Praxis Theatre

Project: Humanity @ Passe Muraille: Reflection, expression, discussion

A scene from The Middle Place: Kevin Walker and company

By Catherine Murray

With every one of our initiatives or creations, Project: Humanity (P:H) has endeavoured to expand awareness of local and global human issues using the arts.  We’ve aspired to works that can serve as reflecting pools – allowing audiences to see themselves a bit more clearly, a bit more as part of a community.  Our documentary-style play The Middle Place by Andrew Kushnir is currently playing at Theatre Passe Muraille and looks to broaden audiences’ perspective on homelessness and further introduce them to our company’s socially-minded aesthetic.

This current incarnation of the piece has been three years in the making.  In 2007, we invited Andrew to join us in the youth shelter system, where Project: Humanity had started to provide day-programming in the form of drama/improv workshops.  Andrew had felt compelled to do one-on-one interviews with some of the youth living there and hoped to create a piece of verbatim theatre employing their words (something he had never done before as a playwright).

Company member Akosua Amo-Adem

The members of P:H had all been affected by the shelter populace in much the same way – these at-risk youth had us seeing anyone and everyone’s proximity to homelessness.  As one caseworker told Andrew: “Sometimes it just takes one event…one thing that does or doesn’t happen to you, that decides whether you’re on this side or that side.”  Our work with them had us shedding our preconceived notions of what a homeless youth was and Andrew wanted to build a play that would replicate that experience for the uninitiated while validating the community-of-origin.

Not only did the shelter administration go for it (they had a long-standing interest in raising awareness about youth homelessness to the greater community) but much of the youth population embraced the opportunity to anonymously relay their experience.  It was explained to them that their real names would never be known and actors would communicate their words to an audience.  And this ensured anonymity coupled with the trust we had built up through our drama programming factored heavily in the intense candour we encounter in the play.

The voices in The Middle Place do humanize a stigmatized group in our community – but P:H wanted to advance that experience.  For our current run at Theatre Passe Muraille, we’ve created an installation around the play called the Urban Youth Experience (the UYE). The UYE includes a number of physical installations such as art created by homeless youth through our partnership with SKETCH as well as a shelter photo installation by photographer Shaun Benson.  We’ve programmed numerous post-show events including talkbacks with shelter caseworkers – kicked off at last week’s benefit performance for Youth Without Shelter.  We’ve partnered with researchers at University of Toronto OISE who are offering audience members a chance to turn the camera on themselves and participate in a post-show interview to share their (verbatim) response to the play.  Our goal has been to expand the traditional theatre setting into a community setting that encourages reflection, expression, and discussion.

One of the things we’re most proud of us is P:H’s free City Resource Guide.  Each and every audience member can walk from the show with a guide we created listing numerous organizations that provide assistance to youth in need, as well as organizations that offer the general public a way to get involved and help.

Check out these links to learn more about the Urban Youth Experience and Project: Humanity. The Middle Place runs at Theatre Passe Muraille until November 13th and has shows Thursday – Saturday at 7:30pm, with 2:00pm matinees on Saturdays.  A special “Suitcase Showcase” performance has been added for November 22, at 7pm.

Catherine Murray is a co-founder and Program Director of Project: Humanity. A graduate of the BFA Dance program at Ryerson University, Catherine has been doing arts facilitation within the youth shelter system for over 3 years.