Moderator:
Location: Zoom Room C
Online Session
Immersive Theater as Leadership and Leading Social Justice
Goat in the Road Productions has staged three immersive theater pieces set in historic houses in New Orleans’ French Quarter, the first opening in spring of 2018 and the most recent closing in January 2023. The work is set in reconstruction era New Orleans and each story is historical fiction based on real events that took place in the city at that time. The following trilogy of plays represents storytelling as leading social justice movements, as well as aesthetic leadership exemplified in the vehicle of immersive presentation. The Stanger Disease was set at the historic property Madame John’s Legacy and takes place during the yellow fever outbreak of 1878. The story follows seven characters, intertwined by various relationships, centered around an inter-racial couple married in all but name. The Uninvited was set at the historic property The Gallier House and takes place during the White League led riot of 1874 and follows nine characters with differing opinions and access to escaping violence throughout the evening. The mob attempts to re-segregate an integrated primary school. The Family Line was set at The BK House during the 1892 general strike, a successful interracial organizing event that shut down the city for days before winning workers’ historic rights. Set in a Sicilian family’s grocery store, the story follows eight characters whose stories are intertwined by their heritage and labor. Goat in the Road Productions works in a collaborative method. All of the participants working on a project equally contribute to the development of that work.
Cassandra Erb, Goat in the Road Productions
Cassandra Erb is an independent curator and designer who has been working in the museum field for over fifteen years and is a recent member of Goat in the Road Productions ensemble. She holds a B.A. in painting, an M.F.A. in Exhibition Design, and is currently a PhD candidate in the Graduate School of Leadership and Change at Antioch University. In her work, she is committed to cocreation and the idea that the creative act is not performed by the artist alone. Erb lives and works in New Orleans, LA.
Justice, Caring, and Care-full Performance in How I Met My Mother
How I Met My Mother is a play written and performed by Canadian actor Jon Paterson about his experience caring for his mother who lived with and eventually died of Alzheimer’s Disease. Performed throughout the North American Fringe Circuit in 2022, the play gained positive reviews and was chosen amongst the top shows at two festivals. The play’s narrative offers a story about how, for the playwright, caring for his mother led to self-discovery and feelings of redemption. This paper uses performance analysis to comment on the care ethics, aesthetics and practices encompassed in the play. Key to the play’s construction of care is its reciprocal quality. Paterson’s mother, who had shown continuity as a deeply caring individual throughout her life, continued to offer acts of care in the late stages of her dementia, challenging more common constructions of a “disabled dementia identity” as a receiver of care. In addition, Paterson’s performance of care for self and audience throughout the play further challenges more common notions of caregiving as unidirectional and reliant on normativity. As Maurice Hamington (2020) writes, “To care is not only to improvise what to do, it is to determine the moral parameters that unfold in the given situation” (29). In How I Met My Mother, the playwright acknowledges his neurodiversity (telling us he has ADHD), is transparent in the moment about contextual factors that challenge him, and attends to his needs as a performer improvisationally, while also offering care to his audience in meaningful ways.
Julia Henderson, University of British Columbia
Julia Henderson is an Assist. Prof. in the Dept. of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at UBC and holds a PhD in Theatre. Her research with older adults uses arts-based methods, especially theatre, to redress cultural ageism and promote citizenship. Julia has published in CTR, JADT, TRiC/RTAC, ACH, and RiDE.
Incarcerated Women and Theatre: Rhodessa Jones, Artistic Practice and Social Justice
This paper discusses the work of theatre artist/activist Rhodessa Jones, who supports social justice through her work with incarcerated women. Based in San Francisco, in 1979 she co-founded the performing arts organization Cultural Odyssey, and in 1989 she founded The Medea Project, developing performance pieces with incarcerated women and women who are living with HIV. Her work can be examined in the context of applied theatre and devised theatre practices. Jones develops collaborative performances with women, and this leads to increased self-confidence, self-care and awareness, and a reduced recidivism rate. The people with whom Jones works transfer knowledge and skills to others through workshops and programs. Jones works closely with arts, academic, and health institutions and is a model of effective activism.
This paper is based on existing sources and on an original interview with Jones addressing the following issues: how Jones works with the women who take part in her programs, including partnering with them as workshop facilitators once they acquire experience; how applied theatre and devised theatre practices are relevant to her work; how she views the impact of her work; what ethical issues she faces in her practice; how she measures the success of her work and collaborations; and what her plans for the future are: this includes a discussion of a manual that Jones has been writing about her practice, aimed at sharing her approaches with other practitioners.
Francesca Marini, Texas A&M University
Dr. Francesca Marini (she/her) is an Associate Professor at Texas A&M University, School of Performance, Visualization & Fine Arts. She holds a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); her research addresses performing arts documentation/archiving and theatre history. She teaches aesthetics of activism, devised theatre, and arts documentation.