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Providing a platform for communities to tell their real stories on stage.
There is a cultural deficit in this country. When the civil liberties of historically underrepresented groups continue to face serious threat and our nation is stalled in an ever-polarizing inability to engage in productive dialogue, we artists and cultural workers must engage communities to which we might not normally find ourselves in proximity, to excavate the barriers standing between us, to address community concerns with artistic ferocity, with bold questions and daring choices, and to provoke audiences with questions (old and new) about who is given access to our nation’s promise of opportunity and who is being systematically shut out.
By collaborating with communities across the nation to tell their real stories on stage, Notch engages folks that our brick and mortar theaters are not reaching, personalizes important social issues for people on all sides of a conversation, raises awareness in a compelling way, drives change on a national scale, and prompts meaningful, lasting engagement at a grass-roots level. Theater is able to connect with an audience in a deeply personal way, and we strive to push the boundaries of what that connection can achieve. |
THERE IS NO GREATER AGONY THAN BEARING AN UNTOLD STORY INSIDE YOU."
- Maya Angelou
current projects.
click here for a calendar of events
Remember2019
Notch joins Mauricio Salgado, Arielle Julia Brown and Carlos Sirah along with community partners The Delta Cultural Center, The Elaine Legacy Center, and the Boys, Girls, and Adults Community Development Center for Remember2019.
Remember2019 is an effort to make space for the congregation of the Black communities of the Arkansas Delta. Our work is to support and facilitate local practices of self-determination, memory, and reflection, that are directly related to the mass lynching of 1919, the lasting effects of racial terror, and the current and future health of these communities. Remember2019 was awarded a prestigious MAP Fund grant, profiled by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, invited to speak at NPN's annual conference, USDAC's Citizen Artist Salon and at the Children’s Defense Fund & Samuel Dewitt Proctor Institute. |
Anna Karenina
Love, lust and Russian ennui abound in this female-driven, musical riff on the classic novel. Kitty, Dolly, Anna and our fierce playwright, Gwen Kingston, wrestle a centuries old cultural narrative away from Tolstoy and reshape it through a contemporary female lens. With heart, humor, and original music, our Anna Karenina examines the potency of female choice, both in 19th century Russia and today.
This new play was first workshopped in spring of 2018 in Mineral Wells, Texas. A second draft was presented at the White Heron Theatre on Nantucket in fall 2018. Then on June 27th 2019 the play joined HB Studio's Others & Us reading series in honor of Uta Hagen. The play is currently in production at The Flea Theater in New York City, opening November 23rd, 2019. Tickets available in October. |
FIT
FIT, conceived by Marina Morrissey and written by Gwen Kingston, follows the story of Carrie Buck who in 1927 was the test case for a Supreme Court ruling allowing the forcible sterilization of women deemed “feeble-minded.” A ruling that has never been overturned. In a contemporary storyline, Don and June, who have Down Syndrome, want to have a baby. June’s mother is taking her to court because she believes her daughter isn’t equipped to raise a child. She is not “FIT.” FIT was developed in partnership with members of the Intellectual Disability Community, their care takers, the people who love them, and the organizations that serve them. FIT premiered at White Heron Theatre on Nantucket, was presented at La Mama Studios in NYC, and with Trinity Rep (in collaboration with Spectrum Ensemble) in Providence, RI. Read N Magazine's article on the Nantucket production.
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Wild Home
Notch is collaborating with Jessica Kahkoska as Wild Home takes an odyssey across rural America, traveling to 15 rural communities identified by The Wilderness Society as under tremendous threat for oil, gas, and mineral extraction on public lands.
In each community, we develop a series of plays- through public storytelling events- to be performed by community and professional actors in outdoor, wilderness spaces. The program launched its first full engagement in April in the North Fork of the Gunnison region of Colorado. The program was awarded a creative residency in Montana with the Taft-Nicholson Center, a Travel Grant from Network of Ensemble Theaters and was recently featured on HowlRound. |
thank you to our supporters.
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- Drew McCoy & Amy Aquino - - Jon Neustadter - - Bill & Chloe Cornell - - Jennifer & Matthew Rowland - - Byron Gross & Ricky Tovim - - Jody Wagner - - Colin Walker - - Mary Vascellaro - - Darin Anthony - - Sandy Mailliard to honor Gwen Kingston - - Bob & Toni Teague - - Sabrina Sikes Thornton - - Brown University/Trinity MFA Program - - Look What She Did! - - Enfamilia Inc. - - JKW Foundation - - Jake Loewenthal & the Common Sense Fund - |
© Notch Theatre Co. 2018
