. Several people witnessed her attack, but failed to stop it; most failed to try. Do you think the chorus of good kids demonstrate the truth of the bystander apathy effect? If being in a group encourages us not to intervene, the struggle and imperative to remember who we are as individuals within the group is even stronger. Check out this article for tips to avoid inaction.