Who: Austin, Ozzy, and Adrian will act as co-leads. Austin will be the editor, Ozzy and Adrian will be writers, and all three will also be actors. We completed all of our roles together. We would all give each other feedback in order to collaborate on our different roles. We also had help from Jenna Sapp and Mike Biscoe. They were are additional actors. Katherine Kasmir, the executive director of BRITE, provided guidance for the direction of this project. Jennifer Harkey, the program management analyst for the Human Services Agency, assisted us with this project by providing information about the legal parameters of homelessness. Also, our group met with Ezequiel Sanchez, one of BRITE's contacts, in order to hear about his experiences with housing insecurity. Finally, we will also be working with BRITE.
What: We will be creating a short film focusing on the issues of homelessness. The steps in the creation of this project include writing the script, collecting stories, filming, and editing. Writing the script took about 3 weeks, collecting stories took one week, filming took 2 weeks, and editing took 5 days. We collected stories and wrote the script first. Next, we filmed the project in Malibu 140, in Austin's car, and in the Malibu offices. Editing followed the filming process.
When: First, we met with BRITE's contact named Ezequiel for inspiration for our stories because he has experience with living in low income housing on February 25th. Next, Ozzy met Jennifer Harkey, the program management analyst for the Human Services Agency, for inspiration for the counselor scene on March 22nd. We wrote the scripts during several weeks in March. We filmed our footage on April 7th and April 14th. Editing started on April 15th and stopped on April 19th.
Where: We filmed in Malibu 140, in the parking lot in front of Broome Library, and in one of the Malibu Offices. These events were done face to face.
Why: Our goal for this project is to raise awareness for the homeless situation. We expect that we will learn more about this issue by the end of the project and we hope to educate as many people as possible through BRITE. BRITE’s need of educating the public is being met with this project through the use of improv and scripted scenes.
How: Collect stories: this step will require interviewing a number of people and researching the topic of homelessness, writing the script: this step will require us to research the topic of homelessness and to interview people, film the scenes: this step will require scheduling with everyone involved. We also need to know the availability of our actors before we start filming and the length of the entire short film production. We will collect from individuals who have experienced, or are currently experiencing, housing insecurity and other forms of homelessness. Editing: this step will involve putting the scenes together in one video and adding in information about homelessness between the scenes. These tales can vary considerably and the purpose of this project is to bring awareness to not only housing insecurity itself but also the ubiquity of how anyone can become homeless.
We will document this project by using this webpage. We can also trace the number of views on our project because the video itself is posted on YouTube.
First Video Draft:
Final Video Draft:
Annotated Bibliography
Research Questions:
- How do other theater companies produce and direct productions about homelessness and housing insecurity?
- What societal causes lead to homelessness?
- What is guerrilla theater and how do people do it?
“Academic Search Premier.” EBSCO Industries. Academic Search Premier, Database, 2022, https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.csuci.edu/ ehost/search/advanced?vid=11&sid=a6bc55b1-0ab9-4a82-9778-f86d58a29231%40redis.
Academic Search Premier has quite a divergent range of sources. These include many different types of journals, magazines, and newspaper articles. This database can also be limited to full texts, references, or peer reviewed sources.
Attendance Policy. Society for Human Resource Management, n.d., https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/policies/pages/cms_006834.aspx.
This source is from the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional human resources organization. It gives an outline of a company’s attendance policy.
Cash, Justin. “1960s Guerrilla Theatre: Fascinating Resources from the Decade of Protests.” Theatre Links, 13 Dec. 2021, https://theatrelinks.com/guerrilla-theatre/.
This source contains an essay that has a lot of information of Augusto Boal’s form of theatre. It also provides a good amount of information regarding the historical backgrounds of guerrilla theatre.
Chamberlain, Chris, and Guy Johnson. “Pathways into Adult Homelessness.” Journal of Sociology, vol. 49, no. 1, Mar. 2013, pp. 60–77. SAGE Journals, https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783311422458.
This source provides five different pathways that lead people to adult homelessness. These pathways are housing crisis, family breakdown, substance abuse, mental health, and youth to adult. The article also compares these different pathways and explains why some pathways lead to longer periods of homelessness compared to others. The purpose of this article is to present the idea that there are different causes to adult homelessness and that individuals who are homeless have different experiences. This source passes the CRAAP test because the information presented is relevant to our topic, it was published in a peer reviewed journal, it provides a long list of references from Google Scholar, and its purpose is to inform the reader about the different causes of adult homelessness.
