2010 Sojourn Theatre One Week Summer Institute

Posted by on March 01, 2010

2010 Sojourn Theatre One Week Summer Institute
for adults working in Theatre, Education & Community settings

In Portland, Oregon at Lewis & Clark College (housing available)
June 21- June 26, 2010
9:30am- 4pm
evenings optional 6:30-9:30

This summer’s institute meets as a training cohort during the day on Monday through Saturday (final day is a half-day). In addition, the cohort will have the option of observing Sojourn rehearsal during the weekday evenings.

Limit: 30 participants
Fee: $575
(this includes tuition, campus fee, and lunch every day you are on campus at the cafeteria)

Workshop Leader:
Michael Rohd
summers Institute happens alongside/as part of Sojourns research/rehearsal for our Summer site specific production On The Table

Devising Civic Theatre: Performance, Social Practice & Dialogue
Now in it’s 11th summer, this 6 day workshop/training offers participants from around the nation (and the world) an opportunity to explore the techniques & strategies Sojourn Theatre artistic director Michael Rohd uses in collaborative work with groups in a variety of settings to:
– devise performance material
– build community
– examine the potential of site-specific activity
– explore social & political issues through collaborative conceptual, improvisational & physical investigations

Register early, space is limited.
For information or registration email sojourntheatre@aol.com.
For housing on campus (availability begins Sunday June 20), please contact Caroline Brown at cab@lclark.edu – NOT Sojourn Theatre.

More information on the workshop
Civic theatre aims to bring an adventurous theatricality to a focused interrogation of contemporary issues by offering spaces for civic engagement throughout the process of developing new performance- it’s a porous series of events combining research, participatory activity, and studio (artist-focused) sessions that allow, invite and demand community members and community expertise into the dramaturgy before and after production in a variety of ways. This institute offers sequences of physical activity, solo to group work, and devising strategies that are adaptable for the contexts in which you create, produce, teach and lead.

Influences reflected during the workshop/training week include Ping Chong, Pina Bausch, Cornerstone Theater, Augusto Boal, ensemble theater practice, Dwight Conquergood, the growing field of site-responsive/social practice performance, Lynn Blom, Dorothy Heathcote, Living Stage & Paolo Freire.

Workshop Leader Bio
Michael Rohd has been exploring the intersection of theatre and democracy for years with Sojourn Theatre and through his projects with collaborators and universities around the nation. He is founding artistic director of Sojourn Theatre in Portland, Oregon, a 2005 recipient of Americans for the Arts Animating Democracy Exemplar Award. His work there as creator/director/performer includes BUILT (presented as part of Portlands TBA 2008 Festival), GOOD (2008 Portland Drammy, Outstanding Production of the Season), The War Project (2005 Drammy, Best ensemble), 7 Great Loves (five 2003 Drammy awards including Best Production and Best Director), and Witness Our Schools (9 months of Oregon and national touring). Rohd is a recipient of Theatre Communication Groups 2001 New Generations Grant, and their 2002 Extended Collaboration Grant with Atlantas Alliance Theatre. An associate artist with Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles and an artistic associate with Ping Chong & Co in New York City, he is on faculty at Northwestern Universitys Theater Department with a focus on Devising Performance, Directing & Civic Engagement. His work has been supported by Ford Foundation, the NEA, Rockefellers MAP Fund, Doris Duke Foundation and Arts Councils in states around the nation. Recent projects as a creator and/or director include Chuck Mees Full Circle at Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington DC and his own Wilson Wants it All at The House Theater in Chicago. Current projects include creating Oregon Shakespeare Festivals first company devised, site-specific work titled Willful, a new Sojourn piece called On The Table and a commission at Kansas City Rep. He is author of the book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue,

The Project we are working on: On The Table
On the Table is a theatre production involving inter-city travel, public dialogue, video and participation within the performance itself. Sojourn Theatre, in partnership with Molallas Arts Commission, The City of Portland and numerous local and statewide organizations, is creating this original world premiere theatrical event as an opportunity to start conversations that bridge urban/rural Oregon and wrestle with issues of identity, resources, values, and governance. Exploring the histories and connectedness of community partner sites Portland and Molalla, it goes beyond metaphorical bridge-building to physically move audiences across urban/rural boundaries.

Act I occurs simultaneously in Portland and Molalla, with a cast of actors performing for a fifty person audience in Portland, and a separate cast of actors performing for a fifty person audience in Mollala. Act 1 tells the stories of two families, one in each community, in the year 1975. Act 2 puts both audiences on buses with the actors driving towards each other. Act 2 brings the stories of these two fictional families from 1975 up to the present, so that when the buses arrive at a location halfway between Portland and Molalla, the story has reached the current moment of 2010. Act 3 brings all 100 audience members together, seated at tables of ten; each table consists of five Portlanders seated next to five Molallans. The play concludes, strangers meet and share a meal during this final act, and the buses then take everyone home.

Register early, space is limited.
For information or registration email sojourntheatre@aol.com.
For housing on campus (availability begins Sunday June 20), please contact Caroline Brown at cab@lclark.edu – NOT Sojourn Theatre.