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Just days after the George Zimmerman verdict, the Truth N Trauma (TNT) Theatre Ensemble, comprised entirely of African American actors, performed the devised piece The Only Way Out Is the Way Through. Wearing a hoodie and holding a package of Skittles, the ensemble’s only male actor delivered a monologue that spoke eloquently about the threats that young Black men face. By briefly embodying the figure of Trayvon Martin, this performance interrogated the perceived dangers of Black masculinity to reveal that the deadly violence levied against Black men is not an aberration, but rather is the norm. This article seeks to locate the death of Trayvon Martin historically, tracking similarities in the murders and trials of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till. It then focuses on the monologue, interrogating its themes, its creation, and its effect in performance to discuss the multiple narratives surrounding Black masculinity that emerge through it, narratives which speak truth to the dominant discourse that normalizes the murder of Black boys. Finally, it demonstrates how theatre is an arena in which such divisive issues can be explored, deconstructed, and transformed into a vehicle for social change.

This article discusses the critical practice the author uses in her writing about El Vez, The Mexican Elvis. After offering a brief introduction to El Vez, to the artist Robert Lopez who created him, and to the relationship between them and the icon of Elvis, the author presents the aims of Make the Dream Real, the monograph she is drafting about El Vez/Lopez, to consider how it draws on biographical writing and yet departs from it. The author argues for a dramaturgical methodology and its inherent critical proximity as a means of writing an analytical, contextualized, engaging analysis of an artist and entertainer. The dramaturgical methodology, built on dramaturgical thinking, values flexibility, using a variety of research practices combined with vibrant autoethnographic writing to offer vivid analysis that conveys the intellectual, emotional, and somatic experience of attending a live El Vez performance. The article discusses the value of deep dramaturgical thinking and critical proximity that opens up primary sources and archives through an extended dialogue with the artist built on mutual trust and respect.

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