ArteFuturo Productions, The Ashe Cultural Center &

The UNO Downtown Theater Present

The MediAmerica Multigenerational Performance Project

Event Information

This project brings together a diverse group of participants across the borders of race, class and age in a program that uses performance art as a creative strategy to comment on the effects of media on race relations, issues of identity and the mythology of the "American Dream" in a post 9/11 society.

Participants are encouraged to "tell their story" and explore the personal experience through a series of workshops conducted by performance artist/writer Jose Torres Tama. The workshops are composed of literary and theatrical components as participants develop skills in writing monologues, poems and ensemble vignettes while employing performance art techniques that include movement, conceptual activities and the creation of visual tableaus. In a spirit of collaboration, the artist provides a nurturing environment in a creative process that is inclusive and organic.

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For the past two weeks, Jose has been working with a dozen artists, writers and poets who are diverse in age and racial background, from college students in their twenties to participants in their forties and fifties. Representing the African American, Asian, Latino and general Euro American community, the group has undergone an intensive workshop process to use the "personal experience" and develop an original ensemble performance that comments on the racial divisions created by big media, gender issues and the ever-elusive search for the "American Dream". The performance texts and visual tableaus have been developed through a series of improvised theatre exercises, performance strategies using movement and story circle narratives that cultivate memories from childhood and stories of identity and gender while also developing critical analysis of segregation in New Orleans and life in the United States today. As such, a politically charged and visually engaging show is in the makings as the troupe moves into the final week of workshops towards two culminating performances called the "MediAmerica Performance Project."

Baton Rouge Multigenerational Project

Writings from Workshop Process

Funded by Alternate ROOTS

Event Information

We invite you to experience this unique collaboration in the assemblage of a performance spectacle unlike anything that has been seen in New Orleans before. This show is guaranteed to knock you into another paradigm.

MEDIAMERICA PERFORMANCE PROJECT

A provocative and politically charged multicultural ensemble performance spectacle exploring the effects of big media on race relations, gender issues and the search for the "American Dream".