UNSETTLING

THE UNSETTLING SETTLEMENT

The cast of UNSETTLING is settling in at NACL to begin a three-week residency to continue work on their timely project on the subject of migration. This band of performers and puppeteers from across the country will join with director Tracy Broyles and members of the local community to build out their intimate saga of humans on the move. Public sharings are scheduled for 6pm on June 26th and July 3rd, with a performative yard sale on the afternoon of the 26th, prior to the showing. The performance sharings are limited to audiences of 35, so reserve your place now! Reserve June 26 Reserve July 3

WHAT’S THE STORY?

UNSETTLING is an aspiration of breath, an unearthing, a recording, a reflection, and a projection—it is a continually evolving story about migration to, from, and around North America—one part listening project, one part full-length play, one part performance moving sale.

Part One: listening project—a gathering of oral histories of arrivals and departures, how we (individuals) came to be here from our ancestral homes, or came to be uprooted from them, tracing our landings and embarkations, delineating the routes of these journeys, to seek a common “rootedness” that supports and lifts all of us.

Part Two: full-length play—a devised performance incorporating puppetry, movement, and music, with minimal text, that explores the broad-stroked history of peoples' arrivals to this continent through the specific details of individual narratives. The play will feature perspectives of those arriving and of those who were already here (having arrived some time before), with vignettes detailing the stories of performers' personal her/histories. It will ask us to reflect on the causes and the impacts of these movements, and to imagine future movements that bind us closer rather than segregating and discriminating. All content will be contingent upon who participates, because I'm asking that people speak from their own experience and for their own identified communities.

Part Three: performance moving sale—an ad hoc micro-community on the move, a migratory, migrant social experiment in alternative economies and social structures, to be developed and revised in each iteration. The set up is a migratory town, that has been uprooted and is preparing for its next migration. Imagine a combination of yard sale tables, tents, and an array of essential services one would find in any self sufficient town (school, infirmary or health clinic, barber, tailor, general store…).

UNSETTLING was originally workshopped at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center National Puppetry Conference in 2019, and continues to develop with support from NACL, ENGN, and DVAA.