Thu 8/18-Sun 9/4
The shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a police officer at the Cudell Community Center on Cleveland’s west side was one more log on the fire fueling the fight for justice reform — and a crucial and unforgettable event in Cleveland’s fraught history of community/police relations.
When one of the police-friendly “experts” hired by county prosecutor Tim McGinty to essentially play defense for the cops during the grand jury indictment process declared that the gunning down of the child within seconds of arriving at the scene was “objectively reasonable,” many felt it was clear the process was rigged and there would be no justice for Tamir.
This material, drawing on the still-raw feelings of community members, especially in the black community, drives the new theater piece Objectively/Reasonable: A Community Response to the Shooting of Tamir Rice, 11/22/14, which has its world premier at the Creative Space at Waterloo Arts by Playwrights Local.
The title pretty much describes the content. Director Terrence Spivey and dramaturg David Todd, along with a team of playwrights — Mike Geither, Tom Hayes, Lisa Langford, Michael Oatman and Todd — have put together an evening drawn from interviews in which people from Tamir’s neighborhood and around the city describe their feelings around the shooting and why and how it happened.
It runs Thu-Sat @ 7:30m and Sunday @ 2:30pm, through Sun 9/4. Tickets are $10-$15.
playwrightslocal.org/objectively-reasonable/