(Photo Courtesy of H2M)

Hosting community conversation and performance at Sisters Library

Hand2Mouth (H2M) is a theatre company devoted to creating new theatre that asks pressing questions of our region and our time. On December 17 at Sisters Public Library, the company will host a free community conversation and work in progress performance of their latest show, Psychic Utopia.

This performance explores the human impulse to seek new ways of life through experiments in group living and asks what insights these experiments provide into ways we practice community in everyday life.

H2M creates theatre by combining research with originally-created material to bring Oregon voices to the stage. H2M’s 2015 show based on Gus Van Sant’s film “My Own Private Idaho” explored early 90s Portland street youth and subcultures. Psychic Utopia focuses on the open skies and dense forests of rural Oregon and the region’s draw for the myriad groups that built intentional communities here in the last 50 years. Interviews with residents will inform the development of a script about a group of fictional characters who left their normal lives behind to create utopia. The project combines real-life details and performer-created fictions to explore the human impulse to seek greater fulfillment in western landscapes.

Psychic Utopia will be researched and performed by Hand2Mouth company members and guests led by H2M artistic director Jonathan Walters and script writing by H2M resident playwright and two time Oregon Book Award winner Andrea Stolowitz. The production is made with support from The Miller Foundation, The Templeton Foundation, and The Oregon Cultural Trust and will be shaped through engagements with communities across the state.

Hand2Mouth is no stranger to Central Oregon. In 2015, they toured their show PEP TALK to Sisters Middle School and Lakeview High School.

H2M artistic director Jonathan Walters says, “Touring to communities in Oregon, especially smaller communities, is both a joy and an artistic imperative for us. We are continually looking for new ways to include the audience’s voice and experience in our work. Sometimes that happens during the show itself, but right now we are exploring ways to have deeper conversations during the creation process. We know there are many people in Central Oregon with stories to tell about seeking community and a different life. We hope to meet them in December and bring the full production here once it’s completed.”

Community Conversation and Work in Progress Performance
WHEN: Saturday, December 17 @ 3 pm
WHERE: Sisters Public Library Meeting Room
110 N Cedar St.
Sisters, OR
FREE