(In)credibility
Drama students from Tennyson High School write down narrative ideas inspired by a news story local to the SF Bay Area, in 2026. Photo by Julius Ernesto Rea.
a curriculum exploring the media literacy through devised and newspaper theatre
A new curriculum explores media literacy through collaborative, devised storytelling. Blending aspects of Theatre of the Oppressed, Restorative / Transformative Justice, and Playback Theatre, (in)credibility attempts to delineate the points at which fact becomes fiction, distortion, or deception. Currently developed with Bay Area high school students, this curriculum will be re-structured to work with college students, adult / creative aging organizations, and incarcerated arts groups. Formerly entitled Mobiüs, this project was awarded a California Arts Commission Impact Project Grant as well as a Theatre Bay Area CA$H Creates Grant.
The curriculum is developed between Austin DeRubira and Julius Ernesto Rea, The Forum Collective’s Artistic Director. Originally, the curriculum was developed by Kieran Beccia, a member of The Forum Collective, before being handed to DeRubira and Rea for further development. DeRubira is an educator with a Masters in Education, currently teaching History, Multimedia, and Drama at Tennyson High School in Hayward, CA. In addition to leading The Forum Collective, Rea is an established playwright, arts educator, and producer.
In 2025, the two met to develop several lessons and activities to get high school drama students to learn about Theatre of the Oppressed (specifically Newspaper Theatre) and collaborative storytelling. In 2026, they began the first phase of curriculum development with students in DeRubira’s class. Through the Spring 2026 semester, they explored activities such as collaborative note-taking and improv exercises and lessons about Image & Forum Theatre and the Five Filters of News Media.
For their final projects, students were asked to make groups pieces or solo pieces inspired by news stories that they would also research and analyze. In Summer 2026, specific members of the class (both current high school students and recent graduates) return to present some of the pieces developed—in the SF Playground Free Play Festival.
To learn more and to RSVP, visit www.playground-sf.org/freeplay or follow the link below.