‘Defamation’ thrusts audience into jury’s role

• Reprints

in "Defamation", a courtroom trial serves as the catalyst for audience members to examine their own preconceptions about race and class. Brad Baskin photo

Updated: November 9, 2011 4:11PM

Imagine this scenario.

A North Shore real estate developer invites a professional African-American woman to his Winnetka home to discuss a potential business project. The woman, a graphic designer who lives in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, comes highly recommended by the businessman’s best friend.

After a brief meeting, the developer, Arthur Golden, discovers that a family heirloom watch is missing. He recalls taking off the watch and leaving it on top of a legal pad shortly before stepping out of the room to take a phone call.

Would you be inclined to think the visitor stole the watch? That Golden was justified in telling his friend of his suspicions?

Or would it appear that Golden’s accusations were influenced by preconceived notions about race and social standing?

Todd Logan’s “Defamation,” which is touring schools and other community venues through Nov. 6, provokes audience members to examine their own attitudes about race and class as they act as jurors in a civil lawsuit that later arises out of that meeting.

Courtroom setting

The play, to be performed Sept. 22 at Evanston Township High School, doesn’t depict the meeting between Golden and the graphic designer, Regina Wade. Rather, it takes place entirely in the courtroom, where Wade has brought a defamation lawsuit against Golden, saying he falsely accused her of stealing the watch. His accusations damaged her reputation and cause her to lose business.

“There is no smoking gun, so as a juror, you can’t point to that moment, right there, that either proves her case or disproves it,” said Logan, who grew up in Highland Park, lived 19 years in Winnetka and now resides in Evanston.

The trial judge provides audience members the legal ground rules for considering a civil defamation case, where the standard is based on the preponderance of evidence, rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt,” as in a criminal proceeding.

After testimony has concluded, the judge polls the audience members both before and after deliberations.

“In a defamation case, it’s not enough to say that somebody made something up about you,” Logan said. “The accusations must have cost you something.”

Free performances

The ETHS performance for students, parents, staff and community members will take place at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22 in the Upstairs Theater. The play also will be performed at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 2 at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston. Both performances are free.

David Futransky, the community liaison for Evanston Township High School, expects the play will serve as a jumping-off point for further dialogue about issues of race and equity, which have been a focal point for the past three years.

“We hope to have a good discussion that evening and we hope that over the next week or two, there will still be opportunities for people who saw the play to get together and discuss how they felt about it.”

Other public performances are taking place in Wilmette, Highland Park, Northfield, Glencoe and Chicago, as well as in the Jackson, Miss., area.

The car ride home

Logan said that he, and other playwrights, always hope their work still resonates with people during the car ride home after the performance.

“You feel like you have succeeded if in the car ride home, they are still talking about the play, not about who is going to drive the baby-sitter home, or where to go for dessert.”

During the writing process, Logan pondered how to fittingly conclude the piece before coming up with the twist of letting the audience decide the case.

“People take their responsibility as jurors very seriously,” Logan said. “I decided that by having the audience be the jury, I get to hear that ‘car ride home’ right there in the theater.”

Once the verdict is rendered, Logan and the cast engage the audience in a panel discussion centered on the sensitive and often tucked-away-safely feelings that come to the surface during the play.

“You move off of the legal questions and the passions have been stirred,” Logan said, recalling the deep conversations that took place during a six-performance run last spring that included performances at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, Beth Emet the Free Synagogue and Sherman United Methodist Church.

The playwright recalled that so many people wanted to continue the conversation after one post-show discussion last spring that it took awhile for one woman to reach Logan to say she didn’t like the play, which she felt was inflammatory.

“She waited 40 minutes to tell me that. She didn’t just walk out and go home,” Logan said. “I think that is effective art, if it stays with you and causes you to re-examine your own notions.”