Talking to the director and co-writer of EMMETT'S ART PROJECT, Brianna Fallon

Brianna Fallon

by Gil Benbrook

In Spotlight Youth Theatre's upcoming production of Emmett's Art Project, a group of teens confront the impact of racism after their friend Emmett is shot by the police for defacing public property. 

This ripped from the headlines story is set in the current time when the Black Lives Matter movement dominates the news. The impact of the BLM movement impacts Amirah, a biracial teen, who finds herself in the middle of tension and division with her friends. After Emmett is shot this group of friends bands together to fight for what they value most.

Brianna Fallon has a long career of working with children's theatre groups in town, including serving as a Teaching Artist at Childsplay, and teaching and/or directing at East Valley Children's Theatre, Limelight Performing Arts and at Spotlight Youth Theatre, and, along with co-writer Abbey Yee, she authored, and directs Emmett's Art Project.

Fallon sat down to answer some questions about how this drama came to be and what she hopes audiences will take away from this timely work of theatre.

Since Emmett’s Art Project is a new work, what can you tell audiences it's about?

"This is a play about young people navigating the topic of race and racism. The show also touches on friendship, peer pressure, and police brutality. It will hit you right in the feels but there are a few lighthearted and funny moments."

I'm assuming the idea for the show came about due to what happened across the country over the summer, but were there other experiences or factual events you drew upon for the play?

"It was important for me to pull ideas from real-life events. Since this show touches on things like police brutality I had the youth liaisons research actual cases of young men being shot by police officers. I kept reiterating that if we just create a story where we see racist things happening that aren't rooted in reality, we would just be creating propaganda. We also touch on the death of George Floyd, not to mention we pulled several quotes and scenarios from the community of people around us."

The main character in the play is Amirah. who is a biracial teen. Was there a specific reason you decided to have her be bi-racial and not black?

"Yes. Because I’m biracial. You will hear a lot of my heart and my own experience through the character of Amirah. Ada is also a biracial character who is Filipino and white. This character was written from the perspective of Abbey who is Chinese and white. It was really exciting to write a play about race that had leading characters who were biracial and Asian. To us it felt very fresh and interesting. It was also very special to get to share about our own experiences. "

I know you co-wrote the play with Abbey Yee, how did that collaboration happen?

"First off, Abbey Yee is incredibly talented and wise beyond her years. I really leaned on her to help me create and edit a lot of the more inspirational and educated dialogue in the show.

It was really important to me that I consider this show my own and was writing with assistance. I have a tendency to be swayed easily and since this was such an important topic, I wanted to give myself space to be picky. After Kenny (Grossman, Spotlight Youth Theatre's Artistic Director) asked me to take lead on this project, I got to work. We brought Abbey on and the three of us came up with a handful of plots and ideas. I loved all of the ideas we shared but the plot of Emmett's Art Project was secretly my favorite. I really wasn't sure if either of them would go for it, but I was thrilled when Kenny encouraged me to run with the idea.

I solidified the plot points (using sticky notes!) and created our script document. Abbey helped me craft descriptions for each of the scenes.

Since I'm an 'out loud' processor I really love to work in teams. After starting the writing process I realized I would need some help with research and revising so I asked Kenny if he knew of any young people who would be interested in assisting with the creation of the script. Kenny asked Patrick Mullen who plays Emmett, our costume designer Amaya Burkhart and Faith Santos and they were all interested to participate. I call them our 'Youth Liaisons.' It was also so valuable to me to hear voices of real young people in the dialogue of the show. 

I met with them once a week until the script was finalized. We discussed how racism has impacted their lives as people of color, and what was important to them to include in the show. They also helped us research statistics, laws, real-life examples, termonologies, and best practices. Once we finished our script they helped us go back and add some more gen-z vernacular to the story.

After we had it all in a nice place, we got to pull a group of young people to do a table read and give us feedback. Then the script was pretty much done minus some tweaks we made in the rehearsal process."

You are also directing this show, how has that been directing a show you co-wrote?

"It was the absolute BEST. Usually, I have to spend a bunch of time researching the story, digging around for ideas. We were also free to make adjustments to fit the cast we had. We renamed a character, cut a character, switched lines, and changed a character's gender to fit the actor playing the role. It was great knowing what my parameters were as I wrote so I could write a story that fits well in the space at Spotlight."

This is obviously a very timely piece of work, what do you hope audiences will take away from it?

"The message from this show is built largely around the work of Ibrim X. Kendi. I think sometimes media paints racists to be people walking around using slurs and demanding segregation. The topic of racism is much more nuanced and casual than one might think. For people of color, it can be somewhat obvious because all we really have to do is look at what it was like growing up in our skin. But others might be completely unaware that racism continues to play a huge role in the everyday lives of many people.

All in all, I am incredibly proud of this show and this cast. It can be exhausting to rehearse these heavy topics, again and again, each day, but we found PLENTY of time to laugh and have fun in rehearsals. I'm glad the cast got to bond so well and find joy in the process. This show has a message for EVERYONE. Not just white people. Not just people of color. Not just racists. Not just woke people. Not just liberals and not just conservatives. Everyone." 

CLICK HERE for more information on this production, with runs from November 20-22 (with a streaming option also available)