As the play opened, a young black man lay motionless beneath a tarp. He symbolized unarmed black men who’ve died because someone — a twitchy neighbor, an inexperienced police officer — perceived him as a threat. Specifically, Vaughn Midder was portraying Trayvon Martin, shot to death by a neighborhood watch captain in 2012, when Midder was a college sophomore. As they rehearsed at the University of Maryland, the cast members waited to hear whether the Ferguson, Mo., police officer who shot Michael Brown would be indicted.
Midder noticed students taking selfies next to the tarp. It upset him and he demanded that the photos be deleted. To them, it was just a play; to Midder — who has been pulled over by police — what happened to Martin could have happened to him.
“I’m already aware of the fact that by being a young black man, I could be harassed by police,” he said. “I don’t want that feeling intensified, knowing that people have pictures of me pretending to be dead.”
Martin, Ferguson and their galvanizing ripple effects have inspired universities across the country to incorporate racially charged tragedies into their curricula, sometimes in novel ways.
