Historical Echoes and Social Action: Evaluating Audience Responses to Arts-Based Interventions on Gender-Based Violence

Background and Purpose: Arts-based interventions have immense potential to provide positive emotion regulation, initiate social action, and inspire cultural change. This study examines The Ford/Hill Project, a theatrical production that compares and contrasts the sexual harassment and assault hearings of Anita Hill and Christine Blasey-Ford. A four-person ensemble portrays the women and Supreme Court judges Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh to demonstrate how gender-based violence (GBV) repeats and reverberates across historical eras. Given the profound societal implications of these historical events, this study explores audience motivations to engage in social action around GBV advocacy following the performance at the Under the Radar Festival in New York City.

Methods: By utilizing social cognitive theory, which assesses individual experiences, others actions and environmental factors on individual behaviors, this study explores how individual behaviors of audiences change after reviewing their personal GBV experiences and watching the actors’ actions and choices in an intimate theatrical setup within a polarized sociopolitical environment. Additionally, it applies affect theory to identify how the performance produces individual emotions, or ‘affects’ that point towards social action. Data were collected via three electronic surveys (containing open-ended, multiple choice, and closed-ended items) administered via QR codes at the theater. Surveys could be completed before, after, and two weeks following the performance. 84 respondents answered the pre-performance survey, 88 answered the post-performance survey, and 92 respondents answered the survey sent two weeks after the performance (N=126).

Findings: Preliminary analysis of quantitative data assessed participant familiarity with GBV, motivations for social action, and perceptions on healing, care, and accountability. The pre-performance survey displayed overwhelming familiarity with GBV, measured by how widespread (21%) GBV is, understanding environments in which GBV occurs (21%), understanding race and gender intersections (19%), personal experiences (9%), knowing resources (8%), and knowing GBV-related laws/policies (8%). Post-performance respondents differed by demonstrating greater GBV knowledge related to race and gender (21%), more awareness of signs of sexual harassment (20%), and increased knowledge of GBV-related resources (11%). Motivation for social action comes through community-based engagement to support survivors (18%), wanting to contribute to policy change (16%), and joining organizing/advocacy efforts (13%. Two-week post-performance respondents said The Ford/Hill Project was somewhat impactful (44%) and very impactful (42%). Healing perceptions were displayed by reflecting on personal/acquaintances’ GBV experiences (37%), feeling more prepared to speak up/support GBV survivors (24%), having taken action related to racial/gender-based violence (13%), and having sought out additional GBV-related resources (10%).

Conclusions and Implications: The findings suggest that audiences of The Ford/Hill Project show abundant familiarity with GBV and raised sensitivity to the contexts GBV happens in. Consistent with social cognitive theory and affect theory, respondents state how emotionally impactful the play was, demonstrate recognition of their individual experiences through GBV familiarity, observe others actions’ (the actors in the play) within a small performance space, and the larger sociopolitical environment, leading to motivation for social action towards addressing GBV. Social work is well poised to collaborate with arts-based entities to mobilize public engagement and achieve social justice, a cornerstone of the profession.