By Jim Bass, Published in Decaturish
GREATER DECATUR, Ga — After spending the weekend together, 12 individuals with varying political backgrounds united in an ‘emotional’ performance on Feb. 23 at Oak Grove United Methodist Church.
An organization called Braver Angels, partnering with the New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), organized the event called “Mind The Gap: Atlanta” to bring participants together, openly discuss their political views and to depolarize conversations between members of different parties.
The performance in Decatur marked only the second workshop of its kind so far and the first to be conducted within two days.
The “Mind The Gap” theater workshop began a decade ago when the NYTW began hosting it to unite generational gaps between children and the elderly. In 2023, after NYTW teaching artist Andrew Garrett attended a Braver Angels play created by convention director and arts coordinator Mark Metzger, the two formed a partnership.
While working together over a year, Metzger and Garrett developed the inter-political version of Mind The Gap, which debuted with massive success in a convention in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2024.
“It was really impactful,” Metzger said. “We had 17 participants, and pretty much every single one of them left saying it was one of the top three most impactful things of their entire life. We were like, ‘Wow, how do we keep this going?’”
Participant Mary Beth Bryant was one of the Wisconsin participants. After having “the most meaningful week of her life,” she led the charge in bringing Mind The Gap to Decatur and participated alongside her husband John Bryant this time.
“It really helped me feel a little more safe to talk about things I normally would keep inside with people that I normally would never talk to,” Mary Beth Bryant said. “It really taught me how to listen and to self-reflect.”This weekend’s workshop participants met for the first time on Friday night and broke out of their shells by playing games and bonding over dinner. They then spent all day Saturday together to learn more about each other, have deeper conversations about their political views, and give their thoughts on current political topics in the United States.The group took elements of these challenging discussions to create a script and perform with them alongside one another for Sunday’s performance.Beforehand, attendees were invited to answer the same questions about topics including stereotypes, immigration, and depolarization. Guests wrote their thoughts onto post-it notes, chatted about each topic with their peers, and placed them on the board.
With more than 60 attendees watching, the performers filed into the room, with participant John Bryant leading the way while playing the trumpet. Participants began the show by introducing who they were and, in some cases, their political beliefs.
The show consisted of a variety of one—to five-minute scenes that included heartfelt monologues about their struggles regarding polarization, acted-out prior political conversations, interpretive dances, and original musical performances, with the central idea of breaking through their political divisions.
Due to the quick turnaround of the two-day workshop, the performance was the first time the participants ran through the script fully, with each of them holding their script to ensure that they followed along smoothly.
Decatur resident Veronica McCullion was brought by her sister to attend the performance. While not having a strong political background, she, like many others, has lost friends over time due to political differences and found importance in the workshop’s goals.
“This was really emotional in so many ways,” McCullion said. “These people were very brave to do what they did… I’ve learned a lot just being here.”
After a finale song performed by all the participants, the performers and organizers sat in front of the crowd for a talkback session to answer questions and discuss their takeaways from the workshop.
Participant Cait Cortelyou entered the Mind The Gap workshop to further develop her interest in the intersection of arts and activism. Although nervous about talking to opposing perspectives, Cortelyou quickly bonded with a participant who had different views by writing a collaborative poem.
“It was interesting getting to talk with other people and hear their viewpoints in this setting where we’re really just listening and not pushing any agenda,” Cortelyou said. “We are not trying to teach necessarily, but just listening to one another and finding all the common ground that we share.”
Braver Angels member Deanna Ross traveled from Monterey, California, to learn more about the depolarization effort through art. Ross thinks these types of workshops can work as ways to exercise the ability to communicate across different perspectives.
“It’s kind of like building the muscles that our country is not modeling right now, which is, stay in the conversation, ”Ross said. “Stay in it respectfully. Stay in it to find common ground if possible and, if nothing else, to understand each other better.”
Braver Angels aims to grow the program with NYTW nationwide and continue their mission of bringing Americans together against partisan divides.
“I think depolarizing is one of the most important things we can do for our country right now,” Cortelyou said. “I think the reason that we’re in such a mess is because we’ve been so divided… work like this bridges that gap and I think that is of the utmost importance.”
