Forwarding an interesting e-mail from Michael Rohd and Sojourn Theatre about the experience of their new piece, "BUILT":

Just wanted to share the news that Sojourn is having a super-interesting experience in Chicago right now, that will lead us home to PDX soon.

Much of the company has been in residence with me at Northwestern University for a month, and before that, i'd been working for months with community members and students

we're now thru 2 nights of a 5 night run, 3 events in evanston and 2 in downtown chicago 20 performers, 60 person audiences, and i think we've successfully moved into an area of connecting experimental performance and civic engagement, that is, at least for us, an interesting development...

we've developed a site -specific travelling game-based dramaturgy that is half set performance, and half improvised and facilitated interactivity, all deepening and complicating a conversation about city growth, housing and urban change. We're staging it in a the bowells of an old university building, and its main 2 level lecture hall, and downtown in a beautiful old formal law forum. Within the structure, each night's event has 3 different community 'experts', or coaches, who spend a few minutes helping the audience consider the way they're playing the game (a board game we play with them in three phases scattered thruout the show), and these coaches complicate matters from their own experience

last night, for instance, legendary public housing advocate Beauty Turner, Evanston's Alderwoman of the first ward Cheryl Wollin,and Chicago historian/author Bill Savage took on this function...they were fantastic, and pushed us all in unexpected ways

the 75 minute event, which is a mix of scenes, movement, media and public conversation, ends with the cast moving throughout the audience with cellphones, asking the audence for their priorities for visioning a city, and then the cast calls other cast members onstage, who tell our designer, shannon scrofano, who draws by hand a map of chicago with statements and questions from the audience that is projected live, and immense, on a screen at the front of the room, as the live cellist grows louder and louder

we have a full house coming tonight, and almost full next week in chicago, and so far, the audiences are an amazing mix of geographic, age and cultural diversity due to, i think, the assignment my students have had since march, which has been to build community partnerships/audience constituencies...

just wanted to share, mid experience, because we're having a good (and challenging) time and learning a ton. And, it seems to be going very well.

This project continues for us with 3 days of research and collaboration with HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford, CT in June, and then we are home in Portland from July on, working to create the premiere of what this evolves into, hosted and commissioned by The AIR program at the South waterfront and presented as part of this summer's TBA Festival.

hope you are well as summer finally approaches

best, michael

Sojourn Theatre's BUILT

   

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