By Sonni Simmons

Community News Editor

[author title=”About the Author” author_id=”256″]

The CSUSM School of Arts Program is challenging injustice with this spring’s presentation of Twilight, Los Angeles: 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith.

The play was available to students and community members through 6 different performances that were held at CSUSM from April 10 through 19. The production of Twilight, Los Angeles: 1992 presents a series of monologues that examine the 1992 LA Riots through the perspective of individuals who experienced the chaos.

The performance was centered around the brutal beating of Rodney King in 1991, the riots incited by the acquittal of the four Los Angeles Police Department officers charged with assault and nearly 300 interviews conducted over a nine-month period with gang members, police officers, lawyers, activists and shopkeepers following this event.

The characters created based on these interviews, however, were portrayed unconventionally.

“We play people opposite our ethnicity and gender,” said Laurissa Rudgers, an actress in the production who portrayed an African American opera singer, the former Chief of Police for the LAPD and former female chairman of the Black Panther Party.

“It is our hope that because of that, people who wouldn’t normally listen to a woman, or a Korean or an African American because of prejudices or stereotypes, that they will see and hear their voice differently, in a better light,” she said.

After each performance, “Talk Back” panels and discussions were held for audience members on topics such as art, education, law, faith and social justice. The goal of these discussions and the production of Twilight, Los Angeles: 1992 were to engage the audience and promote a reflection of prejudice and discrimination within society.

“Allow the dissonant feeling you’ll encounter move you to try and understand people who are different from you,” Rudgers said. “As actors, we were able to walk in another’s shoes and because of that, have a better understanding of how to face injustices we see happening. We hope you as audience members will be able to do that, too.”