TURF: A Conversational Concert in Black and White 1993

TURF: A Conversational Concert in Black and White by award-winning African-American artist Robbie McCauley in collaboration with 10 Boston-area actors, storytellers and singers was presented by The Arts Company at four Boston neighborhood locations in March 1993. This performance-theater work explored issues of education, and race and class relations in Boston over the previous two decades. 

Incorporating stories, music, slide and video images, dialogue and the words· of living witnesses, TURF probed the impact of the 1974 court order to desegregate Boston's public schools. TURF unfolded, with drama and humor, how one historical event affected many people and continues to affect a whole community. It celebrated and challenged the similarities and differences of culture, race, religion, class, belief and attitude within the city.  

TURF was the second in a series of three mixed-media performance theater works based on race relations in this country in the 1960s and 1970s done by McCauley in collaboration with local artists in different parts of the US and produced by The Arts Company. The first was done in Mississippi in 1992 and the third was done in Los Angeles in 1994.) Of different racial, ethnic, economic and educational backgrounds, ranging in age from 17 to 56, McCauley's Boston-area collaborators were: Janice Allen from Mattapan; Paula Elliott and Tezz Yancey from the South End; John Ennis from Milton; Mari Novotny-Jones from Hyde Park; Kristin Johnson from Charlestown; Paul Leary and Tom Sypek from South Boston; Juanita Rodrigues from Cambridge; and James Spruill from Roxbury (17-year­-old Arall Charles from Dorchester also participated in the initial stages of the project). 

Through the working methods she had developed and in the productions she had created since the mid-1980s, McCauley had become a leader in reconnecting the arts and artists with community concerns. TURF explored issues of education, race and class relations in Boston over the previous two decades, using the impact of the 1974 court order to desegregate the city's public schools as a starting point. Based on interviews that McCauley and her Boston collaborators conducted with local residents and on dialogues the cast had during an intensive rehearsal period, TURF was presented eight times to capacity or near-capacity audiences at four different community locations: the Boston Center for the Arts in the South End, the Charlestown Working Theater, The Strand Theater in Dorchester and the South Boston Boys & Girls Club. 

An essential part of each evening was the discussion following the performance: each lasted 45 minutes to an hour, with most audience members participating. We purposely presented the piece within distinctly different neighborhoods in the city, in intimate settings (seating capacity averaged 150, and even at The Strand we limited occupancy to 300 people) and, on most evenings, successfully attracted a combination of local residents and people from other parts of the city and adjacent areas. At most performances, we had a mixture of race, class, ethnicity and age that is rare at most Boston events (art or otherwise). Ticket prices were kept low to attract neighborhood residents and people who were not regular theatergoers; we also had free tickets or even lower prices for groups from schools, shelters and other social service agencies. As Barbara Williams, a grandmother who saw TURF in Dorchester, said: ". .. it was near 12:00 when we left, and I could have sat there all night because that's what we need, I see the need so much ... talking - that's one way to start - and really getting to know each other" (excerpted from an interview on NPR's Crossroads program).

​

TURF was an intense artistic and social immersion into issues that are of vital importance in the life of the city and surrounding areas. It stimulated much-needed dialogue, arguments and greater understanding among people who otherwise have little contact with each other: black and Hispanic teenagers and white businessmen, white working-class mothers from South Boston and their more affluent suburban counterparts, lifelong residents and newcomers to the area. Robbie and Marie Cieri, director of The Arts Company, did a substantial amount of work in the community during the 14-month development of the piece and the month of performances, meeting with individuals and representatives of community organizations to talk about how and why we would be presenting TURF, and we received extremely valuable feedback and help along the way. Particularly important was the involvement of our primary community cosponsors: the Boys & Girls Clubs of Charlestown, Roxbury and South Boston and the United South End Settlements. While one of the major themes of audience discussion was the mass media and how it stereotypes neighborhoods and the reality of people's lives, we did get extensive coverage of our project, including a front-page news article in The Boston Globe and two National Public Radio reports.

In 1996, a radio version of TURF produced by The Arts Company and WGBH public radio and aired nationally  Several broadcasts were followed by live local call-ins involving McCauley and one of the cast members.  To learn more about the radio version and to hear it, go to the TURF Radio page.