A theatrical dialogue on healthcare and homelessness
Two amazing events in May
Locked In is a collaboration and performance piece about systemic bias in healthcare against people who are unhoused.
We’ve performed it five times in the Twin Cities and once in Chicago at the national Theater of the Oppressed conference. Through these performances, we have deepened our capacity to use Locked In as a vehicle to facilitate meaningful conversations and relationship-building that catalyze social change in our health system.
We now seek to deepen our collaborative work by growing our community of storytellers. We believe that such growth will expand the stories told, the possible solutions imagined, and the communal power to bring about social change in our community.
May artist residency with Adrian Jackson
Renowned theatrical director Adrian Jackson (founder of Cardboard Citizens in London) is traveling to Minnesota for a one-month artist residency in May. As part of this residency, we will:
Offer a three-day training workshop on Forum and Legislative Theater
Create a new performance utilizing content from the training
Debut the new piece in the Twin Cities and (pending funding) at the national Theater of the Oppressed conference in Florida in June
Sign up today!
These events are designed for anyone interested in the connection between health, care and homelessness. E.g., care-givers, mutual aid workers, harm reduction specialists, street cooks, activists, healthcare providers, and neighbors - both unhoused and housed.
Age recommendation: All ages are allowed at the discretion of their parents, but recommended for ages 13+. There will be some swearing and reference to drug use, and potentially references to sexual violence and other intense subject matter.
May 3 - 5 : Forum and Legislative Theater Training
A three-day training led by Adrian Jackson. We’ll use exercises and games designed to elicit stories, information and ideas that help us analyze and interrupt harm that our current systems of healthcare and housing reproduce. The workshop is suitable for all ages and levels of experience.
Who has the power? How do we shift it? Have fun while we imagine breaking free from the current unjust conditions.
Register for the workshop HERE; more details below.
May 28 : Locked In: Care-fully Breaking Free
*with ASL interpretation*
Based on content developed during the training at the top of the month, we’ll present a new, 25-minute, Forum Theater play that investigates systems of care both inside and outside the systems of public health and housing. This event is designed to offer an interactive and healing space for community members and policy makers to work across ideological divides and engage in transformative change through generating solutions.
Register for the performance HERE; more details below.
Key details
May 3 - 5 :
Forum and Legislative Theater Training
Schedule
Friday, May 3rd l 6-9pm
Saturday, May 4th l 10:30am-6pm
Sunday, May 5th l 3-8pm
Doors will open half hour to start time daily.
This is designed as a three-day event. We ask that folks plan on attending all three days. If you need to miss a small amount of time, we can likely make that work. Please email Artistic Director Maren Ward before you register: maren [at] zamytheater [dot] org.
Location
The training will be held at Plymouth Congregational Church: 1919 La Salle Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Friday and Saturday will be in the Jackman Room on the basement level. Sunday will be in the Conn Theater on the main level.
Cost and Registration
Registration is encouraged but not required. Walk ups will be allowed. We have room for 60 participants.
We have tiered pricing options. Pay more if you’re able, and less if you need. $0 - no one turned away; $50 - general admission; $150 - pay it forward.
***Tickets are going FAST***
If we sell out in advance online, here’s the plan: we’re holding 5 spots for walk ups on the first day. Come to the venue at 5:30pm and try to get one of those, and/or join a waiting list. We’ll start releasing reserved tickets to the waiting list at the 6pm start time if ticket owners haven’t claimed them yet.
Questions about tickets? Contact zAmya’s Operations Manager, Deb, at: deb [at] zamyatheater [dot] org
Transportation and Parking
The church has a large parking lot, is located at the intersection of Franklin and Nicollet, and is easily accessible by Bus Routes #2, 17, and 18. Enter the building through the front door facing La Salle, under the Black Lives Matter banner.
Hospitality
Each day, we’ll provide something to help sustain you. Friday, we’ll offer coffee and a snack. Saturday, a lunch. And Sunday, dinner (details tbd).
What to wear/bring
Participants are advised to wear clothes they can move around in, but no feats of Olympic activity will be required. You may want to bring a water bottle, and a journal for taking notes.
Lived experience support
To support people bringing the lived experience of homelessness, we offer: $10 Target gift cards each day; $50 Visa gift cards for attending all three days; Bus tokens; Assistance signing up. Contact our Company Manager, Esther, at: 612.760.4808.
