Since grade 8, our PLP 11 class has done 3 winter exhibitions and 3 end of the year Blue Sky exhibitions. So going into my 7th overall exhibition you would think it would be pretty easy as I’ve done it so many times before. However, this exhibition was a little different than what we typically do. Instead of creating individual projects that answer a question, our entire class worked together to create interactive walk through experiences of the 1950s (hence the title of this blog post). We called it The Carousel of Communism!
If you want to get a glimpse into what our 1950s experiences were like you can watch this video which takes you through the entire experience.
https://youtu.be/Hz4YaRez95w
Now let’s take it back a step and look at the process and learning that we went through to create this interactive experience. During this project our focus was the 1950s (which included the perfect American family, the start of the Cold War, Hollywood, consumerism and communism) and how we can connect history to the present day.
Crucible
The first thing we started off with was reading the play the Crucible, which was written in the 1950s but based in the 1800s. At first I didn’t really see how this play based in the late 1800s Salem had a connection to 1950s life. However, the more we read the more it became clear the message that was being sent by the author, Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was connecting the crazy accusations of witchcraft during the 1800s to the communism and Russian spy accusations during the 1950s. Also he was connecting the witch trials to the McCarthy communist hearings. While reading the play as a class we each completed a couple creative shorter blog posts which showed our understanding of the Crucible as well as answered personal questions.
Here are the crucible blog posts I completed:
1950s
After beginning the Crucible, we started learning about life in America in the 1950s. We watched a documentary called “Life in The 1950s” and also watched an episode of a tv show played during the 1950s called “Leave it to Beaver”. Within both of these shows, we got a grasp of the ideal life of the 1950s and the picturesque “Nuclear Family”. On top of seeing the view of the perfect America, we also learned about many of the aspects during this time such as the politics, Hollywood and the start of the Cold War.
illustration of 1950s American Family
During most of the 1950s, Dwight Eisenhower was the president, making new technological advancements in America like the interstate highways. The 1950s were a new era for Americans with the Second World War ending a few years before and the country emerged from the war stronger than before. This was a time of prosperity and a growing economy. Television was a huge part of people’s lives spending 1/3 of their day watching television. Learning about the 1950s was very interesting as I can see how history connects to our modern day society.
The Creation Process
Once we had a grasp about what the theme of our exhibition was going to be we started on the planning and creation process of the exhibition. Our teachers were going away with one of the other PLP classes so during this time we had these classes to do the planning for the exhibition. At first, no one was really sure how this time would work out as we weren’t really sure how all 18 of us would work together. However, it actually went really well and we got way more done than we expected!! We planned everything from the station themes, to who would be doing costumes and makeup, to how each station would relate back to an overall theme. When the teachers came back we were all very proud of our work we had done and they were impressed as well!!
The next step was to refine our ideas as we had so many different ideas that we had to focus in on the best ones. We decided on having 6 different scenes to our story which we agreed would best represent the 1950s in a nutshell. These 6 scenes included a speech by president Eisenhower, the perfect nuclear family, a communist street rally, drafting for the Korean War, Hollywood and a McCarthy hearing.
Then we needed to get started on a script. To do this we split off into groups of 3 or 4 and wrote a 3 to 4 minute script for each station. We then had our head of writing correct the scripts and make sure they sounded unison and connected from one scene to the next.
Once we had our completed the first draft of our script, we started assigning roles. As a class we decided each scene would have 2-3 people and we would have 4 guides taking our guests through the interactive experiences. I decided I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and be a guide which is the character with the most lines and is interactive throughout the entire experience. At first this was a little intimidating as we only picked roles about a week before the presentation. However after running over the lines and understanding the overall idea of the story I was ready to go! the four guides ended up being Claire, Adam, Sam and I.
The Exhibition
Leading up to the exhibition we had many props being brought in(a lot coming from my house might I add). From couches to an old fashioned bicycle, we brought and made anything we would need for the experience. Right until we started the exhibition, we were all working super hard to finish up anything that needed fixing. On the day of the exhibition we actually had a malfunction in our plan where the wall dividing the gym wouldn’t work. Luckily, we are all good problem solvers and came up with a solution using curtains and different props to divide the gym.
Although I felt nervous, I was ready to go on the day of the exhibition with my 1950s costume and most of my script memorized! During the experience we encouraged guests to interact with the characters, ask questions and participate. As the guide, my character Charlie Powell was a secret Russian spy pretending that he was just the average American. As the guests walked through the experience they were given a couple hints that might point to my character being a communist.
Picture of Isobel and I, the day of the exhibition in our costumes!
Our Experience started off with an introduction to the audience members explaining what the Experience was. We then lead the audience into our scene where we would be listening in on President Eisenhower (played by Kate) giving a speech about how America will thrive with peace and prosperity during the 1950s. Afterwards this lead into the “nuclear family” in the perfect world of the suburbs where we had Isobel and Ryan playing a 1950s family. During this scene we took a photo with a Polaroid camera then gave the photo to an audience member for them to show later on. We then went onto the street rally scene where the characters, played by Calum and Simon, were fighting for communism in America. As they are chanting they hand out communism brochures to an audience member which will be used later on. Following the communist rally, the group continues onto a scene with Spencer, Robbie and Ethan. During this scene Spencer’s character is being drafted for the Korean War, then Charlie which is my character is also being drafted for war. Instead Charlie dodges the draft and hands the drafting letter to an audience member which can be used later on. After that, the group is then guided through Hollywood onto the movie production of the Crucible with Willa and Parker playing an actor and the camera man on the set. Communism and the Black list are talked about then the guide acts in the scene of the Crucible (this relates back to our reading of the Crucible which we wanted to include in our production). Suddenly, Mimi’s character appears and accuses Charlie Powell of communism. This then leads to our final scene which is a McCarthy hearing where McCarthy, played by Alex, accuses Charlie Powell of communism and asks the audience for any evidence. This is where the audience can give any of the items they collected along the way. Afterwards Hannah’s character, another member of the court, says that Charlie Powell is not a communist and that he shouldn’t be accused without solid evidence. Finally the Experience is almost over and after thanking the audience for joining us throughout this experience, my character states “Hopefully history doesn’t repeat itself…”. This then leads to a video being played with Trump talking about a witch hunt which relates our story back to today.
After finishing the Exhibition and looking back at all the hard work and effort our class put into this production, I think that we did an excellent job of drawing upon the information we learned and creating an interactive experience for other people to enjoy! Although there are definitely aspects I would improve, I would call this project a successful one and look forward to hopefully doing similar projects in the future!!