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Trailblazers, Champions, and Change Makers
Who is someone you admire, living or dead, who has shown great courage, inspired change, and made the world a better place? This is I the question I have posed to the 16 actors participating in this devised, environmentally staged, and interactive theatre piece, which is the project that I am currently directing to be presented at the Tow Center for Performing Arts in Brooklyn, NY. Each member of the ensemble will develop and play the role of a trailblazer, champion, or change maker of their own choosing. I am engaging the ensemble in the development of a sort of human archive through which spectators will be guided through space and time to encounter leaders, activists, humanitarians, and iconoclasts like Shirley Chisholm, Marvin Gaye, Audrey Hepburn, Harvey Milk, Violeta Parra, Denise Oliver-Vélez, and more. Each audience member will meet, hear from, and interact with each trailblazer, champion, and change maker. Together, the creative team seeks to understand and illuminate how change makers define and exercise agency, leadership, and resistance and how they acquire, deploy, and disrupt power to effect social change.