Suffolk University Alumni Magazine 2008/2009 - (Page 44) ONE by ONE, a small crowd assembled in front of the Parkman Pavilion on the Boston Common. People sat on the grass, taking in the April afternoon sun while a guitarist draped in an American flag strummed and strolled among them. Six girls in gray t-shirts and jeans, and another with a bullhorn, walked slowly to the ‘stage’ in front of the pavilion and stood in formation facing the audience. “America… land of infinite possibility,” they chorused. “This land is your land, this land is my land. This land was made for you AND me. There are people who are lonely, have done this to themselves?” asks kelsey. “There are reasons that go far beyond the stereotype and into the reality of the world we are living in. If people can begin to recognize these untold stories, we will feel we have succeeded.” kelsey, writer of the play, first began interviewing homeless people during fall 2007 as part of Professor debra harkins’ Community Psychology class. kelsey chose Neighborhood Action as the site for her required community service, a program at the Church of St. John the evangelist on Bowdoin Street because there are so many people who will just say he should get a job: ‘I can find a job, he can get a job.’ No, it’s so much bigger than that. It’s so much more complicated.” IF YOU bUILD IT… ron Tibbetts, executive director of Neighborhood Action, encouraged their performance concept. “The second I mentioned the idea for the project at the end of the last semester, he was all for it,” says kelsey. “he was so supportive. I’ve bounced ideas “We see homeless people every day as we walk through the city, but how often do we stop to think about their stories? people who are in pain, people who need a vision, a perspective for their lives and our world which is purposeful and life changing…” The actors, students from the Suffolk University Theatre department, call out their lines above the city soundscape of sirens, barking dogs, an unexpected bagpipe nearby and planes overhead. And Infinity, the play, has begun. in Boston that provides food, clothing, and medical and social services to the homeless, aging, and poor. helping with dinners there on Monday and Thursday nights, kelsey gained a new perspective. “I have always considered myself to be relatively open-minded, but something about meeting people and seeing their world did so much for me in my understanding of what exactly it is to be homeless. I was raised by social workers and priests and people who do outreach. This was my first experience going into it myself,” she says. “When I was on the streets afterwards—the way I looked at people was different. I found myself wanting to talk to people more, smile at people more after seeing them in the soup kitchen and then seeing them on the streets.” for Baldwin, the play’s director, Infinity was the chance to bring a vision to life. “Since I was a freshman, I wanted my last production here to be about homeless people,” she says. “My mom is an advocate for Loaves and fishes, a soup kitchen in Ithaca where I’m from, and I worked there a lot when I was a kid. on a more personal note, my brother is actually homeless, so it has always been in my mind. I have a very close connection and I want to do something off of him. he is very well respected within the homeless community.” kelsey and Baldwin visited Neighborhood Action numerous times to meet with Tibbetts. “They really wanted to get some stories and understand how people became homeless, and how the struggle to get out of their current situation was going for them,” says Tibbetts. “We did face-to-face interviews, and they came over on a couple of evenings when we had dinners and they sat in the back room here with people and simply asked them questions. I tried to find for them as diverse a group of folks as I could, so they could get a good picture of what it really means to be homeless or living in poverty. They took all that information and ran with it.” “one person, henry, gave me inspiration for the title of the show,” says kelsey. “he was talking about his addiction and the lifestyle, and he described it as the infinity symbol: you would go out, and you’d just get pulled back in. It felt like it was never ending. you think you’re catching a break, and then it sucks you back in again. And when he said that, it opened a lot of doors for me as far as the creative process goes and I used references to the word in the show. It’s a big theme. Thanks henry!” “wE HAVE TO DO THIs” The vision and mission of the outdoor performance is drawn from a semester of community service work, a daily awareness of the homeless population in Boston, and a personal connection two ambitious students, rachel kelsey ’08 and Purnima Baldwin ’08, have to those in homeless circumstances, and they have something to say about it. Theatre major seniors and friends, they developed the idea for Infinity to coproduce a play about homeless and non-homeless people finding a common ground. “We see homeless people every day as we walk through the city, but how often do we stop to think about their stories? As you walk down the street and pass a homeless man, do you just assume that they [44] SUFFOLKARTS+SCIENCES//2008/2009 ALUMNI MAGAzINE
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