600 HIGHWAYMEN (USA):
A THOUSAND WAYS
PART ONE: A PHONE CALL
A UNIQUE TELEPHONE ENCOUNTER
Fri 28 & Sat 29 May 2021
FULLY BOOKED - email boxoffice@takemesomewhere.co.uk to join the waiting list
ACCESS: This is an audio work with no visuals.
“Achieves more goals of theater — telling stories, triggering imagination, nurturing empathy, fostering connection — than nearly any other show I have experienced since pre-pandemic days.”
On a simple phone call, you and another audience member – nameless strangers to one another – follow a carefully crafted set of directives. Over the course of the journey, a portrait of each other emerges through fleeting moments of exposure and the simple sound of an unseen voice.
A phone number and clear instructions will be sent to participants by email.
“The term “experimental” tends to signal an ambition to flaunt difficulty and occlude meaning, but 600 Highwaymen’s experiments with theatrical form are distinctly generous. That is the case with “A Thousand Ways,” which takes a simple premise and turns it into magic.”
Since 2009, 600 HIGHWAYMEN (Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone) have been making live art that, through a variety of radical approaches, illuminates the inherent poignancy of people coming together. The work exists at the intersection of theater, dance, contemporary performance, and civic encounter. Though the processes are varied, each project revolves around the same curiosity: what occurs in the live encounter between people.
600 HIGHWAYMEN have been called the “the standard-bearers of contemporary theater-making” by Le Monde, and “one of New York’s best nontraditional theater companies” by The New Yorker. They have received commissions from The Public Theater, Temple Contemporary, Salzburg Festival, and Festival Theaterformen. They are recipients of an Obie Award and Switzerland’s ZKB Patronage Prize, and nominees for Austria’s Nestroy Prize, the prestigious Alpert Award and NYC’s Bessie Award. In 2016, Browde and Silverstone were named artist fellows by the New York Foundation for the Arts.
“Never before have I felt so closely intimate to a person just through the sound of their voice.”
“It was clever and innovative while being deeply thoughtful and personal. At a time when we are disconnected and isolated, the feeling of connection was profound.”
“WOW. What a unique, touching, and deeply intimate experience. I found myself moved in ways I could not have anticipated.”
”My heart is full. This is the art we need right now.”
Written & Created by Abigail Browde & Michael Silverstone
Executive Producer: Thomas O. Kriegsmann / ArKtype
Line Producer: Cynthia J. Tong
Dramaturg & Project Design: Andrew Kircher
Part One: A Phone Call Sound Design: Stanley Mathabane
This production was commissioned by The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, Stanford Live at Stanford University, Festival Theaterformen, and The Public Theater, and was originally commissioned and co-conceived by Temple Contemporary at Temple University. Part One: A Phone Call was developed in partnership with On the Boards production and technical teams. Original support for the production was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia.