Stanford Theater: Race Relations 101 A Collaboration between the University and Troubled East Palo Alto Helps Bridge a Historic Town-Gown Divide

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FOR students at elite Stanford University in Palo Alto, the adjoining town of East Palo Alto has always been the other side of the tracks, or more literally, the other side of the freeway.

Until not so long ago, the largely African-American and Hispanic-populated town was known mostly for Whiskey Gulch, a stretch of liquor stores where students could evade strict anti-alcohol rules on campus. More recently, East Palo Alto was the site of shootouts between drug gangs that earned it, in 1992, the dubious distinction of having the nation's highest per capita murder rate.

But an unusual theater program is helping bridge the gap between town and gown. The project …