Directed by Harclyde Walcott and Honor Ford-Smith • 1985 • Jamaica

The Sistren Collective, a popular Jamaican women’s theater troupe, uses performance and improvisation as consciousness-raising tools for both rural and urban audiences. Their performances speak directly to the daily experiences of women—the least empowered workers, who labor long hours for low wages with no benefits or rights to organize for better conditions. Using role-play and interviews with female sugarcane workers, the collective develops dramatizations which pinpoint their concerns and analyze major social issues.