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 A long running, outdated radio show produced in the city and about rural Minnesota comes to town and the actors find a very different reality than the community they’ve been spoofing.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.