From left, SDA faculty members Ahmed Best and Anita Dashiell-Sparks and recent MFA in Acting graduate Chelsea Allison perform a scene depicting a family dinner disrupted by a disagreement. Photo by Vic Grzesiuk.
In early September, Bovard Auditorium became a laboratory for some of the hardest conversations college students face, as ‘Theatre for Dialogue’ invited the campus community to watch a handful of familiar conflicts play out, and then step in to try to resolve them.
The program featured live performances by USC School of Dramatic Arts (SDA) students and faculty dramatizing some challenging moments in the lives of college students. Judging from the audience’s reactions, the performances hit close to home.
The goal was to spark discussion, and the scenes did just that.
This was the latest event organized by the Open Dialogue Project, an initiative launched by USC President Beong-Soo Kim that seeks to advance academic freedom, expression and discourse. Since its launch in October 2025, the project has hosted conversations with figures including NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, former ACLU president Nadine Strossen and author and legal scholar Jonathan Turley, and it has assembled a student advisory board to help shape its programming. The event was a collaboration among the Office for Residential Education, the Open Dialogue Project, the School of Dramatic Arts, SDA’s Institute for Theatre & Social Change, SDA’s Sparks Center for Community and Culture and USC Dornsife’s Center for the Political Future. The Open Dialogue Project is directed by Neeraj Sood, a professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, who also holds joint appointments at the Keck School of Medicine, the USC Marshall School of Business and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
Setting the stage
President Kim welcomed the audience. “Not only is open dialogue really important,” he told the crowd, “but it can be a lot of fun.” And, he continued, “those feelings of joy are also important.”
The program featured two dramatic scenes in which audience members were encouraged to become “spect-actors” instead of “spectators.” What that meant was that volunteers were asked to come on stage, replace some of the original actors, then redo the scenes to improve the disastrous outcomes presented the first time around.
Rewriting the script
The first scene had Bleau Essen, a current SDA undergraduate, and Ali-Moosa Mirza, a recent MFA acting graduate, playing roommates from different economic backgrounds. A mild dispute over Essen’s working-class character feeling obligated to clean up after Mirza’s wealthy character escalated into hurtful comments about privilege, entitlement and class differences.
When SDA professor Brent Blair, director of the Institute for Theatre & Social Change, asked the audience if they had ever encountered a similarly charged situation, a number of hands went up.
After two students in the audience tried to improve the scene, Blair told the audience he hoped everyone would leave the auditorium thinking about what they would do in such a situation.
The second scene explored another familiar minefield for college students, dinner with parents visiting them at school. SDA faculty members Ahmed Best, best known for playing Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and Anita Dashiell-Sparks, chair of performance for SDA, played the parents, and Chelsea Allison, a recent MFA acting graduate, played their daughter. Tensions rose over the daughter asserting her political independence, sparking disagreement with her father. The mom tried unsuccessfully to broker peace.
The heated conversation included the father saying “this is breaking my heart,” and the mother saying “you all are not listening to each other.”
This was a tough scene, Blair admitted afterward. He asked if this scenario happens in the real world, and again, many hands in the audience went up.
After a few recruits attempted to bring about a better outcome in the scene, Blair observed it was even hard to get the participants to agree they weren’t listening to the other side.
What comes after the scene
But difficult conversations don’t have to be dead ends. The scenes were followed by brief remarks by six members of the student advisory board of the Open Dialogue Project. They shared stories about difficult conversations that changed their lives, and how honest, respectful dialogue can result in connection instead of frustration.
Angel Udofia, an undergraduate SDA acting major, said she came to college wanting to impose her beliefs on other people and get them to change their minds. Once here, and getting trained as a dialogue facilitator, she realized she could still recognize her shared humanity with others “even when their beliefs are different from mine.”
The audience reflected the program’s university-wide reach, with attendees identifying themselves as representing 10 USC schools: the USC School of Dramatic Arts, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, Keck School of Medicine of USC, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC Marshall School of Business, USC School of Cinematic Arts, USC Rossier School of Education and USC Roski School of Art and Design.
The students were followed by a panel featuring moderator Kamy Akhavan, managing director of the Center for the Political Future; Julie Rousseau, USC Senior Associate Athletic Director; and Varun Soni, USC Dean of Religious Life.
“Take the time to have dialogue,” Rousseau urged students, advising them “to listen with an open mind without starting to think of how you’re going to respond.” She said the advice came from her own experience — after her father died, she longed to have more conversations with him.
Soni counseled students to use their time at USC to have meaningful conversations. “You are never going to be in a better situation to talk about things that matter,” he said. “You have 50,000 people your age representing 150 countries and every spiritual, religious and philosophical point of view that’s ever been articulated.”
He ended by giving students a homework assignment.
“Before you leave here today, meet someone you don’t know. Introduce yourself. Tell them something about yourself and watch the magic happen.”