Arts Activities Support

18 actors, 5 currently homeless and 9 formerly homeless, performed in a high profile, well executed performance which altered the perspectives of our community. 1310 audience members attended the production and judging by post show response, a significant number of them were moved to think about homelessness differently and take action. zAmya Theater articulated the following goals for our performance of Home Street Home Minneapolis at the Dowling Studio in September: a script re-visioning period incorporating new interviews with downtown stakeholders, new information about development in Downtown Minneapolis and new stories from actors currently homeless; a rehearsal period to blend in new material and sharpen existing scenes and songs; a team of professional design artists to create set, sound and lighting for the production; the addition of live musical accompaniment. All of these goals were accomplished with the support from MRAC and other sources of income. We added 6 new cast members recruited from our workshops at the Salvation Army and Youthlink Shelter in Downtown Minneapolis. We updated content around the Vikings Stadium scene, affordable housing, accomplishments in ending homelessness in Minnesota and other areas on which we'd received input from downtown stakeholders. We had a team of design professionals who did outstanding work in lighting, sound, costume and set design bringing a real professional look to the production which was one of our goals. We had a keyboardist who added music including a show stopping church hymn. The cast rehearsed all summer long and by the time we performed we felt we were presenting our best possible work. The response was outstanding. We are so pleased and grateful for the support. It was a challenge to work in new material and to work with the professional design team as we'd not done that before. There were moments when we wondered if we'd taken on too much given our resources. It was more work than anticipated to adjust the show to accommodate that number of new characters and bodies on stage. However, in the end it all paid off in the gorgeous final product. The new cast members who are currently staying in shelters downtown added authenticity as well as a level of joy that can only come from performers on stage for the first time. The new set design enabled a thrust configuration which worked so well for the intimate nature of the show and also helped incorporate a new concept of everything being under construction. We had 1310 people attend the production (with total available capacity at 1365, that’s 96%!!). As articulated in the proposal we had a mix of downtown stakeholders, people experiencing homelessness and Guthrie subscribers. The Guthrie offered 120 outreach tickets for people experiencing homelessness and Saint Stephen's employed an outreach person to advertise these tickets, take reservations and hand them out in the lobby. We know that 100 of these tickets were used by folks currently in shelter and transitional housing. We were able to offer $10 transportation cards to help facilitate access. We distributed 80 of these cards. ASL and AD was offered and space reserved nightly for people with access needs. For the actors we provided meals before every show and epic levels of transportation support. We created and filled the role of "backstage support" for an actor with special needs and an actor who is blind. Audience discussions were held nightly and from the responses we know we had the impact we were seeking. We had a board where people could answer the question "What does your heart in action look/feel like?" and we received many suggestions large and small for ways our community can help end homelessness.