New Hampshire Theatre Project Seeks Contributors For New Theatrical Work

New Hampshire Theatre Project invites community members to become active participants in the creation of a new theatrical piece, currently titled We Don't Know What This Is Yet.

"We are gathering accounts, stories, and experiences from as many people as we can," says NHTP resident artist CJ Lewis.

There are a number of other community resources gathering personal accounts about the COVID-19 pandemic experience. NHTP considers their unique interview process and approach to collecting stories part of the public service aspect of theatre.

"We're all living in uncertainty right now," adds Lewis, "and that unknown place is very familiar to artists and theatre-makers. It's where discovery happens. So we're hoping to bear witness for folks, while also looking for places of emotional tension that we can eventually transform into community catharsis."

"Docudrama is an emerging field in the United States and more widely used in film and television," says NHTP founder and executive director Genevieve Aichele. "Docudrama adheres to historical facts and actual real-life experiences but we use a degree of dramatic license in peripheral details. The dialogue is created from the actual words of real-life people."

New Hampshire Theatre Project is well-known for two popular docudramas that were created with similar techniques to the process that will be used for We Don't Know What This Is Yet. In 2001 the play Neighborhoods, which told the story of urban renewal in Portsmouth based on interviews with long-time Portsmouth residents, premiered at The Music Hall and toured around the city with a cast of 40 individuals from ages 6 to 86. Dreaming Again, commissioned by New Hampshire Humanities, told the story of over 40 refugees and immigrants to New Hampshire, and toured to 19 different communities throughout the state. Aichele, who won a 2001 Spotlight Awards for Community Arts, adds: "To me, the most poignant and amazing aspect of these docudramas is that each person tells a story with very different experiences and perceptions, and yet the heart of each story is essentially the same from person to person, age to age, culture to culture. They are living breathing testaments to our shared human experience."

NHTP is encouraging anyone who wants to participate in the creation of We Don't Know What This Is Yet to visit NHTP's website and sign up for an interview with an NHTP artist.

In order to stay up to date with developments in the creation of We Don't Know What This Is Yet follow, link, and subscribe to New Hampshire Theatre Project on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with @nhtheatreproject.

For more information about New Hampshire Theatre Project, and how to support the company during the Covid-19 Global Pandemic, visit nhtheatreproject.org.