Collaborative Research Studio 2 explores and utilizes research and civic engagement as a means to ultimately create a play. In this semester, students will take a deep dive into a major investigation of a timely subject. We will discuss story structure and different ways of building work, and use the methods we practiced in the first semester, to go into the field, research our subject and draft a play. The class will give students an opportunity to use dramatic tools to shape a given community or subject’s story, and ultimately to see and feel how powerful a tool theatre can be when it grows out of active engagement with a specific time, place, and population. Students will be graded on their efforts both in and outside of the classroom, and guided through all steps of the research and creative process.