A profile headshot of Shaunte Caraballo. Photo provided by Shaunte Caraballo.
By Lloyd Bravo.
In the thralls of the swelling tension of race altercations after the death of George Floyd that started the Black Lives Matters movement, Shaunte Caraballo had a desire and need to externalize her frustrations with systematic racism and inequity that people of color face. After nearly a year, Caraballo decided to make her voice heard in the only way she knew how, through artistic expression, by creating an original play that has garnered acclaim and recognition entitled, “Surge of Power.”
Shaunte Carballo is an Assistant Professor for the Theater and Dance Department at CSUDH, the speech Coordinator for the university who coordinates the curriculum and courses for each semester while being the coach for the speech and debate team on campus.
Despite her tremendously dense schedule, Caraballo had found time to write a play about people of color who have been marginalized through systemic racism that gained national and global notoriety through the Black Lives Matters protest in mid-2020 following the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.
“A lot of us were looking for a way to deal with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Caraballo said. “I wanted to figure out how we can give our students a voice to speak about how they were feeling and how they were dealing with the current state of injustice and inequality.”
Caraballo wanted to speak about Black Lives but felt hesitant due to the lack of African-American presence on campus. The slight issue was that CSUDH has only 10% of enrolled students who are African-Americans as the university is predominantly made up of Latinx students at nearly 65%.
“How do we do a show about Black Lives, when we are not all black lives?”Caraballo said. “I decided to create something that gave students from every ethnicity an opportunity to speak and how it has affected them.”
The half-black and half-Puerto Rican instructor wanted to find a way to include all voices in the arguments that dealt with the BLM cause. During the summer of 2020, Caraballo began to formulate an idea where students would write and perform on stage from their unique perspectives by using a plethora of performance art methods including poetry, music, and dance.
The collage of work would eventually be established as a year-long group project that began in the Spring 2020 semester, and encompassed the efforts of Caraballo and her student actors.
Kendall Bryant, a theater major at CSUDH, was one of the performers who earned the role for Caraballo’s show she entitled, “Surge of Power,” explained his experience with the production.
“I got to really understand my character with the help of Shaunte,” Bryant said, “ It was my job to project and let the audience know that regardless of whether it’s a minority group or not, we as Americans are all going through these issues and that was my message I wanted to convey for the show.”
The final edits came from Caraballo to ensure a concise and strong message that could be easily digestible for a viewing audience. After having a year with her students to work on the project, Caraballo felt the structure, dialogue, and editing process captured each student’s stage characters’ genuine voices which helped elevate the show’s authenticity.
Caraballo believes that white people are held to a different standard than people of color and would like a more diverse conversation on the topics of systemic racism and equal rights. The objective of Caraballo’s production is to showcase the urgency and power of the youthful voices who have felt marginalized during current events by encouraging them to speak up as their silence can be deafening.
“I wanted people to stop being silent…[as] it is really important for everyone to use their voice no matter who they are.” ” Caraballo said. “It’s not just people of color that have to use their voice, it is our white friends who are silent and not saying anything.”
The show premiered in Spring 2021 and received praise from audience members. “Surge of Power,” was even invited to participate at the Kennedy Center American College Theater regional festival among eight other schools to earn a spot for the national festival in Washington D.C. in April.
Due to the pandemic, the show will not be performed in front of a live audience but will be live-streamed from a previously taped performance.
Along with her university duties, Caraballo is also an executive board member of the Kennedy Center. Currently, she is a Vice-Chair for her Region that helps the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival plan and run the annual regional festivals. Caraballo’s recent acceptance to being the official chair for the region has made her ineligible to produce or write new full-stage productions until her term has commenced in three years.
“After I am chair, nothing can go to the festival because it will be perceived as biased,” Caraballo said. “I cannot do main stage productions for a while, but this will allow me so much time to develop and research future productions.”
Caraballo felt thankful for the support from students at CSUDH and colleagues at the Kennedy Center for helping make “Surge of Power” a success.
“Students needed this and needed to be able to speak for themselves,” said Caraballo. “This was really important and to be able to give our students a voice is something we should do more often.”
