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EXAMPLE for the STORY-PLOT-THEME ASSIGNMENT

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THE RANT by Andrew Case

Story:

After the shooting and killing of a young, black, unarmed, autistic 16-year old boy, a female investigator from the Department to Investigate Misconduct and Corruption, a civilian agency in New York that investigates complaints against the police, interviews both the mother of the young man and the rookie black police officer who was involved in the shooting. Sharing her knowledge with a local reporter leads to a number of surprises, and reveals that things are not always as they seem.

Plot Summary:

When the play opens, Denise Reeves, a 50-year-old black woman, sitting alone onstage, begins to speak. She says that while she was sitting on her porch one night, a local white policeman, Sergeant Clarke, was patrolling the streets as usual, intimidating the local residents. She says that her son, Benji, was on the porch after having eaten dinner, when Clarke pulled up in his patrol car, got out of the car and told Benji to to get off the porch, but that Benji did not hear him, because he was singing to himself. Clarke's partner, a black policeman, got out of the car and grabbed Benji, holding him down while Clarke shot Benji multiple times. Neighbors came out of their houses to see what was happening, a lot of police arrived, and Benji was taken away in an ambulance.

In the next scene, we see that Lila Mahnaz, who is an investigator from the Department to Investigate Misconduct and Corruption, a civilian agency in New York that investigates complaints against the police, has been taking a statement from Denise Reeves. The two women talk about how Mahnaz plans to conduct a fair and thorough investigation free from police interference, and how Denise is not confident that anyone will believe what she says happened the night that Benji was killed.

Next, Alexander Stern, a white reporter for a major newspaper, is talking with Mahnaz about the case, inquiring about why Denise didn't come forward herself, and about how the statement from the police department does not seem truthful. Stern and Mahnaz discuss their apprehensions about how to deal with the inaccuracies between the official police version of events and Denise Reeves” version.

Mahnaz then addresses the audience in a monologue about growing up as a young woman of Persian descent in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and the bigotry that she encountered as an “outsider”, someone different from her New England fishing village neighbors. She talks about how her youthful experiences led her pursue her current career.

We then see Mahnaz interviewing Charles Simmons, the 30-ish, black, rookie policeman, who was Clarke's partner on the night of the shooting. He tells Mahnaz that he and Clarke were responding to a domestic violence call at the home of Denise Reeves. They talk about a 911 tape of that call and discuss the discrepancies between what Reeves says and what Simmons says happened on that night.

Stern and Mahnaz meet in a public place because Mahnaz is concerned about them being seen together. In his reporting in the newspaper, Stern has used information from the 911 tape that Mahnaz gave him in confidence. This has made Mahnaz a target of a police message board called “The Rant”. Mahnaz reveals that she has been threatened with rape and murder on this message board, and she asks Stern to expose the perpetrators. It is also revealed that Clarke has retired from the police force.

Stern then addresses the audience, citing several high-profile cases in which black/white relations and prejudices on both sides of the cases result in a rush to judgment in the media. He speaks about how no matter what you believe about any of these cases, it can prove that you are a bigot, a racist, sexist, or biased against men. Yet, he says, there is only one truth – the facts.

Denise Reeves appears in Stern's office, questioning him about his reporting and telling him about how it has affected her life. Stern accuses her of lying about what happened the night of Benji's death. Denise defends her actions saying that Stern can never understand what her life is like because he is a white man, that she never expected her interview with Mahnaz to become public, and now that it has, that she will never be able to receive justice in the case. Stern reveals that it was Mahnaz who gave him the interview tape.

Denise confronts Mahnaz at her office, and Mahnaz says that she was only trying to help Denise, and could not possibly have known that Denise was lying. Denise accuses Mahnaz of using her son's death as a means to put forward an agenda on the injustices inherent in the police department regarding race relations. Their verbal fight escalates, and as it does so, Denise trashes Mahnaz's office.

Mahnaz appears at the property clerk's office where Simmons is in uniform behind the desk. Mahnaz hands him a letter which contains charges against him for filing a false statement. Simmons admits to her that he was the one who posted the threats against her on The Rant message board. The have a conversation about the police, about fear, and about Sergeant Clarke, during which Simmons inadvertently reveals a detail that leads Mahnaz to suspect that Simmons was the officer that shot Benji, and that Simmons and Clarke conspired to get Simmons off the hook for the shooting.

Mahnaz approaches Stern as he is eating in a restaurant, and shows him photocopies of firearms control logs, indicating that the logs have been doctored, leading to the conclusion that the officers switched guns and that there has been a police cover up. The originals have been “lost”, so there is no way to confirm this conclusion. Stern tells Mahnaz that the situation has played itself out and that the public doesn't really want the truth, so he is moving on to another story. He tells her that the truth can never be known.

Simmons appears onstage, with Mahnaz, Stern, and Reeves in the background, staring at him. Simmons stares at the audience. He begins to speak, and in this final monologue, he reveals the racist hazing that he endured after joining the force and the taunting from black people on the street who think he has betrayed his race by becoming a police officer. He then gives an account of the events leading up to Benji's being shot and killed.

Theme analysis: Racism and bias can affect what we believe is the “truth”.

Racism and bias are complex, pervasive issues, and this play challenges us to examine how our own prejudices affect our most firmly held beliefs.

The reporter in this play, Alexander Stern, says, “I no longer believe in facts, I believe in leverage.” While that is a cynical point of view, it clearly is the playwright's voice telling us that “facts” can be malleable when viewed through the lens of our personal prejudices, prejudices that we might not even be aware that we have.

Denise Reeves' “truth”, as expressed by her in her opening monologue, is that white people are the devil, and moreover, a black man who chooses a career in law enforcement is also “the devil” for choosing a career so traditionally tied to the white race and to abuses by white policemen. Denise's bias leads her to lie about the facts of what happened on the night her son was shot, because she must align the “truth” with her own world view.

Lila Mahnaz, tasked with investigating whether or not there was police misconduct in the shooting, has such a biased view of the extent of police corruption that she initially completely believes Denise Reeves' account of the incident. It is only later on on the play, when she cannot avoid facts that are revealed to her, that she is able to change her point of view.

And finally, Charles Simmons, who has been the victim of so much racism and bullying at the hands of both white and black people, makes a fatal, life-changing decision on the evening of Benji's shooting. He is literally caught in the middle, and may be the only character who can speak truthfully to how racism and bias affects one's version of the truth.