Image: Michael Cavazos

Portland, Oregon USA

Photo: Michael Cavazos

Portland, Oregon USA

Photo: Michael Cavazos

Portland, Oregon USA

Photo: Michael Cavazos

Portland, Oregon USA

Photo: Michael Cavazos

show >

HOME/LAND USA

An international collaboration between Begat Theater (FR), Hand2Mouth (USA) and WaxFactory (USA)

10 temporary shelters

Presentation

Come and travel through a live performance installation to question our relationship to home, comfort, and safety.

 

HOME/LAND is an immersive journey along the paths of personal and collective memories. Within a context of critical instability, when displacement and forced migrations have caused many to leave their homes and everything they hold dear, audience members are each assigned a temporary unit in a government-run shelter village called Lot 6B.

 

Audience members will move back and forth through time and witness stories about the singular place, Portland, and all those who have occupied and lived here. HOME/LAND asks audiences to question their own personal relationship to the place they call home and their hopes for what its future might hold.

“Home/Land is a beautiful, haunting, thrilling, tremendous piece of art. It pushes the limits of what theatre can be and calls its audience participants in to contemplate the themes of displacement, safety, and community in an immersive experience that is heartfelt, sensitive, moving, and full of small surprises. Please go see it right now, you won’t wait to miss it!!!”

- Ashley, a local theatre maker/artist

1 idea, 2 shows :

The first show of HOME/LAND was created in the town of Portland, Oregon, USA for performances in September 2022 and is currently available for touring in North America.

 

A French show will be created for performances in 2023 for touring in France and Europe. Residencies will take place in the towns of Gap, Saint-Auban, Aurillac, Cavaillon, Vieux-Condé, Port Saint Louis and Marseille among others.

 

The Portland show

September 1st – 18th 2022 | Thursday thru Sundays | by night (7:00 -9:00 pm)

Location : Zidell Yards, Portland, Oregon.

40 tickets sold per performance in single ticket 3 minute time slots. Show lasted approximately 1 hour

Audience members have travelled through the installation, approx ¾ of a mile, during the performance.

 

Portland cast, crew & credits

The original co-creators include: Geo Alva, Michael Cavazos, Lucille Dawson, Dion Doulis, Karin Holmström, Erika Latta, and Jonathan Walters.

 

Directors: Dion Doulis, Erika Latta, Karin Holmström, Michael Cavazos, Jonathan Walters, and Geo Alva

Onsite Director: Karin Holmström

Onsite Assistant Director: Michael Cavazos

Voiceover Directors: Dion Doulis and Erika Latta

Portland Interviews by: Michael Cavazos

Script Writers: Dion Doulis, Erika Latta, Karin Holmström, and Michael Cavazos

Translation: Geo Alva

Sound Designers: Dion Doulis and Erika Latta

Video Designer: Michael Cavazos

Set Designers: Karin Holmström and Philippe Laliard

Set Construction: Philippe Laliard, Abby Jacquin, and Ryann St. Julien

Set Dressing: Violet Aveline

Prop Designer: Karin Holmström

Lights: Jon Timm and Abby Jacquin

Stage Management: Michael Cavazos

 

Cast:

Reception Agent: Vinisa Brown

Intake Agent/Clerk: Sean Doran

Shelter Agent/Concierge: Marissa Sanchez

Drowned Woman: Maia McCarthy

Unit 7: Geo Alva

Outtake Guide: Michael Buchanon

 

Voiceover cast:

Agency Voice: Erika Latta

Narrator: Dion Doulis

Makiko: Mai Ide

Antonio Morales: Julio Cesar

DACA student: Yasmin Ruvalcaba

YMCA Lady: Maia McCarthy

Rancher: Jonathan Walters

 

Interview voices:

Makayla Caldwell

Garrett P.

 

Documentary voices:

The Neighborhood of Albina

- Donna Maxey, courtesy of the Albina Mosaic

The Vanport Flood

- Senator Jackie Winters, courtesy of the Vanport Mosaic and story midwife, Laura Lo Forti

- Ed Washington, courtesy of the Vanport Mosaic and story midwife, Laura Lo Forti

- Evelyn Bolme, courtesy of the Vanport Mosaic and story midwife, Laura Lo Forti

Japanese American Incarceration during WWII

- Shizuko “Suzie” Sakai, courtesy of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon

 

Special thanks to:

The Zidell Family

Alan Park

Imago Theatre

Outside In

Vanport Mosaic

Tony Domingue

Skanner News

Rose Rodriguez

HOME / LAND is made possible with the support of:

  • FACE Contemporary Theater Fund
  • Lieux publics, European and national center for artistic creation in public space – Odos – les chemins
  • French Ministry of Culture (DGCA and DRAC PACA)
  • Département des Alpes de Haute-Provence
  • Old Moody @ Zidell Yards
  • The Puffin Foundation
  • NET TEN

Additional partners in France:

  • ECLAT, National center for artistic creation in public space, Aurillac
  • Théâtre Durance Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national « art et création », Château Arnoux/Saint-Auban
  • La Passerelle National stage, Gap
  • La Garance National stage, Cavaillon
  • Le Citron Jaune National center for artistic creation in public space, Port Saint Louis du Rhône
  • Le Boulon National center for artistic creation in public space, Vieux-Condé
  • Théâtre Joliette – Scène conventionnée art et création – expressions et écritures contemporaines, Marseille
  • Friche la Belle de Mai – Pôle arts de la scène, Marseille

Photos

Press

Feedback from performances in Portland

 

“HOME/LAND is an artful composite of forgotten histories and their forgotten people, magically set underneath the Ross Island Bridge. I feel fortunate to have witnessed this worthy experiment.”

- a local music director

 

“Home / Land is a beautiful, haunting, thrilling, tremendous piece of art. It pushes the limits of what theatre can be and calls its audience participants in to contemplate the themes of displacement, safety, and community in an immersive experience that is heartfelt, sensitive, moving, and full of small surprises. Please go see it right now, you won’t wait to miss it!!!”

- Ashley, a local theatre maker/artist

 

“That was a masterpiece of interactive theatre. Hand2mouth crafted the site-specific work by which I will measure all others. At once deeply personal and universal, intimate and epic in scope, heartfelt and unnerving in all the right ways. A fascinating multi-layered examination of living through disaster, the illusion of permanence, the work our ancestors undertook simply to get us here, and what it means to really feel safe. I can’t recommend this strongly enough.”

- William Thomas Berk, playwright & producer

 

“I’m still processing it haha, it was so lovely and the attention to detail was breathtaking. This is the first show I’ve been outside of the theater space that really melds the outside world  with the performance. The storytelling and the physical space coexisted so beautifully. The design and layout of everything also really allowed the stories to be heard, but not exploited. I was just filled with so many emontions.”

- Yasmin Ruvalcaba, artist