Most folks heading to Uphams Corner in mid-November to catch the thought-provoking new play “River See” might be drawn toward the mirrored lobby of the Strand Theatre, but actually The Theatre Offensive (TTO) is presenting the production across Columbia Road from the Strand in the red-brick Pilgrim Congregational Church, which is well known for its social service outreach programs.
According to TTO’s Magda Spasiano, who ran the Strand Teen Programs in 2006-2007, when TTO was looking at alternative spaces at the Strand as possible venues for “River See,” she remembered the small chapel of the Pilgrim, and its intimate, religious atmosphere turned out to be “pretty perfect for the show, which itself is a prayer. The audience is processed into the space at the beginning of the performance.”
Says Pilgrim pastor Rev. John Odams: “We’re excited to be hosting ‘River See’ in our church and to be part of the current effort to really make Uphams Corner an arts destination.”
This interactive, collaborative performance is presented by TTO, which sees it as consistent with its mission “to present the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lives in art so bold it breaks through personal isolation, challenges the status quo, and builds thriving communities.”
Performances of this piece by award-winning playwright and director Sharon Bridgforth will be on Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 14 at 8 p.m., Nov. 15 at 8 p.m., and Nov. 16 at 2 p.m.
Bridgforth’s blog describes her play, which world-premiered recently in Chicago, as “a series of blues stories set on a river boat. With juking women, queers, deviants, and seers, ‘River See’ is the prayer before the first Great African American Migration (1910). Experienced through the heart of SEE, a young woman-in-training, we journey through a world where the living-the dead-the unborn/the past-the present-the future co-exist. With rowdy spirit guides and loving elders, SEE grows into her calling as the answered prayer, as she is prepared to be sent ‘to the North.’ ”
According to press material, “Bridgforth’s magical work brings people of many intersecting cultures together —queer, African-American, allied, White, Latino, et al., around the theme of migration. What are we escaping? What do we dream of building when we arrive? What hole does our departure create in the community we left? Are our homelands still within each of us?”
Bridgforth treats her script as a jazz-inspired theatrical piece, for which she has assembled an ensemble of actors, singers and dancers from around the country and for the “ase choir,” from right here in Boston. At each performance, Bridgforth will conduct the multilingual troupe in a performance specific to that very moment and to each audience. Audience members who speak a language other than English and who chose to do so are invited to translate short texts and read the passages out loud at particular times during the ritual proceedings. Other spectators may choose to join the “gesture chorus.”
“Sharon Bridgforth came to Boston three times to work with talented artists from our community in building this performance,” notes TTO’s founding artistic director, Abe Rybeck. “That’s The Theater Offensive’s ‘OUT in Your Neighborhood’ approach to developing new work. The show is about everyone who’s left out of American History. Chances are, it’s about you!”
For more information on the performances and the sliding scale, pay-what-you-can tickets, visit thetheateroffensive.org.
