Lynn and I are spending this week in Chicago, talking to theater colleagues and learning more about community-based arts here. In three days I've had so much stimulating dialogue about how to engage audiences in true dialogue with theatrical works, working with youth, the role of theater and performance in our society now, at this juncture. I talked in my last post about making this kind of theater as an act of love, and here I have connected with so many dedicated and intensely creative people who see it that way too, in a diversity of ways...
Among them is Michael Rohd, artistic director of Sojourn Theatre, a Portland-based company who creates work based on diverse community perspectives that inspires dialogue. He is a fiercely curious and creative person who I admire greatly and whose work I have adapted (e.g. ripped off) on many occasions. He is currently a visiting professor at Northwestern University.
...and Paula Gilovich and Megan Carney, who have both directed About Face Theater's youth program, which creates original works that are performed as mainstage shows in the company's season. They are one of the only professional queer youth performance projects in the country. Megan is currently working on an oral history/performance piece in my hometown (and hers) Pittsburgh...
...and Nicole Garneau, an actor turned performance artist who is dedicated to public performance...talking to her made me want to reconnect to my performance art roots, to the idea of art as a happening.
It feels so exciting to connect into the web of performing artists who have dedicated themselves to pushing the boundaries of performance in service of increasing our connection to one another, to build community in a culture where we are encouraged to stay isolated and fulfill ourselves through buying and having things. But the feeling we get from making meaning and having others resonate with those meanings, you can't buy that and you can't take it away.
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