2006 Production History
The Freshman Initiative - Look Away
Sojourn Theatre arrived in Oregon five years ago with Look Away, a touring show about youth, violence, and campus climate at high schools around Oregon.
In 2005-2006, we revisited these issues with a new show created with our first apprentice company (three artists from around the nation who came to study with us for 9 months), and a specific goal. The Freshman Initiative was our attempt to start a conversation with every ninth grader in Oregon. We wanted to ask: What do today's freshmen want safety and respect to look and feel like in their high schools for the next four years? Can theatre be a part of providing space for those conversations, and can we impact our schools by giving these young community members the opportunity to help set the agenda? The show toured and gave over 20 performances around the state, mostly focused in the Portland metro area.
The War Project
Sojourn Theatre's The War Project: 9 Acts of Determination is a partially interview-based, poetic investigation of democracy and the most significant choice we make as a citizenry.
Watch seven performers fight for the soul of democracy as debate collides with ethical hand-to-hand combat in a winner-take-all spectacle of truly intimate proportions. Join us as Sojourn Theatre concludes a year of research, road trips, and theatrical investigations with an exploration of the question: How, as a nation, do we decide what to kill and die for?
Click here for information on the production.
Click here for tales from our fall work on the project-information on our weeks of research and workshopping.
|
REVIEW From Willamette Week, March 22
The War Project: 9 Acts of Determination
[NEW REVIEW] A surprising meditation on war that's both unsettling and memorable without preaching. Sojourn Theatre has blown apart the tenets of the normal drama, and 9 Acts is a work that's only partially reconstructed. The tone ranges from action movie to fairy tale to frank conversation with the audience, and there's nothing that resembles a plot. 9 Acts refuses to hand over any simple answers. Steady, honest justifications for why we fight counterbalance the theme that death is a tragedy that does not diminish with quantity. Every time the play arrives at a nice digestible conclusion, the actors yank it away and go on to deepen the conversation. Each actor inhabits dozens of characters that shift fluidly through the play. They tackle war and grief without ever edging into maudlin, and the moments of humor (yes, humor) are genuine and well-timed. Tahni Holt (Monster Squad dance company) gives the performance a remarkable physicality with her choreography. The play's rare weak spots really come when the actors are bickering over why we fight. It's supposed to highlight the intensity of disagreement, but there are moments when one is reminded that there's a fine line between watching an onstage argument and a high-school debate practice. The only static character is the director Michael Rohd, who's essentially playing himself. As the savvy director, he knows the futility of trying to discuss and evaluate the human propensity for war—after all, we've been doing it forever. He seems to admit that he may be tilting at windmills, but he tugs on the audience's sleeve anyway, as if to say, "Don't we at least need to try?" JONATHAN WEATHERFORD.
Sojourn Theatre in partnership with visionPDX presents
ONE DAY
As part of a yearlong project in collaboration with visionPDX, an initiative sponsored by the Mayor of Portland's office, Sojourn Theatre is made a show about what our city looks like today, and the challenges it faces as it dreams the future it wants.
One Day travelled around the Portland area in Fall 2006. The show was based on the work of visionPDX's civic engagement and research Sojourn conducted on its own. One Day offered a unique bridge between citizens and political leadership to examine visions of Portland's future.
One Day tells the story of 8 fictional Portlanders (composites based on themes drawn from the research) and the choices they have to make within a 24-hour-period in our city. Then, the play opens up and invites audience members to talk with the characters about their choices. Part multi-narrative performance, part civic dialogue, One Day asked - what would you do?
One Day
Potter's 'Vision' fuels local theater company
BY STACY RIGER
[November 8th, 2006] Nearly two years into Mayor Tom Potter's term, it's strange that one of the only things his much-vaunted "Visioning" project has brought to fruition is, of all things, a play. One Day is the result of a collaboration between Sojourn Theatre and visionPDX, a Portland mayor's-office initiative promoting dialogue about urban growth in Portland. For the last year via an online survey, visionPDX has asked Portland residents to pontificate on issues like socioeconomic divisions, the economy, gentrification and what the city's future will look like if the population continues to grow.
It's good fodder for a theater company like Sojourn. True to their commitment to community-engaged theatre, artistic director Michael Rohd and the Sojourn company utilized the results of the survey, along with their own research, to develop the script for One Day. Rohd and assistant director Elliot Leffler have managed to do the near-impossible: create a socially relevant play that's also highly entertaining. Energetic blocking and clever devices allow tidy transitions from one story to the next while lively, detailed performances from the cast create believable snapshots of Portland life.
One Day is a numbers game-it follows eight people and their eight choices during 24 hours in one city. Actress Courtney Davis is exceptional as Katie, a student from Ukraine who struggles to fit in with American kids and must decide whether to assimilate or find strength in her own individuality. Actor Jono Eiland also commands attention with a particularly natural performance as Kevin, a street kid, musician and narrator who orchestrates humorous interludes throughout the play.
Politically charged issues like gentrification, lack of an adequate national healthcare system and problems facing undocumented workers are all explored within the framework of our city. In one scene Alicia, an illegal immigrant, wonders if her family will be able to survive on her meager income, and conversely, what will happen to Portland if people like her can't make it. In another scene, an African-American woman in an "up-and-coming" neighborhood is astounded by her white neighbor's eagerness to make an offer on her home, which is not for sale. Hello, Alberta Street!
It may not be what most people expected out of Potter's project, but One Day is compelling not just for its political commentary, but because its characters illuminate the potential for everyday decisions to define personal character. There are no easy answers in One Day, just intriguing questions exploring real issues.
American Value
(at North American Cultural Laboratory in New York)
with NACL, Carpetbag Brigade (San Fran), Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble (NYC), Ariel Dance Theater (Austin, TX) and Local Community
"What does being an American mean to you?" "What are your core values?"
NACL's 2006 Summer Festival opener was a theatrical exploration of these questions-a community performance project directed by Michael Rohd of Sojourn Theatre (alongside 3 other Sojourn artists), with NACL, guest stilt artists from California's Carpetbag Brigade, and members of our own politically and socially diverse community. The performance combined documented interviews from around the county with stilt walking, song, chorus, and story-telling. It sold out the whole weekend.
Voices From The Edge
Sojourn was commissioned to create a new performance piece for a large International festival in Mackay, Australia called The Pacfic Edge. We were the only US company invited over. We gave workshops, presented on Witness Our Schools and The War Project, and, built and premiered this new work based on interview we did in Australia.
The entire company went on the trip.
The piece, Voices from the Edge, closed the Festival, played for almost a thousand people, and has resulted in invitations to go back.
|
|
|
