Holding onto the Sky
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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Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day
Waterline Studio
Halloween Weekend 2016
& Online
Halloween Weekend 2020
Halloween Weekend 2016
& Online
Halloween Weekend 2020
Performed Halloween weekend just before the 2016 US election, this staged reading presented Tony Kushner's unapologetically political story of Berlin artist and activists surviving the rise of the Third Reich. In Agnes Eggling's Berlin apartment, Faultline performers drew parallels between the experiences of young activists and performers in Weimar Germany and this terrifying moment in United States history. Tony Kushner's unabashedly "immature" play found a new political moment on a rainy North Portland weekend.
In October 2020, we once again performed A Bright Room Called Day, this time virtually, in a very different yet eerily similar political moment. A panel of activists and historians studying white supremacist movements in the U.S. followed each act of the reading. Learn more about the performance here.
In October 2020, we once again performed A Bright Room Called Day, this time virtually, in a very different yet eerily similar political moment. A panel of activists and historians studying white supremacist movements in the U.S. followed each act of the reading. Learn more about the performance here.
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Incubation of New Work
Faultline Ensemble values, supports and nurtures new artists, performers and writers. As an ensemble, we are dedicated to the process by which underrepresented communities recognize and begin to exercise creative power. Previous experience in theater is never a prerequisite for involvement in our projects, and we work hard to welcome and involve people who have never thought of themselves as artists. We regularly train performers, designers and stage managers, and our nonhierarchical creative process is always one of trading knowledge and teaching one another how to improve our process and work.
Faultline's commitment to its artists includes support in developing their own new works, regardless of past experience in the field. This support has taken the form of scriptwriting retreats, playwriting groups, and intentional recruitment and training of new performers and designers. As an ensemble, we learn alongside one another and from one another on each project, whether we are new to theater, new to community health, or experienced in both. Our commitment to nonhierarchical collaboration is the reason our productions are unique, effective and moving.
Faultline's commitment to its artists includes support in developing their own new works, regardless of past experience in the field. This support has taken the form of scriptwriting retreats, playwriting groups, and intentional recruitment and training of new performers and designers. As an ensemble, we learn alongside one another and from one another on each project, whether we are new to theater, new to community health, or experienced in both. Our commitment to nonhierarchical collaboration is the reason our productions are unique, effective and moving.
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