I think this source will be helpful in answering our second question. This source provides societal causes of homelessness. This would directly answer the question, what factors in society contribute to homelessness?
“From Guerilla Theatre to Social Sculpture.” Google Sites, Social Sculpture USA, https://sites.google.com/site/socialsculptureusa/fromguerillatheatretosocialsculpture.
A very comprehensive resource for guerrilla theater. Contains information for the many different types of guerrilla theatre, explains what it truly is, and how it relates to audiences and actors.
Hill, Leslie, and Helen Paris. Guerilla Performance and Multimedia. Continuum, 2001.
This book is mainly just a good starting guide for any information on how to get started with guerrilla theater, or when it comes to creating performance work in general. It covers many aspects of different types of artist support including starting up a company, funding, multimedia tools, and documentation and marketing.
“Homelessness among LGBT Adults in the US.” Edited by Bianca D.M Wilson, Williams Institute, 26 Aug. 2021, https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/lgbt-homelessness-us/.
The Williams Institute is an authoritative publication from UCLA about sexual identities and gender studies. They write in this how the homeless population intersects with LGBT community. It states many LGBT youths are not accepted at home and face bullying from their peers. They also find the problem is very prevalent in the trans community as they make up over half of the homeless population compared to their cis counterparts.
Kelly, Michelle. “Annual Homeless Count for Santa Barbara County Released.” KSBY, KSBY, 19 Mar. 2022, https://www.ksby.com/news/local-news/annual-homeless-count-for-santa-barbara-county-released#:~:text=The%202022%20Santa%20Barbara%20County,3.4%20percent%20from%20last%20year.
Santa Barbara also saw an increase in the number of homeless within the county. They structured their survey in the same way as Ventura County where they asked people where they slept last night and other pertinent information. They saw a three percent increase in the homeless population. It is a short article, but gets straight to the point. It has numbers and stats from last year's annual count.
Knudson, P. D. (2021, Jun 09). New independent theater company brings play about homelessness to grand forks. TCA Regional News Retrieved from https://proquest.ezproxy.csuci.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.csuci.edu/wire-feeds/new-independent-theater-company-brings-play-about/docview/2539356755/se-2?accountid=7284
Theater Without Walls created a “guerilla style” theater production about homelessness. These performances were done in open spaces in Grand Forks, ND. There is a homeless shelter in Grand Forks and the performance was all outdoor. They use the term “shelter insecure”.
Munoz-Bellerin, Manuel, and Nuria Cordero-Ramos. "Citizen Art and Human Rights: Collective Theatre Creation as a Way of Combatting Exclusion." Social Inclusion, vol. 9, no. 4S1, Dec. 2021, pp. 106+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A688159075/AONE?u=csuci&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=67be78d8.
This source talks about a theater in Spain that is empowering those who have experienced homelessness with creative and expressive theater. Also, the article talks about how art in many forms can be therapeutic, especially those involved in the production. It mentions how the audience becomes involved and becomes participants in the play.
Nishio, Akihiro, et al. “Causes of Homelessness Prevalence: Relationship between Homelessness and Disability.” Psychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences, vol. 71, no. 3, Mar. 2017, pp. 180–88. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1111/pcn.12469.
This article was written in order to compare the causes of homelessness for individuals with mental disabilities and for individuals without mental disabilities. It also provides the causes of homelessness by having individuals fill out a questionnaire asking how they became homeless. This article passess the CRAAP test because it was published in 2017, the topic directly relates to our second question, it is peer reviewed, it includes an extensive list of references, and the purpose of the article is to inform. This article is also useful because it provides more causes of homelessness in the questionnaire.
“ProQuest | Better Research, Better Learning, Better Insights.” ProQuest Education Database, https://www.proquest.com/.
This database contains a multitude of valuable information. Many reliable scholarly journals and articles can be found here, as well as dissertations & theses. A lot of the information can also be limited to sources that either contain full text, or that are peer reviewed.
Snyder-Young, Dani. “‘Here to Tell Her Story’: Analyzing the Autoethnographic Performances of Others.” Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 17, no. 10, Dec. 2011, pp. 943–951, https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800411425149.
This article talks about how one theater based company in Minneapolis uses “autoethnographic performance” to tell stories about people who experienced homelessness and housing insecurity.
