zAmya Zone is the latest work in progress by zAmya Theater Project — who use community based theater tools to build awareness and connection between individuals who've experienced homelessness and those who have not. Join us in the Nicollet Theater in the Round Ampitheater for the public, weather permitting. If it is cold we'll move indoors to the The Commons off the library Atrium.

zAmya Zone is by Junauda Petrus - Nasah, and is inspired by content generated in Creative Expression Sessions at Hennepin County/Minneapolis Central Library. zAmya Zone borrows it's name from the popular TV series the Twilight Zone and explores the surreal and strange nature of an abundant world that is somehow not enough.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension—a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind, a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. In this dimension we are on beautiful earth, with abundant food and shelter for all. Yet, in this dimension, there exists the world of homelessness, displacement and poverty. A dimension where your class, your mental and physical health, your race, your ancestry could result in you not having a home, safety or care. Redlining and angry mobs, broken treaties with sovereign nations, settled land and enslavement, genocide and gentrification are apart of this legacy too. 

You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of privilege and poverty, between haves and have nots, of shelters and high-rise condos. It is an area which we call the Zamya Zone.

zAmya will perform its summer tour production A Prairie Homeless Companion at the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless 2019 Annual Conference on Sept. 18th at 5pm at the Mayo Civic Center Atrium in Rochester.

Live Music! Bad Jokes! Real Stories! A long running, outdated radio show produced in the city and about rural Minnesota comes to town and the actors find a very different reality than the community they’ve been spoofing. Residents of the town take over the show and tell more realistic stories. A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION is both humorous satire and a serious look at housing instability in Southwest Minnesota.  

Partnership Art, a program of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, sponsored zAmya Theater Project from Minneapolis and Placebase Productions from Granite Falls to create A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION. Story circles were held in four Southwest MN Communities: Willmar, Marshall, Hutchinson, and Worthington. Playwright Josef Evans created the script which was recently shared in staged readings throughout SW Minnesota with feedback from the readings used for further development. Now the project is ready to be shared in full form with each community. 

“It’s a spoof of Prairie Home Companion but also a spoof of urban artists trying to present a mythical, stereotypical version of what they think rural America might be. We have fun with that idea in a way I think audiences can really laugh at and enjoy!” — Josef Evans

This activity is funded in part with a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council made possible by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Live Music! Bad Jokes! Real Stories! A long running, outdated radio show produced in the city and about rural Minnesota comes to town and the actors find a very different reality than the community they’ve been spoofing. Residents of the town take over the show and tell more realistic stories. A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION is both humorous satire and a serious look at housing instability in Southwest Minnesota.  

Partnership Art, a program of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, sponsored zAmya Theater Project from Minneapolis and Placebase Productions from Granite Falls to create A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION. Story circles were held in four Southwest MN Communities: Willmar, Marshall, Hutchinson, and Worthington. Playwright Josef Evans created the script which was recently shared in staged readings throughout SW Minnesota with feedback from the readings used for further development. Now the project is ready to be shared in full form with each community. 

“It’s a spoof of Prairie Home Companion but also a spoof of urban artists trying to present a mythical, stereotypical version of what they think rural America might be. We have fun with that idea in a way I think audiences can really laugh at and enjoy!” — Josef Evans

This activity is funded in part with a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council made possible by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Live Music! Bad Jokes! Real Stories! A long running, outdated radio show produced in the city and about rural Minnesota comes to town and the actors find a very different reality than the community they’ve been spoofing. Residents of the town take over the show and tell more realistic stories. A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION is both humorous satire and a serious look at housing instability in Southwest Minnesota.  

Partnership Art, a program of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, sponsored zAmya Theater Project from Minneapolis and Placebase Productions from Granite Falls to create A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION. Story circles were held in four Southwest MN Communities: Willmar, Marshall, Hutchinson, and Worthington. Playwright Josef Evans created the script which was recently shared in staged readings throughout SW Minnesota with feedback from the readings used for further development. Now the project is ready to be shared in full form with each community. 

“It’s a spoof of Prairie Home Companion but also a spoof of urban artists trying to present a mythical, stereotypical version of what they think rural America might be. We have fun with that idea in a way I think audiences can really laugh at and enjoy!” — Josef Evans

This activity is funded in part with a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council made possible by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Live Music! Bad Jokes! Real Stories! A long running, outdated radio show produced in the city and about rural Minnesota comes to town and the actors find a very different reality than the community they’ve been spoofing. Residents of the town take over the show and tell more realistic stories. A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION is both humorous satire and a serious look at housing instability in Southwest Minnesota.  

