10 Socially Engaged Art Practitioners to Know: 8. Sojourn Theatre

Sojourn Theatre

Sojourn Theatre, founded in 1999, is an award-winning ensemble theatre company comprised of 15 artists who live in 8 cities and make performance together around the nation. National/international touring, a body of 25 works, and a reputation for consistent innovation as artists and engagement practitioners has led to: a 2005 Ford Foundation/Americans for the Arts Exemplar Award; being featured regularly at conferences and universities nationwide as a “best practice model” for arts-based civic dialogue; being featured in recent articles in American Theater Magazine and Yale’s Theater Journal; partnerships with non-arts sector organizations such as city and state legislative bodies, social service agencies and cross-disciplinary arts centers around the country. Current projects include a national initiative in multiple US Cities with Catholic Charities USA poverty reduction sites; adapting our project BUILT with Planning Commissions around the country as a tool for Public Engagement; Islands of Milwaukee, a multi-year collaboration engaging public health, public transit and care services for homebound seniors around performance-making and public dialogue culminating in an interactive exhibit at City Hall in Fall 2014; How To End Poverty in 90 Minutes, a devised and participatory performance model for community engagement being staged (so far) in Chicago, Louisiana and Washington, DC. The company is led by founding artistic director Michael Rohd who devises, directs  and collaborates on cross-sector projects around the nation, is on faculty at Northwestern University, wrote the widely translated book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue, and leads the Center for Performance and Civic Practice.

(Source: Sojourn Theatre: Company)

Photo courtesy Sojourn Theatre

NEXT–> 10 Socially Engaged Art Practitioners to Know: 9. Ping Chong + Company NEXT–>

BACK<—10 Socially Engaged Art Practitioners to Know: 7. Paul Chan BACK <–