During the darkest months of the pandemic, human contact was limited.
We couldn’t interact with friends and family or make small talk with strangers.
The New York-based experimental theater troupe 600 Highwaymen was inspired to counteract the loneliness and keep us connected. “A Thousand Ways” was born, and it turned conversations and interactions between strangers into an unexpectedly magical form of theater.
“We were aware of Zoom theater performances and things happening online,” said Michael Silverstone, who founded the troupe with his wife, Abigail Browde. “In the beginning it was very exciting, but quickly, even as spectators, we got bored by the format because it felt as if that liveness of why we all go to performances and concerts and sporting games was missing.”
The three-part show will open Friday at Ent Center for the Arts and run through Sept. 3.
“Part One: A Phone Call” runs Friday through Sunday. “Part Two: An Encounter,” runs Aug. 27-29; and “Part Three: An Assembly” runs Aug. 25-Sept. 3. You can do one or all parts, and each part can stand alone. Reservations are necessary. Go online to entcenterforthearts.org/vapa/events/a-thousand-ways.
The first part, which debuted in October, doesn’t even require a trip to the theater. Once you buy a ticket, you’ll be given a phone number and a time to call. On the call, you’ll be met by another audience member — a stranger — and a recorded voice that will guide the two of you through a conversation. The hourlong experience creates a sort of story.
“You don’t find out who this person is,” Silverstone said. “You don’t know their name or how old they are, what they do for a living, if they’re married or have kids, but you get a deeper portrait of what this person is. You get a sense of their memories and where they are and what’s in their space. You hear them talk about their past and ancestry. By the end of the call people always say I didn’t want to get off, or they say I felt like I knew this person.”
“Part Two: An Encounter” was developed later in the pandemic, as people began to gather again, though at a distance. This piece will require your attendance at the theater, where once again you’ll interact with another audience member, a stranger. The two people will sit across from each other at a table, separated by a pane of glass to stay safe. Each person will read from a stack of cards on the table, yet again creating a story in the process.
“Part Three: An Assembly” is a bit of a mystery. The couple will bring a rough idea to students at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and workshop the third part into a performance-ready piece. They’ve done this type of work in the past with UCCS students and Kevin Landis, a professor and director of the Theatre and Dance Program in the UCCS Department of Visual and Performing Arts, when they created “The Fever,” another experimental theater piece.
“As a theater person I’m always analyzing theater too much,” said Landis, who has experienced the first two parts of the show. “But one thing that always moves me is when I experience something that stops me analyzing and I just feel. With these two pieces, that happened. For moments I stopped thinking and connected with the person on the line or behind the plexiglass. Pandemic aside, to create something so intimate and powerful in a digital age was revelatory to me.”
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This content was originally published here.