"Theater production to tackle homelessness." TCA Regional News, Jul 18, 2019. ProQuest, https://proquest.ezproxy.csuci.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.csuci.edu/wire-feeds/theater-production-tackle-homelessness/docview/2259516694/se-2?accountid=7284.
zAmya Theater in Minneapolis created a production “A Homeless Prairie Companion” that elaborates on the legal definitions of homelessness and distinguishes what makes someone from being homeless, such as “couch surfing”. It is a radio theater podcast that simulates people going cross country and meeting individuals who are homeless and housing insecure.
"Theatre with a message; Headlines Theatre tackles homelessness." The Record, Nov 28, 2009, pp. 16. ProQuest, https://proquest.ezproxy.csuci.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.csuci.edu/newspapers/theatre-with-message-headlines-tackles/docview/359112183/se-2?accountid=7284.
Although this is a newspaper article, it is a relevant source because the author details who was involved in the production of the play titled “After Homeless” involving people who were homeless and their struggles with mental health. It also mentions forms of expressive art on stage where people performed various acts involving dance and music. It briefly mentions their thought process and the workshop that involved twenty people. This passes the CRAAP because it’s from a reliable source, albeit a news publication, but a relevant source nonetheless. The source also mentions what the purpose of the play was since it challenged people “to think about how to solve the problem”.
“Today is Sergei's 18th birthday. Also his first day homeless!” YouTube, uploaded by Invisible People, 23 Jul. 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=276RZVt-SDk.
This video was created to help raise awareness for the issue of homelessness by interviewing someone who is homeless. This video passes the CRAAP test because it relates to the topic of homelessness and it was created by a nonprofit organization named Invisible people. This source will help us by giving us additional information about the societal causes of homelessness. This video focuses on family breakdown and how that can lead to homelessness.
Varela, Brian J. “Homeless Population in Ventura County Rises 25% during Coronavirus Pandemic.” Ventura County Star, Ventura County Star, 12 Apr. 2022, https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2022/04/12/homeless-population-count-ventura-county-rose-25-percent-covid-pandemic/7282903001/.
This article talks about the results of the point-in-time homeless population tally for 2022. Jenn Harkey notes that she was surprised to see an increase in the number of unsheltered homeless people. It also states that the state-funded Project Homekey helped unsheltered people move to different areas where they added to the homeless population. Oxnard and Ventura saw the biggest increases in the homeless population in 2022.
Varela, Brian J. “'Where Did You Sleep Last Night?' Ventura County Conducts 2022 Homeless Count.” Ventura County Star, Ventura County Star, 23 Feb. 2022, https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2022/02/23/ventura-county-california-homeless-population-count-2022-volunteers/6886664001/.
This article talks about the annual homeless count conducted by the county and how social workers determine how one is considered “homeless” by asking where they slept before. They do this so they can receive federal funding (HUD) to continue social services. Jenn Harkey coordinates the county-wide effort of tallying the homeless population in various areas. They expect the number of homeless to increase in 2022.
Additional Sources
BRITE. n.d., https://brite.mykajabi.com/
Cantrell, Tom. “Documentary & Verbatim Theatre.” University of York, Jan. 2016, https://www.york.ac.uk/tfti/research/current-projects/documentary/#:~:text=Verbatim%20theatre%20is%20a%20form,this%20testimony%20from%20recorded%20interviews.
Chilcoat, George W. “Flippy Guerrilla Street Theater.” Social Studies, vol. 91, no. 6, Nov. 2000, p. 272. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/00377990009602477.
County of Ventura, “Homeless Services,” n.d. https://www.ventura.org/human-services-agency/homeless-services/.
Harkey, Jennifer. In person interview with the program management analyst for the Human Services Agency, 22 Mar. 2022.
Nunez, Daniel, and Simon Reyes. Feedback discussion with the class, 24 Mar. 2022.
Sanchez, Ezequiel. Zoom interview with one of BRITE’s contacts, 25 Feb. 2022.
zAmya Theater Project. n.d., https://zamyatheater.org/about.
zAmya Theater Project. “Ongoing Programs,”. n.d. https://zamyatheater.org/ongoing-programs.
Credits:
Created with images by Mel Stoutsenberger - "city camp" • serhiibobyk - "Empty cinema auditorium with chairs." • Максим Травкин - "Dirty homeless woman sits under a gray wall" • Joeprachatree - "Homeless person with help sign " • Tiko - "tired woman hand help text on paper"