1. Gabriel Jones
Students Explore History Through the Arts
Friday, February 22, the audience at the Bloomington Playwrights Project met José, a Mexican-
American immigrant struggling to earn money for his family back home in Mexico by working in
California’s vast grape fields. Every year, he would toil endlessly making profit for his landowner, but his
farm labor contractor would rob him of what he earned. When winter came, he suffered greatly. But
then he joined forces with the United Farm Workers and several others to fight for his rights. After
winter came the “fifth season” of the year, social justice. This season finally put an end to the abuse and
mistreatment of workers. José finally earned his first contract.
This story, a modified version of Quinta Temporada (Fifth Season) written in 1966, was a
fictional representation of the Delano Grape Strike. Despite the fictional and comical aspects of the play,
the actors were able to tell a story that seemed very real.
The play was produced by an IU Bloomington playwright program called VIDA, “A Spanish-
language performance group for both native and non-native speakers. The letters in this name stand for
Vision, Identity, Drama, and Art. We aim to produce plays that foster cultural understanding and
promote the richness of Hispanic culture and expression through live theatre.” Explains VIDA president
Hannah Agauas.
Along with seeing the plays, students from Mellissa Tesoroni-Mitra’s Spanish class at the
Academy also performed their own original productions that were “impressive” and “unique,” as to
Agauas describes. We all enjoyed the opportunity to explore the arts.
The arts are about much more than making something that’s fun to see. According to Noel
Koontz, a teacher at the Academy, art is the “Vehicle of self-expression that people use to tell their own
stories.” Art can be used, whether visually, verbally, or through theatrics and writing, to tell a story.
This is important because people learn more from knowing personal stories than factual
information. “You can learn about the Holocaust from reading a textbook, but you won’t get the same
level of understanding as if you read the Diary of Anne Frank.” According to Jeffery Allen, executive
director of the Waldron.
Freshmen in Rachel Bahr and Pam Gunkel’s American studies class had the opportunity to gain a
deeper understanding of the Civil Rights era through writing their own personal narratives. At first, the
teacher’s purposely limited the students’ resources by restricting them from using anything except the
textbooks. All of the freshmen complained that they couldn’t learn sufficiently from the readings. Two
students, Austin Helton and Joey Kersey, both agreed that there “wasn’t enough in the textbooks for me
to learn about the Civil Rights movement. There were no personal accounts, and they didn’t even
mention events like the murder of Emmett Till.”
Finally, the students were released to research freely and found a surplus interesting stories. But
how does this relate to theatre?
At the end of the project, students wrote their own personal narratives and presented them live
from memory recording for WFHB. They looked at themes in the Civil Rights movement and, “They used
them to shape their own stories of courage and perseverance.” Gunkel states. At the beginning,

2. “Everybody said ‘I’m not story worthy.’ But they quickly learned the power of ordinary stories.” They
learned that history is more than what happened, but how what happened is remembered. In the words
of Academy teacher Nathan Turner, “History is whatever you want it to be.”
This artistic production by the students represents how people can use the arts to tell a story.
Jeffery Allen believes that it’s important for young people to have the opportunity to learn history in a
way they can identify, and the arts give them that chance. Art does even more than teach history and
help people explore creativity, it can be used to achieve their educational goals. For instance, the only
way to truly understand Macbeth is to experience it the way it was meant to be: through making it
personal.
We are tasked with making modern adaptations of Macbeth in Noel Koontz’s Dramatic
Literature class. By playing the roles of these characters, we have no choice but to ask ourselves, “Why
did Macbeth murder the King? Was it because he wanted power, prestige? If I want these things too,
what am I willing to do to obtain them?” From these questions, we can begin to form our understanding
of the world.
As we understand why Macbeth killed the King, we can begin to understand why people put
others down to get ahead in life. We understand why a farm labor contractor might take advantage of a
poor farm worker. We understand why an insecure child might bully someone to get the respect of his
peers. The arts, whether they be literature, dramatic, visual, narrative, or other forms, can help us gain
an empathy of our surroundings while teaching practical life lessons.
You don’t have to be Picasso or Shakespeare to make an impact through the arts. A junior at the
Academy, Brandon Arbuckle, learned Adobe Illustrator in Amanda Patrick’s digital art class. He has used
his skill to design the new school logo and emblem. The arts teach practical skills, help explore creativity,
and can be used as a tool for learning. There are so many ways to get involved, and I encourage each of
you to explore them. Find your passion through the arts.