The In[HEIR]itance Project facilitates challenging civic conversations by making theater with communities and connecting those conversations to sacred texts. This program will focus on discussing homelessness. We will being the initial discussion phase of The In[HEIR]itance Project’s artistic process. What’s on your mind? Join us in breaking down the barriers to the difficult conversation. Come and share and play!
Wednesday, February 26
7:00-9:00 pm
TBS Social Hall
Presented by Orange County Community Scholar Program.
The Water Saga is a series of plays that will be devised by The In[HEIR]itance Project in communities who have compelling relationships with water due to proximity, flood, drought, etc. Each process will pair these communities’ narratives with inherited water-related texts. The series kicks off in 2019 with a play in Palm Beach, Florida. Play #2 will be created in 2021 in Orange County, CA. In preparation for the 2021 project, In[HEIR]itance artists will be facilitating a week of collaborative community workshops in Orange County in February of 2020.
Whereas most audiences only experience art when it’s finished, community members will be invited into the process as co-creators and participants throughout. This begins with a study phase where In[HEIR]itance artists lead study sessions to examine inheritances (sacred texts, community history, etc.) connected to the community conversation. Art-making and storytelling prompts invite local participants to share their own personal narratives and draw connections with the text. These workshops will engage communities through studying text, sharing perspectives and lived experiences, and even getting on our feet to explore and express narrative.
The Team for Orange County
Jon Adam Ross has spent 20 years making art with communities around the country as an actor, playwright, and teaching artist. He has served as an artist in residence at Union Theological Seminary, The Jewish Theological Seminary, and many other religious and educational institutions. As an actor, Jon has performed at the Guthrie Theater, Playhouse on the Square, and in NYC where his stage credits include: a dog, a 2,000 year old bird, an elderly orthodox Jew, a spurned housewife, a horse, a British naval officer in 1700’s Jamaica, a goat, Jesus, a lawyer, a hapless police chief, and a cyclops. Jon holds a BFA in Acting from NYU/Tisch.
Chantal Pavageaux is an interdisciplinary artist working in performance and social practice. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she trained in experimental theatre at New York University and was awarded a Drama League Directing Fellowship in 2011. Her work has been produced in theaters nationally including the Guthrie Theater and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN; and Mabou Mines and Ars Nova in New York, NY. She is currently an artistic fellow at the Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska.
THE HOW
The In[HEIR]itance process is unique as an exercise in art and community engagement. The entire community is invited in at every stage of the process as co-creators of the theater. Study sessions, devising workshops, open rehearsals and post-performance community talkbacks are just some examples of opportunities for community members to jump into the work. The stages of the process, outlined below, are informed by traditional Jewish methodologies of study.
Phase 1: STUDY (פְּשָׁט)
TIP artists lead study sessions to examine inheritances (sacred texts, community history, etc.) connected to the community conversation. Art-making and storytelling prompts invite local participants to share their own personal narratives and draw connections with the text.
Phase 2: SHAPE (רֶמֶז)
Using the communal study phase and collected personal narratives as inspirations, TIP artists rehearse the material openly with the community, expanding and exploring generated material in order to devise and hone content. Participants participate in creating and shaping material that will ultimately be presented back to their community as a reflection.
Phase 3: STAGE (דְּרַשׁ)
TIP artists collaborate with local artists and community members to organize what has been created out of the process into an artistic presentation that is open to the public. The conversation continues after the presentation through an intentionally designed critical feedback process.
Phase 4: SHARE (סוֹד)
All box office proceeds go to local artists and arts organizations, and we revisit communities after our own process is complete to help reinforce relationships and support the work of artists who receive funding from our box office receipts.
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