Aimed more at provoking thought than providing entertainment, a local educator's theater work encourages audiences to face a sometimes ugly shared past — and be transformed by the experience.

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When Amanda Kemp, a research associate at Franklin & Marshall College, wrote the play "Show Me the Franklins: Remembering the Ancestors, Slavery and Benjamin Franklin," she didn't necessarily want to create compelling theater.

Instead, Kemp wanted audiences to walk away from the 45-minute production, which is staged periodically in the area, asking who their ancestors were and "What do I do now?"

It's this kind of thinking that has propelled Kemp into a life of activism that first captured her spirit as a 7-year-old foster child.

More than three decades later — through pieces such as "Show Me the Franklins" — Kemp continues to explore her own ancestry and inspire others to do the same.

The play is about starkly contrasting aspects in the life of Franklin, an abolitionist and a slave owner.

"I was interested in looking at him in the perspective of his African contemporaries," Kemp said. "Part of my work in the world is to heal the wounds of slavery — and collectively we are all wounded, specifically in the black community, where we walk around with anger, shame, fear and self-loathing. We have an inheritance that's pretty heavy. (The play) encourages us to remember."

The piece was written by Kemp in 2004 under a different title. It has undergone several rewrites since then, with the current version a collaboration with director Dave Ebersole.

Kemp joined the F&M faculty in 2002 and has held several positions, including adjunct professor, visiting professor and chairwoman of Africana studies.

As a research associate, Kemp creates and leads performance workshops at schools, churches and other organizations throughout the region that focus on social activism and civil rights causes.

In 2007, Kemp formed the Philadelphia-based Theatre for Transformation, an undertaking she describes as "performance technology that facilitates transformation." Theatre for Transformation's actors portray the characters in "Show Me the Franklins."

As a playwright, author and performer, Kemp said some of her work is autobiographical and reflects her early years as a foster child living in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Kemp, who lived with four foster families from the time she was 6 years old until she was 21, said she grew up with no family identity.

"My experience being in foster care was a sense of rootlessness and of not quite belonging," she said. "The pain was sharp, fearful and violent."

Kemp graduated from Stanford University in the 1980s, where she was awarded the school's prestigious Gardner Fellowship for Public Service and where she apprenticed with Maxine Waters and the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the National Rainbow Coalition, a political organization that pursues social change.

She eventually left politics and attended Northwestern University, where she earned a degree in performance studies.

In her position as a research associate, Kemp travels to venues in the region to bring her message of self-discovery through performing.

Her audiences range from prominent universities to small organizations, including a predominantly African-American senior center in Chester County.

Kemp said she wants to ignite questions in both the young and the old.

"I wanted to see how (the play) resonated with the elderly," Kemp said, "as well as honor them and encourage them to look at their lives as valuable."

During her late 20s and 30s, Kemp said, she focused on activism — and part of that meant traveling to Africa to delve into her ancestry.

But Kemp soon learned that discovering her identity would involve much more than mere travel.

Kemp wrote a poem — "How Do You Cross an Ocean That Is Four Continents Long?" — in which she stitched together the pieces of her past and present. "I am an American, too," Kemp said. "That's part of me. I have to connect it all up."

Although Kemp's work has earned her a number of national awards related to civil rights and social activism, she chose to leave her life in politics for writing.

"Politics is hard on the soul," Kemp said. "I had to put my energy into arts and theater. My art teaches me. My art is ahead of where I am at."

While she will continue to write plays and other creative pieces to inspire people to discover their past and glimpse their future, Kemp said she also would like to introduce into schools curricula that incorporate performance technology.

She said she believes that part of her calling involves trying to fix education on a national level.

"(Education) is a game," Kemp said. "It's morally bankrupt. We need to restore the heart to education."

E-mail: mpennino@lnpnews.com