Vanessa Roberts Untitled 

Why I Do What I Do...    (The Short Version)

This is an edited selection taken from the conclusion of the senior thesis, “Critical Performance.: The Space for Re-inventing Race” written by Vanessa Roberts in March 2008. No part may be reproduced without direct permission from the author.

As a half-German, half-black (socially identified as black/nonwhite) female member of society, race and gender affect me on a daily basis whether I am intentionally conscious of it or not.

Performance and dialogue provide a space in which to make the internalized approachable, bearable even. I know that I may offend the sensibilities of several audience members even as I move others to empathy. By presenting truth in a re-scripted format which emphasizes my right as author of my racial and cultural narrative, mainstream culture must attempt to absorb my threat, to dissolve the friction.

For I am threat—there is no doubt about that. I am a well-spoken, educated woman of color determined to expose the truth about race and its construction. I refuse to accept the limitations placed upon me by external labels and definitions. Seeking to expand, I embrace theatre as “the” critical space for reinventing race. I will perform where and when I can, and for whom. I have access to traditional theatre spaces, lecture halls, high school auditoriums and several other venues in which liberatory discourse can take place. We must start the conversations which will ultimately change our perceptions of the "norm". 

Perhaps it won’t make a difference, perhaps I’ll become cynical and jaded, or, perhaps I will inspire just one more person to consider revising their vision of Truth.

That chance is worth it to me.