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‘Generation Rise’ show provides a time capsule for the pandemic

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correction

A previous version of this article incorrectly said "Generation Rise" would be available for streaming Nov. 5. It was made available Nov. 3. This article has been updated.

Like many high school graduates in 2020, Kilhah St. Fort was forced to experience the biggest moments of her senior year virtually.

“When there was a spirit week, I know my school tried to do something with it, but honestly, I was home. All I was wearing was pajamas,” said St. Fort, 18. “And then there’s just also moments like yearbook pictures. We didn’t really have those.”

But St. Fort has something many teens do not: video documenting her year spent in quarantine — a time capsule of the turbulent period when she heard the news of the world rapidly shutting down around her, the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed.

Last spring, St. Fort and five other New York teenagers and young adults shared their life stories, culminating with their experiences during 2020, as part of “Generation Rise,” a production from theater group Ping Chong and Company. The performance was originally released virtually, but will open to in-person productions at the New Victory Theater in New York starting Friday and running through Nov. 14.

“I know the quarantine was a very isolating period, not only for myself, but for other people,” St. Fort said. “But I think hearing those stories post-pandemic, it really shows how you were less alone than you thought you were.”

Writers and directors Sara Zatz and Kirya Traber interviewed the Black, Latinx and Asian teens about how they were experiencing the rapidly changing world.

“I think that teens in this moment are offering a perspective that we all need, especially adults,” Traber said. “I just think that there’s a ferocity and intensity and a passion in adolescents that adults, when we stop to listen, can be inspired by.”

The teens had to read their scripts and record their performances in their own homes, which made for a logistical challenge; they were sent all of the equipment they needed, such as tripods and lights.

“It was definitely challenging,” St. Fort, who is now a freshman at Lehman College, said. But, “honestly, after maybe the first or second time that we were going, it was way easier to just put up everything. It became second nature.”

Piecing together the teens’ stories involved two- to four-hour-long interviews with the writers and directors, who then created a script with a cohesive narrative. In the show’s final version, the first half touches on the teens’ life stories, while the second half focuses on the events of 2020.

“That’s pretty unusual because normally in this format you wouldn’t spend a whole half of the show on one year,” Zatz said. “But it also allowed us to be kind of expansive in the 2020 pandemic material.”

For the teens in the production, updating the show for the live version also meant reliving some of the coronavirus pandemic’s toughest moments.

“I’ll take myself back to a point where an insecurity started … and I’m trying to put my all into that. And the next thing you know, we’re switching to the pandemic, and I was back to a feeling of isolation again,” St. Fort said.

Another member of the production, Serena Yang, now a 20-year-old sophomore at Swarthmore College who is Asian American, had to process slayings of Asian women in Atlanta in March. The process of talking about her feelings as part of the production helped her work through her emotions.

“It took me a while to really be truly angry,” Yang said. “I think for a few days, I was just numb, I didn’t really have any [anger], I almost wanted to feel more strongly about it, but I just felt really tired.”

The script is kind of a still image … a snapshot of how you’re feeling in these specific moments in the past year,” Yang added. The production “has created a coherent narrative, which I think is a very helpful way for me to reflect on the past year.”

As the show moved to in-person, the cast and crew got to participate in the aspects of performing that can only come from a live performance: the bonding during rehearsals, the electricity of opening night.

“I really, really love being part of that energy and that community, so I've been having a really good time,” Yang said.

What is less clear now is how the feelings captured in the show will evolve for its participants years from now.

“I don’t think I can even fathom the impact that this would have on us,” Yang said. “But I think what I’m already seeing that makes me hopeful actually is this willingness to adapt and to change and to imagine new possibilities out of chaos.”

“Generation Rise” is available to stream now and will premiere live on Friday, Nov. 5. Tickets can be purchased online.

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