Community engagement on local issues can be much more than news stories and town hall meetings. In several cities, the StoryWorks project has been translating in-depth local investigative journalism into compelling theatrical performances.

Through StoryWorks, the Center for Investigative Reporting is exploring creative ways to incorporate the arts into local engagement on important civic issues. This program starts with local investigative journalism (mostly from CIR projects, sometimes with reporting going back a decade or more) as the source material to commission theatrical plays. Then, StoryWorks stages these plays in local theaters, and ends each performance with an audience talkback session. 

The latest StoryWorks project, Justice in the Embers, recently closed in Kansas City, Missouri. The show ran Feb. 4-20, with a dozen performances. Sold out shows were the norm; in all, over 1300 local residents attended.

The play was based on nearly a decade of reporting that Mike McGraw of the Kansas City Star began in 2007, exploring the ongoing community ripple effects of a 1988 explosion in south Kansas City that caused the tragic deaths of six firefighters. Playwright Michelle T. Johnson adapted the story for theater, and it was directed by Jennifer Welch of CIR.

Nine years after the explosion, five people were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Reportedly, they started a fire during an attempt to steal tools, and ended up exploding a large quantity of ammonium nitrate stored on site. All were residents of the poor Marlborough neighborhood near the explosion, four of them Native American men. One defendant, Bryan Sheppard, was a minor at the time of the crime -- introducing elements of racial and economic bias in the judicial system, and the implications of juvenile justice practices.

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that sentencing a juvenile offender to life imprisonment without parole violates the 8th Amendment. Sheppard's re-sentencing was expected to take place in early 2016, but that was postponed. His resentencing will be rescheduled for later in 2016.

"We wanted to produce play before his resentencing," said Welch. "But in late 2015, the state of Louisiana challenged that SCOTUS ruling, claiming that it shouldn't apply retroactively, to cases tried previously. If SCOTUS upheld that challenge, Sheppard's resentencing would not have happened -- but that also would have affected about 2000 juvenile offenders around the country.

"So we didn't know whether Sheppard would be resentenced or not -- a pretty big deal for the community discussion around this case, and our play. But just before the play, SCOTUS ruled that their decision was retroactive, and that all state and federal courts had to adhere to it. So we had to rewrite the final scene and make smaller changes throughout the play to adapt."

The communities most affected by the explosion and the sentencing controversy do not comprise what would be considered, in most cities, a typical theater-going audience. StoryWorks staged the performance, in a downtown Kansas City Theater, not an upscale neighborhood. And they worked hard to welcome a nontraditional theater audience. This included subsidizing ticket prices: grant funding allowed about half of the tickets to be offered for free to the community. "Cost should never be a barrier to community discussion."

McGraw enthusiastically supported this project, and engaged his vast network of contacts in Marlborough and throughout Kansas City to muster community interest and involvement in this play. "We spent a lot of time and energy just getting to know people and inviting community leaders into rehearsals, and also reaching out to to the fire department and community leaders, getting them to participate in the talkback panels," said Welch.

The play was presented in two acts. Act 1 was the dramatic performance, and Act 2 was the community talkback -- which, in a 110-seat theater, was fairly intimate. "We'd turn on the house lights, and introduce the reporters, playwright, and people involved from the community. Then we'd just start talking about the play and the effect it had on people. Every conversation was different," said Welch.

Feelings in the community remain strong about the explosion. In an unexpected way, discussing the legal issues involved helped to mitigate the potential for conflict during the talkbacks.

"Local defense attorneys spoke up to explain the SCOTUS ruling. You wouldn't expect it, but that was a wonderful, disarming part of the conversation," said Welch. "Whatever side of the controversy you fell on, that discussion helped foster closure and mutual understanding -- for the people who died in the explosion, and for the people who've lost juveniles to the justice system."

StoryWorks also includes copies of the relevant news coverage in the programs for its plays, so audience members can read up on the issue in depth before and after the performance.

How well does this approach translate into community impact? Cole Goins, CIR's senior manager of engagement and community collaboration, explained that measuring this is tricky, but they do have some data.

A 2015 StoryWorks play about the effects on migrant farm workers of excessive pesticide use, Alicia's Miracle, was set and performed in rural Oxnard, Calif. Before and after the play was staged, CIR conducted a survey of a representative sample of the community, to gauge how awareness of local pesticide use was changing.

"We did find some increase in awareness. But what I found powerful about the StoryWorks impact was that the relationships we formed in that community ran really deep," said Goins. "A year later, we're still in contact with folks from Oxnard, we still get calls from teachers and community members there. Knowing that they're still engaged in the story goes a long way for us."

The StoryWorks approach could be applied more broadly, Goins and Welch agree. Also local art and music can be another way to engage people in community issues. In Oakland, Calif., CIR's interactive art exhibit Eyes on Oakland spurred community conversations around police surveillance.

"For it to work as a play, it's important to choose a local issue that translates well to stage. You need strong characters, a real narrative arc," said Welch.

"People need to be able to see themselves in the characters," said Goins. "Also, the talkbacks are very important. There has to be accessible entry points where people can weigh in, in ways where they have agency. How can people contribute, and their contribution becomes part of the story? What is the conversation you're trying to have, and what would you like to happen as a result?"