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June 14, 2006
Touring Show: "The Hardest Question Ever"
For additional information on venues and times in your area contact
fedupriseup.net or trust_the_shadow@yahoo.com or the specific venue.
The Indicator Species Present:
“The Hardest Question Ever…”
A puppet show about prisons and violence in our towns and cities. A discussion will follow the performance which is about ½ hour.
The Hardest Question Ever… is mixture of live performers, chain gang inspired music, and shadow puppets set inside a life size prison cell covered with 100’s of letters written by prisoners. We aim to create a dialogue surrounding how society encourages violence and punishes those who are violent. The Hardest Question Ever is a three act play portraying responsibility, forgiveness and the pain of loss. The stories are actual events that are directly related to the creators of the play. There will be a discussion following the performance.
Indicator Species Tour Itinerary:
People United in VA near Harrisonburg June 24th : 274
@Shannon Farm Lane, Afton, VA 22920.
Greensboro, NC Monday June 26
Chapel Hill, NC Tuesday June 27 – Forest Theatre
Richmond, VA - June 28th: (Wed): - Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church 1720 Mechanicsville Turnpike
Richmond, VA 23223 – Show time 6pm
Takoma Park, MD – June 29th -7:30pm
Sangha -- 7014 Westmoreland Avenue -- Takoma Park, MD - 20912.
(adjacent to the Carroll Avenue Gazebo Stage and 2 blocks from the Takoma Metro) ... 301-891-3214
Washington, DC June 30th -7pm St. Stephen's Church - www.saintstephensdc.org/directions.html St. Stephen's is located at 1525 Newton St. NW, at the intersection of 16th and Newton Streets, NW in the Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights area of Washington, DC.
Baltimore, MD – July 1st – MidAtlantic Book Fair @ Center Stage 700 N. Calvert St. www.redemmas.org/bookfair Sometime between 10 and 5 on that Saturday. Check website.
Columbus, OH – July 5th – @ SkyLab 57 E. Gay St. #5 www.skylabgallery.com
Bloomington, IN – July 6th - @ Monroe County Public
Library 303 E. Kirkwood Ave
As part of X-Fest www.crimespree.org/pixcamp
Show at 6
Urbana, IL – July 7th -
Chicago, IL - July 8th -mercury café 1505 w Chicago ave
7pm $5-10 donation
Cleveland, OH – July 10th
New York City – July 12th and/or 13th
Providence, RI – July 14th - @ Dirt Palace – 14 Olneyville SQ. Providence, RI 02909
Bread and Puppet Vermont – July 16th
Hope, ME – July 18th
Northampton, MA/AmerstJuly 19th – Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst, 121 North Pleasant St. Amherst(across from Food for Thought Books - store), 8pm
Albany, NY – July 20th - The Howe phone: 518-433-0679 the address is: the corner of schuyler st and Broad Albany NY 12202
Philly, PA – July 21 and 22 - @ the Cinema 3925 Walnut St. Show time 8pm
The Hardest Question Ever: Correspondents Weigh In
by Sue on Mon 12 Jun 2006 04:42 PM EDT
This past Friday, we accepted an invitation to catch the local performance of "The Hardest Question Ever," a puppet show performance art piece examining the societal role in creating and punishing violence through the prism of incarceration. The show was put together by Indicator Species, a Pittsburgh based collective of teachers, artists and activists who work on prison issues.
The show opened with live music from Ricardo who took our collective breath away. His acoustic guitar performance and lyrics were just stunning. I hunted him down at the end and ordered him to add us to his email list. :-) He told us he'd be performing live soon so we'll keep you informed.
The show itself was a 1/2 hour mixture of live action, puppets, and music. I was skeptical at first as I always am when surrounded by a crowd of seemingly preternaturally thin people who made me feel incredibly mainstream .... one of the nightmare moments when someone points at you and yells "She's wearing Mom jeans" while everyone laughs. Then someone's actual mom sat down in front of us with her two staunch suburbanite lady friends and I felt a the comforting shift back to slightly left of center. Whew. As soon as the group took the stage, all sense of discomfort fell away and I merged right into a crowd waiting to be taught.
The stage included a life-sized prison cell that is used for solidary confinement. The walls were constructed from thousands of letters the artists had received through their books for prisoners program Book 'Em, a project of the Thomas Merton Center. The show included 4 acts reconciling the horror of crime with the horror of prison. Through live narration of cases based on the real life experiences of the artists, the show explores the complicated nature of something mainstream media and politics tends to oversimplify -- delving into the gray. One case involved a former friend and comrade who had raped and murdered a woman -- the dialogue was a refreshing examination of all that had come before.
I have to give the Indicator Species credit -- they really did ask the hardest questions. When someone you know has raped and murdered, what does that mean for our own complicity in creating a violent society? To simply say that you could not have physically prevented the crime is not enough of an answer. What about all that came before -- at what point can we as a society prevent any crime? And how does the way we treat our criminals reflect back on our values?
"The cracks I fell through were the indifference of the people around me."
Indicator Species will be taking their show on the road for a two month tour. For more details on upcoming Pittsburgh performances fedupriseup.net or trust_the_shadow@yahoo.com
It was a good show -- thoughtful, earnest and personal. It was obvious that the members of the collective put a huge investment of their personal stories, fears, hopes, and values into this show. That investment touched me from the first chord and lifted me over any bumps in the road. I would see this again when it returns to Pittsburgh. And I'm going through my books to donate to the program.
Posted by lois at June 14, 2006 10:24 AM