Analog tools for coexistence
A THOUSAND WAYS is a three-part performance in which your words, actions, gestures, silence, thoughts, and willingness are the tools. With two people, a telephone, a table, and a stack of cards, a new type of performance emerges. Everything we need is already here, just you and me.
Obie Award-winning theater-makers, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, known for exhilarating performances that challenge the very definition of theater, have created a quietly radical response to this new world with A THOUSAND WAYS. Taking place over the next year, this three-part performance is designed in response to social distancing rules that deliver us from isolation to congregation. Each distinct installment meets participants where they are.
This is an invitation. Will you attend?
JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU MIGHT BE GETTING A LITTLE CYNICAL ABOUT THE THEATRE … THINK ABOUT 600 HIGHWAYMEN.
THE NEW YORKER
PART ONE / A PHONE CALL — November 13-15, 2020
Pick up the phone. Someone is on the line. You don’t know their name, and you still won’t when the hour is over, but as you follow the recorded instructions, a portrait of another person will emerge through fleeting moments of exposure.
PART TWO / AN ENCOUNTER —Winter 2021
You and a stranger meet on opposite ends of a table, separated by a pane of glass. Using a script and a few simple objects, a simple exercise of working together becomes an experience of profound connection with another person.
PART THREE / An Assembly – When it is safe to gather
A public convening made up of you and everyone else from the project’s journey. Together we follow a shared score. This final installment is a chance to feel the power and complexities of group assembly.
Part One / A Phone Call is a one-hour experience for two people calling from their homes. You will need a fully charged phone to participate in this performance, 1 ticket per person. Each ticket holder will be required to connect using their own device. Members of the same household must have their own ticket and separate devices to join the event. It is recommended that members of the same household choose different times.
TICKETSPART ONE CREDITS
Executive Producer: Thomas O. Kriegsmann / ArKtype
Line Producer: Cynthia J. Tong
Creative Consultant & Dramaturg: Andrew Kircher
Part One Sound Design: Stanley Mathabane
Photos: Maria Baranova
This production was commissioned by The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, Stanford Live at Stanford University, and Festival Theaterformen, and was originally commissioned and co-conceived by Temple Contemporary at Temple University, USA. Original support for the production was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia.