Gift cards and tokens will be given away while supplies last, at end of day.
Accessibility
If you have accessibility questions or needs, please let us know and we will do our best to assist you. Contact zAmya’s Company Manager, Esther, at: esther [at] zamyatheater [dot] org / 612.760.4804
May 28 :
Locked In: Care-fully Breaking Free
Schedule:
Tuesday, May 28th
6:00 - 8:00pm
Doors will open at 5:30pm
Location
The performance will be held at Plymouth Congregational Church in the Conn Theater.
1919 La Salle Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Cost and Registration
Registration is encouraged but not required. Walk ups will be allowed.
We have tiered pricing options to make this training accessible. Pay more if you’re able, and less if you need.
$0 - lived experience, care providers, mutual activists, harm reduction specialists
$10 - discount
$20 - general admission
Questions about tickets? Contact zAmya’s Operations Manager, Deb, at: deb [at] zamyatheater [dot] org.
Transportation and Parking
The church has a large parking lot with plenty of free space.
It is also located at the intersection of Franklin and Nicollet, which is easily accessible by Bus Routes #2, 17, and 18.
However you arrive, enter the building through the front door under the Black Lives Matter banner on the side of the building facing La Salle.
Lived experience support
To thank and support people who are bringing the lived experience of homelessness, we offer $10 Target gift cards after the show (while supplies last).
Accessibility
If you have accessibility questions or needs, please let us know and we will do our best to assist you. Contact zAmya’s Company Manager, Esther, at: esther [at] zamyatheater [dot] org / 612.760.4804
More information
About Adrian Jackson
Adrian Jackson MBE is a theatre-maker, activist, translator and teacher, with a particular expertise in the Theatre of the Oppressed. He translated five books by Augusto Boal into English and collaborated with him on many occasions in the 1990s and 2000s. He was also the founder director of a distinguished UK based theatre company, Cardboard Citizens, which made work with homeless people for over 30 years, touring Forum Theatre widely in the UK and abroad, and collaborating with organizations as diverse as the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shelter.
He stepped down from that organization in 2021, starting a new formation, The School of Theatre of the Oppressed (STOP) and working on other theatre projects - notable recent projects include a large-scale musical for Coventry City of Culture and a version of King Lear for Auckland Festival in Aotearoa/NZ. His feature length film, Here For Life, won a special mention at Locarno Film Festival.
More about the Forum and Legislative Theater training
This workshop is a practical introduction to making Forum and Legislative Theatre. This incredibly versatile theatre technique is probably the most used element of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, deployed across the world in a wide variety of circumstances where groups are interested in using theatre to better understand their worlds and to challenge oppression where they meet it.
Over the three days of the workshop, participants will learn a variety of games and exercises to generate confidence and trust within groups, at the same time as mining ideas and experiences which can form the basis of Forum Theatre plays. Some basic ‘models’ of Forum Theatre pieces will be created, as well as reference being made to existing plays and the ways they have been used. Participants will also get to see examples of Forum Theatre in practice.
This workshop is particularly aimed at those with an interest with and/or experience of housing justice, but will be of value to anyone interested in using theatre for change. Whether or not participants go on to make full-scale Forum Theatre pieces with groups, free-standing techniques such as Image Theatre will provide a powerful resource for opening up important and difficult conversations within groups and societies, at a time when polarization is in danger of locking down debate.
Context: Homelessness is a Public Health Issue
Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute recently published a report stating that those experiencing homelessness in Minnesota have a mortality rate 3 times greater than the general population in Minnesota. Meanwhile an alternative system of care is emerging amongst our unsheltered population and those that support it through mutual aid and harm reduction efforts. Local encampments have reported success in keeping residents connected with services and a community that knows how to respond to the particular health threats facing unsheltered homeless and those living with substance use disorder. Conversely, the City of Minneapolis has voiced concerns about needles, trafficking and dangerous fire safety conditions.
This debate extends to a national level. This project is happening while the Supreme Court of the United States will be deciding if it's cruel and unusual punishment to keep people from sleeping outside when they are homeless in the case of Johnson vs Grants Pass.
zAmya and CAR seek to analyze and INTERRUPT the HARM that our current systems of healthcare and housing reproduce. We ask How do we redress the harm? Who has the power? How do we shift it? ….And have fun while we imagine breaking free from the current unjust conditions.