Ukiah Players Theatre
Ukiah Players Theatre is committed to providing their rural audiences with a wide range of theatre experiences including the classics and contemporary plays as well as original theatre pieces created for, by, and about our community. Their project upRooted/reRooted had the goals of promoting full communication, consensus-building, and healing. The two different versions of the play dealt with the varying views on deforestation in northern California.
The play was developed from extensive interviews and improvisational workshops with community members and organizations representing all sides of the debate, including the extremes of timber industry owners, unemployed loggers, and Earth First protesters. Community discussions were held during a work-in-progress run of upRooted. The discussion was heated and the play provoked many long letters to the editor of the Ukiah Daily Journal – some defending the work and others accusing it of 'corporate and timber bashing.' As a result, the play underwent a massive rewrite that gave more credence to the industry and its impact on the local economy. This second version, reRooted, was given a staged reading at Ukiah Playhouse.
Resource Link: www.ukiahplayerstheatre.org
Learn more about the upRooted/reRooted project at www.americansforthearts.org/animatingdemocracy/labs/lab_045.asp.
Kate Magruder, Executive Director
info@ukiahplayerstheatre.org
707-462-9226
1041 Low Gap Road
Ukiah
CA
95482
In partnership with the Animating Democracy Initiative of Americans for the Arts (www.americansforthearts.org/animatingdemocracy/), NCDD's Leah Lamb researched arts-based civic dialogue programs in order to help dialogue & deliberation practitioners strengthen their work by linking it to the arts. NCDD hopes these resources will inspire you, and encourages you to connect with the artists, many of whom are interested in working with D&D practitioners.
