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Project Overview |
Magical Rain Theaterworks, along with a small group of artists, undertook a provocative artistic, intellectual and pedagogical adventure in the 2002-2003 academic school year in Covert, MI Public Schools. New World Remix was the project’s name. It’s intent was to use performing & visual arts to explore, analyze, tinker, experiment, rethink and re-imagine the image and reality of ourselves as individuals, groups and parts of the local and world community. The guiding premise: we are all New World beings with a heritage profoundly mixed and remixed – food, music, dance, clothing, ceremonies, songs, stories, breath, bone and blood. We are all related.
The activities we undertook were life mapping, storytelling,
theater training, photography, collage, printmaking, prop construction,
movement/ dance and root excavation. These activities converged, producing
both visible and invisible results: the “Mix it Up” event,
the Brazilian production of the myth “How Night Came To Be”
and a Multimedia Exhibition/ Performance. The invisible results are
yet unfinished - resonant for all involved – for much was shaken,
much revealed, lost, awakened and still emerging and shaping new awareness
about who we are and what we have become.
This project was made possible with the support of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Michigan Humanities Council. The New World Remix project was envisioned by Irene (Ike) Vasquez, Ph.D., a scholar of New World Religions and a theater artist with Magical Rain Theaterworks. The Project Director was Covert’s ESL (English as a second language) instructor Sherry Meyer and the Multimedia Installation was coordinated by Covert’s Art instructor Lou Vidmar. This project was a collaboration between Covert Public Schools and the following Michigan artists:
Irene (Ike) Vasquez, Ph.D. (Duke University): For the past 25 years, Dr. Vasquez has created energetic, interactive, and innovative courses, projects and plays as a professional storyteller, writer, performer, public speaker, community cultural activist, university professor & consultant.
Dan Runyan: Mr. Runyan is a playwright, actor, director, producer and theater manager with teaching certification in Secondary School English and Speech who has worked for 15 years with theater processes that enable individuals and groups to create plays from their collective imaginations and experiences.
Elizabeth Hughey: Ms. Hughey is a dancer, choreographer and teacher who creates student dance projects that not only teach technique and physical skills, but foster diplomacy, patience, cooperation and kindness for others through the group dynamics of dance.
Roberto De Los Santos: Mr. Santos is a visual artist, drummer and teacher with extensive experience both in presenting his own work and in teaching visual arts and drumming to students in a variety of community projects.
Silverio Cerda: Mr. Cerda is a dancer and dance instructor who has experiences working with many traditional and contemporary dance forms from Latin America.
Mary Whalen: Ms. Whalen is a photographer and teacher who has created many community programs helping children explore issues of identity using photography in combination with other media (creative writing, performance).
