BWW Blog: Kellie Williams - FINANCIAL SLAVERY at the Fringe Festival

This summer I am volunteering at the New York International Fringe Festival. The Fringe is a good platform for experimental theater and social commentary. This week I saw my first Fringe show ever, Financial Slavery: The College Debt Sentence. It tells the story of three college students with varying amounts of debt. The show incorporates real statistics and the stories of real people, as well as spoken word, video projections, and audience interaction.

It's a truly eye-opening experience, something I wish I could have seen a year ago. Many of the actors in the show are either current college students or graduates who have experienced the events portrayed in the show. After the show, all of the actors introduced themselves and shared their real-life stories, and invited the audience to openly discuss their opinions on the issue. Audience members were invited to take part in a barometer exercise (if they felt comfortable), to gauge how much debt they were in because of student loans. At the performance I attended, it was evident that my generation was bearing the biggest burden of loans. Financial Slavery is more than a show. It's the narrative of a generation that knows the value of education but is simultaneously seeing college tuition rise higher than ever. It begs the question, "What are we paying for?"

This show should be required viewing for high school students who plan to go to college. Loans and debt are often not even touched upon when discussing the college process, but they are something every prospective student should learn about. It was great to see young people speak unflinchingly honestly about an issue that affects us more than any previous generation.