Partnership Art, a program of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, sponsored zAmya Theater Project from Minneapolis and Placebase Productions from Granite Falls to create A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION. Story circles were held in four Southwest MN Communities: Willmar, Marshall, Hutchinson, and Worthington. Playwright Josef Evans created the script which was recently shared in staged readings throughout SW Minnesota with feedback from the readings used for further development. Now the project is ready to be shared in full form with each community. 

“It’s a spoof of Prairie Home Companion but also a spoof of urban artists trying to present a mythical, stereotypical version of what they think rural America might be. We have fun with that idea in a way I think audiences can really laugh at and enjoy!” — Josef Evans

This activity is funded in part with a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council made possible by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Live Music! Bad Jokes! Real Stories! A long running, outdated radio show produced in the city and about rural Minnesota comes to town and the actors find a very different reality than the community they’ve been spoofing. Residents of the town take over the show and tell more realistic stories. A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION is both humorous satire and a serious look at housing instability in Southwest Minnesota.  

Partnership Art, a program of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, sponsored zAmya Theater Project from Minneapolis and Placebase Productions from Granite Falls to create A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION. Story circles were held in four Southwest MN Communities: Willmar, Marshall, Hutchinson, and Worthington. Playwright Josef Evans created the script which was recently shared in staged readings throughout SW Minnesota with feedback from the readings used for further development. Now the project is ready to be shared in full form with each community. 

“It’s a spoof of Prairie Home Companion but also a spoof of urban artists trying to present a mythical, stereotypical version of what they think rural America might be. We have fun with that idea in a way I think audiences can really laugh at and enjoy!” — Josef Evans

This activity is funded in part with a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council made possible by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

See a PREVIEW run through of A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION in Minneapolis before we take it on the road to SW Minnesota!

Live Music! Bad Jokes! Real Stories! A long running, outdated radio show produced in the city and about rural Minnesota comes to town and the actors find a very different reality than the community they’ve been spoofing. Residents of the town take over the show and tell more realistic stories. A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION is both humorous satire and a serious look at housing instability in Southwest Minnesota.  

Partnership Art, a program of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, sponsored zAmya Theater Project from Minneapolis and Placebase Productions from Granite Falls to create A PRAIRIE HOMELESS COMPANION. Story circles were held in four Southwest MN Communities: Willmar, Marshall, Hutchinson, and Worthington. Playwright Josef Evans created the script which was recently shared in staged readings throughout SW Minnesota with feedback from the readings used for further development. Now the project is ready to be shared in full form with each community. 

“It’s a spoof of Prairie Home Companion but also a spoof of urban artists trying to present a mythical, stereotypical version of what they think rural America might be. We have fun with that idea in a way I think audiences can really laugh at and enjoy!” — Josef Evans

This activity is funded in part with a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council made possible by the voters of Minnesota, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Please join us for a script reading of "A Prairie Homeless Companion" - a traveling, live radio show satirizing MPR's Prairie Home Companion. Live music! Bad jokes! Real Stories! Experience an entertaining and poignant look at homelessness and housing instability in Southwest Minnesota.

Free and open to the public! We need your feedback!
*Please bring a bag lunch for the reading and join the conversation!

A Prairie Homeless Companion project is a partnership between PlaceBase Productions. ZAMYA Theater Project and Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership with support from ArtPlaceAmerica, Southwest Minnesota Continuum of Care, and Minnesota Housing.

Help us generate ideas and create the story for our upcoming production of STORIES FROM THE BOOK OF HARBOR LIGHT. All are welcome!

Help us generate ideas and create the story for our upcoming production of STORIES FROM THE BOOK OF HARBOR LIGHT. All are welcome!

Help us generate ideas and create the story for our upcoming production of STORIES FROM THE BOOK OF HARBOR LIGHT. All are welcome!

Help us generate ideas and create the story for our upcoming production of STORIES FROM THE BOOK OF HARBOR LIGHT. All are welcome!

Help us generate ideas and create the story for our upcoming production of STORIES FROM THE BOOK OF HARBOR LIGHT. All are welcome!