Capstone Essential Questions and Key DataFinal draft

Please use the boxes provided to insert your responses:

Name:

Anna S.

Project #:

Your projects essential question:

How may a performing art be used to demonstrate the importance of empathy within a
population of people affected by a significant event?

Your projects primary research question:

How can an allegorical play be used to depict the experiences of and effects on a population
of people impacted by a significant fictional event (based upon significant historical events)
and what can an audience come to understand about the importance of empathy after
viewing the play?

Your projects secondary research questions:

-How can a person be affected by a historical event physically, emotionally and

psychologically?
-How can the effects of a significant historical event be accurately translated to the stage?
-How are different people affected by the same historical incident?
-How can an allegorical event be an effective way to show how different people respond to
the same event in order to raise awareness for the need for empathy in our society?
-What do significant historical events have in common? What parts dont they share? How

can studying various significant moments in history come and peoples responses to them
help create an allegorical situation that will allow people understand the importance of
empathy?
-How do humans transfer their feelings into words and actions? In what ways are these
manifestations of feelings universal and in what ways can they be specific and personal to an
individual?
-Who can be affected by a significant historical event? Does it have to be a relative or close
friend? Can a person be as distant as a fellow commuter on the same bus/train and still be
affected by said persons sudden, tragic absence?
-What makes empathy powerful enough to promote peace through understanding?
-How does empathy between people impact a community?
-Is theater an impactful vehicle to raise awareness? If so, how can this impact be accurately
documented?

A concise description of your project:

For this project, I hope to be able to conduct research on a variety of significant historical
events and how these events impacted those affected in order to fabricate a fictional event.
This fictional event would serve as an allegory and be realistic in order to bring the focus
from the event and to the peoples responses. My hope is that through this, the audience will
be able to discover how events impact people differently and also how empathy is of the
utmost importance between people groups to foster peace and understanding through
difficult times.
I would make sure to research a wide range of historical events from all angles in order to
create a realistic fictional event that will resemble but not copy events of the past. My focus
would be on the deeper, more personal effects rather than the wider-sweeping effects of the
historical events I study. Also, I hope to research how a person less directly or obviously
involved in said historical event is impacted.
My research will most likely be conducted by interviewing those involved (if possible),
finding second and first-hand accounts, reading fictional novels/stories written surrounding
the events, etc. I would also research ways in which history has been translated to staged
theatrical productions and research former one-person theater performances in order to gain
insight into specific tools and mechanisms required by such a play.

After conducting my research I would work to translate the information I have gathered by
first developing a fictional allegorical event, then writing a one-person play and finally work
on turning the play into a cohesive, engaging, entertaining, and thought-provoking
performance. The characters in this play will be fictional (though based in truth) from the
research I gather. I envision the play being 30 minutes to an hour long though this may
change in the process of writing and/or production. (However, this may be a bit ambitious, I
am not certain yet). After it is written, I will work on ways to most effectively stage and
perform in the one-character production so that I may present to an audience a piece of
theater that is impactful in their lives and will alter the way they perceive events to affect
people and in turn increase understanding amongst people. Also, I will generate surveys to
pass out the the audience before and after the production to gage the responses to the play
and research the effect that the performance had on individual audience members. I will also
look into videotaping each audience at each performance and discover if I can collect helpful
data on immediate blink responses based on facial expression. After collected my data
from the audience in these ways, I would revisit the script and incorporate the constructive
feedback/criticism in order to improve the play and then perform it again and discover how
the changes helped to make the play more effective in its goals. Finally, I would present my
findings in a Ted-Talk-style presentation and perhaps perform the show an additional
number of times to give people the opportunity to experience it first-hand after hearing my
presentation.

Why does your project matter? How does it make a significant contribution to our body
of knowledge? (1-3 sentences)

My project matters because as our global world becomes more about communications and
less about human connection and understanding, our society is in need of a refocus on
empathizing with fellow humans. Misunderstanding breeds many evils within society and
causes a lot of pain amongst a population. A way to combat these evils is to increase empathy
between people because once a person is able to better understand the plight of a neighbor,
the more likely that person will be less judgemental and more open to aiding them instead of
discriminating against them. I hope that by demonstrating on stage multiple characters
impacted in different ways by an allegorical event, the audience will better understand that
not everybody reacts in the same way and each reaction manifests itself differently and in
order to heal from an event, one needs to empathize with the population around them.

Anna

All the effort you put into this draft shows. Wow. So impressive, so well thought out, such a
model of how to anticipate what you will do and what the issues will be. We have no feedback
to give you beyond what we already said over the weekend. Beautifully done. Bravo.
Ms. F and Mr. M