What is a protest play

Explanation:

About the Archive

This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.

Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.

Ascene from ''Cinders'' at the Public Theater. The deputy head of a Polish reform school tells his pupils that the song they've just composed is very, very good, but might be improved if the odd word were changed. Why not ''cheery'' for ''gloomy,'' and ''I shed my fears for future years'' instead of ''I shed my tears for wasted years?'' Suddenly the girls' lament for their lives is a celebration of socialism, performed in the style of a military march, with hand clapping and pin-on smiles.

Another scene, this time from ''Woza Albert!'' at the Lucille Lortel. The South African prime minister appears on television to reassure the white populace. Their enemies, he confides, have smuggled in a terrorist, a subversive, a cheap communist magician to pose as Jesus. He wants them to know that this impostor, last publicly seen flying out of the 10th floor of John Vorster Prison with the Angel Gabriel, is safely behind bars again: ''Peace and security have returned to our lovely land.''

A protest play  is a theatre protest initiative spearheaded by playwright Tiffany Antone, and brought to fruition through collaboration with other passionate playwrights, artistic directors, literary managers, and artists.

you need to know what you have learned: )