Headwaters Theater
Fall 2014
& Peninsula Oddfellows Lodge
Winter 2016
Fall 2014
& Peninsula Oddfellows Lodge
Winter 2016
This Portland-based performance about disaster preparedness and community medical resources received a Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant for its development and first production in 2014, and a Pollination Project Seed Grant for its second run in 2016. The original script was created in collaboration with the Rosehip Medic Collective, a local community health collective researching alternative emergency medical systems developed in communities lacking access to care. First-person narratives form the basis for this devised performance, a collaboration between playwrights, community artists, and health and education advisers from the Rosehip Collective and other parts of the healthcare system. The 2014 and 2016 runs played to sold out houses. The 2016 run also included a series of discussions with local disaster and community health experts addressing practical questions about health access, health equity and disaster resilience.
The performance uses the fictional setting of a disaster - the predicted major earthquake in the Portland area - to create a setting where emergency medical infrastructure has failed. The aftermath of the disaster emphasizes systemic inequalities in access to care and support, and the story highlights the experiences of marginalized individuals. In the post-disaster absence of a functional emergency medical system, performers and audience must build alternative methods of medical care and community disaster response. In an area certain to experience a major earthquake in the near future, and where many residents live without access to healthcare due to financial inaccessibility, homelessness, and prejudices within the healthcare system, this project combines the pedagogical possibilities of theater with the health education work already active within the community, creating new visions for the future of community-based care.
The performance uses the fictional setting of a disaster - the predicted major earthquake in the Portland area - to create a setting where emergency medical infrastructure has failed. The aftermath of the disaster emphasizes systemic inequalities in access to care and support, and the story highlights the experiences of marginalized individuals. In the post-disaster absence of a functional emergency medical system, performers and audience must build alternative methods of medical care and community disaster response. In an area certain to experience a major earthquake in the near future, and where many residents live without access to healthcare due to financial inaccessibility, homelessness, and prejudices within the healthcare system, this project combines the pedagogical possibilities of theater with the health education work already active within the community, creating new visions for the future of community-based care.
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