Safa’s Story

Since 2018, this program has serviced over 20,000 children and family audiences in schools and communities across the county. NBC San Diego joined the Safa's Story ensemble at Anza Elementary to cover the experience: Watch it Here!

Safa's Story is a live theatre, school tour show for 4th-8th grade children. Based on the real experiences of a San Diego native, Safa is an effervescent African American fifth grader with a big imagination and an even bigger heart. Through storytelling and music inspired by Safa's bicultural American and Zimbabwean background, audiences meet her caring mother, kind teacher, and irresistible friends—as well as a new classmate who creates deepening divides between Safa and her peers. Designed to allow young people to consider the complexities of diversity and peer-to-peer conflict, Safa's Story initially ends in heartbreak before audiences embark on an empowering journey to alter the outcomes of the play itself.

The show is based on Augusto Boal's model of Forum Theater. A genre of performance rarely seen in San Diego, Forum Theater was developed so that audiences could find ways to work together to advocate for themselves and their communities. During the show, audiences are invited to find new ways of supporting and empowering the central characters, encouraging young people to act on behalf of themselves or their peers when they experience bullying. This timely and ultimately hopeful play offers school communities a tangible tool to increase belonging among diverse youth populations, and bravely engage in this important conversation.

What is Forum Theater?

Established in the early 1970s by Brazilian director and activist Augusto Boal, Forum Theater is one of the most popular forms of Theater of the Oppressed. In Forum Theater, actors present a short play in which the protagonist experiences a conflict or injustice and ultimately fails to reach a goal in their life. Then the Joker, the narrator and facilitator of the play, engages the audience in a conversation and invites them to change the outcome of the play. The actors begin the play again and audience members are given the opportunity to simply say, “STOP!” when they wish to change the action in the play. As audience members stop the play, they are invited to imagine a new choice that could have been made in that moment and to roleplay an action that would create a better result for the protagonist.

Is the show appropriate for my child?

The program is appropriate for 4th-8th grade students. However, as the central characters are in 5th grade, students in 4th-6th grade will find the context most relatable. 

Safa's Story was created to support children and families of all backgrounds with tools to navigate conflict and bullying. The play helps audience members dismantle complex conflicts and supports them in learning to defend themselves and their peers in positive ways. While there is a clear bully and victim in the play, the intention and the design is not to demonize any one character, but to learn how to understand, respect, and lift up all the characters as best as we can. The performance paves the way for children to critically consider their role and responsibility in responding to bullying when it shows up in real life.

How will you navigate difficult conversations around bullying?

Discussing bullying is challenging and often painful. Imagine is committed to using performance to create spaces for communities to navigate these difficult conversations. It is our deeply held belief that art and truthful storytelling can support communities in building bridges and deepening understanding.  We are trained in restorative justice and healing-centered practices to support creative, thoughtful, and gentle processes. 

These learnings and conversations are ongoing learning processes, so we encourage educators and families to be prepared to continue this dialogue together after the program. In the words of Augusto Boal, "It is not the place of theater to show the correct path, but only to offer the means by which paths may be examined." We are humbled to initiate this journey with you, and hope you will continue the journey together when you leave the theater.

Additionally, we have created some tools to cultivate and support a safe space during our programming. Our Teaching Artists will come to classrooms before and after each show to lead interactive lessons to prepare children in the themes and vocabulary from the show. After the program, Imagine will also offer schools additional resources for teachers, counselors and caretakers.

How long is the show?

The program consists of a 60-minute in-class pre-show lesson, a 90 minute interactive live performance and a 60-minute in-class post-show lesson

Who is the Safa’s Story Team?

Writer/Director: Catherine Hanna Schrock
Video Producer: Peter Schrock
Music Director: Derek Rice
Music Composition: Derek Rice, Shayla James, and Catherine Hanna Schrock
Production Stage Manager: Bianca Jennings
Assistant Stage Manager: Kaileykiele Hoga
Assistant Director: Marisol Castillo Laborde
Video Crew: Peter Schrock, Laura Hanna, Molly Jenson
Featuring: Desiree Clarke, Kandace Crystal, Jaeonnie Davis-Crawford, Levani Korganashvili, Bernardo Daher Mazón, Kayla Morales, Wilfred Paloma, Hannah Reinert, Derek Rice, Brandon Cerquedo, Catherine Hanna Schrock, Andrew Walters, Britney McKiernan, Diego Castro, Marisa Scott Taylor

Special thanks to our volunteers, supporters, and collaborators: Mycah Bacchus, Jack Mason-Brase, California Center for the Arts - Escondido, Rebeca Elliott, Jamie & Michelle Gates, Jeremy Greene, Hakim & Shadia Hakim, Shady & Erin Hakim, Ena & John Hanna, Shellina Hefner, Jack Holdeman, Sherehe Hollins, Larry Scott & Cory Norlund, Mary Schrock, Sofia Zaragoza

Safa's Story was originally co-produced by Blindspot Collective and Bocón in 2018.