whirlwind PLAY festival
Photo credit to Anke Schüttler & Ryan Forsythe-Elder.
2013 - 2017 and beyond
The Whirlwind Play Festival is a local seasonal 24-hour theatre festival. In a single day, we write, rehearse, and perform original plays around a common, timely theme. Shows are followed with a post-show dialogue with the audience about theater's role in collective thinking and process.
I began organizing & hosting 24-hour play festivals with Ethan Dubin, Tamara Silverleaf, and Sara Tamler at the University of Chicago. When I moved to rural Oregon, this form resurfaced as a way to engage people who might not identify as theatre-makers in collaborative thinking and creation processes; and, as an alternative way to think through difficult topics and keep our imaginations lively. In the Illinois Valley, these festivals also became important intergenerational spaces, where parents and children or students and teachers can collaborate as peers.
For more info (and pictures), check out whirlwindfestival.wordpress.com.