Affectionately known by her students as the “Drama Mama,” Barbara Williams taught Theatre and English classes at the high school level in the Newark Unified School District for 39 years. The highlight of Barbara’s long teaching career was most definitely the production of The Laramie Project in the Fall of 2002. A long time advocate for civil rights, Barbara saw in Newark a need for dialogue about the issues surrounding gay rights. She chose the play about Matthew Shepard hoping that the students who saw it would be influenced to be more accepting of all gay and lesbian students. Never in a million years could she have predicted the horrific murder of Gwen Araujo. That crime turned her production of The Laramie Project into “The Newark Project,” creating the most emotionally difficult performances she and her students have ever experienced. As a result, Barbara became active in diversity rights organizations such as Not in Our Town, PFLAG, and Glaad.
Both Barbara and the student cast & crew of The Laramie Project received many honors for continuing to rehearse and perform the play during those difficult times. Among those honors are PFLAG’s Friend of the Children Award, Diversity San Francisco’s Humanitarian Award, guest speaking at the LA and SF Glaad Media Awards, and the National Education Association’s SuAnne Big Crow National Humanitarian Award. In April of 2004, State Senator Liz Figueroa named Barbara a California Woman of the Year for 2004, and in that same year she also was honored with the first Distinguished Citizen of Alameda County award.
Barbara retired from full time teaching in June 2004 and moved to El Granada near Half Moon Bay; however, she did not retire from her activism or from the theatre. She continues her work with Not In Our Town, and she directs plays for various Bay Area community theatre groups. Currently she is thrilled to be directing The Laramie Project and the “Epilogue” for Crystal Springs Players, a community theatre group dedicated to erasing hate and violence from our town.