Marjuan Canady Visits “Arts, Social Justice, & Human Rights” Class
Tony Nominated Broadway producer, entrepreneur, writer, director, and performer, Marjuan Canady (FCLC ’08), returned to campus on April 1st to discuss with “Arts, Social Justice, & Human Rights” students (taught by Fadi Skeiker) concepts in applied theater and the importance of forging one’s own path when navigating a career in the arts.
After graduating from Fordham with a degree in theatre and African and African American studies, Canady continued her studies at NYU Tisch which led to the production of her one-woman play “Girls! Girl? Girls.” Using this experience as a framework, Canady explained to students how they might use a grassroots approach to theater and production, and how to use theater to engage with topics that are meaningful to them. Canady also challenged students to consider the use of satire when tackling larger, societal issues. She presented them with several approaches to satire and explained the concepts using examples from her own production of “Girls! Girls? Girls.” to show how these techniques could be applied in their own work.
During this workshop, students were tasked with a solo theater exercise, in which they were instucted to identify an issue that they are passionate about and then create a monologue or scene using satire. Students explored three techniques of satire – exagerration, reversal, and parody – and were instructed to encorporate two of them into their monologue or scene. Through this exercise students where able to apprciate the power of satire and comedy when addressing potentially serious issues. By creating room for humor in the discussion, satire allows audiences to step back and address the “ridiculousness” of current societal issues. Through Canady’s teachings, students learned how to use applied theater to take deep issues that are often difficult to discuss, and to create a natural and intimate dialogue around these issues through performance.