600 HIGHWAYMEN
600 HIGHWAYMEN (moniker for artists Abigail Browde & Michael Silverstone) constructs expansive performances that illuminate the inherent poignancy and theatricality of people together — exploring a radical approach to making live art, and constructing events that create intimacy among strangers. Developed using creative methods ranging from the mainstream to the peculiar, their work is a rigorously tuned investigation of presence and humanity — not only in performance, but in process and aftermath.
shows
A THOUSAND WAYS
Created by 600 HIGHWAYMEN
Executive Producer: Thomas O. Kriegsmann / ArKtype
Project Design/Dramaturg: Andrew Kircher
Line Producer: Cynthia J. Tong
“Takes a simple premise and turns it into magic.” – The New Yorker
World Premiere (Part Two) – Festival Theaterformen in Germany, July 2-12, 2020
World Premiere (Full Production) – On The Boards, Seattle, WA, September 2020
A piece that reimagines and reconnects live-ness, built for right now. In a time when we’re accustomed to division, when isolation is required, A Thousand Ways the latest theater project by Obie Award winning 600 HIGHWAYMEN, offers a chance to experience new ways of coming together. This quietly radical experiment is a three part journey that takes place over several months, with each distinct installment presenting a new chance at making simple contact with a stranger. This is a path toward finding our way again. Something will be broken. Something will be built.
600 HIGHWAYMEN provides the instructions, the map, the recipe. All we need is you.
PART I – A PHONE CALL
Using a carefully crafted set of directives relayed over a simple phone call, two strangers take a journey together over the course of an hour.
PART II – AN ENCOUNTER
Two strangers meet on opposite ends of a table, separated by a pane of glass. Using a script and a few simple objects, a simple exercise of working together
becomes an experience of connection.
PART III – AN ASSEMBLY
A public convening made up of every stranger from the project’s journey. Together we follow a shared score.
This production was commissioned by The Public Theater, The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, Stanford Live at Stanford University and Festival Theaterformen, and was originally commissioned and co-conceived by Temple Contemporary at Temple University, USA. Original support for the production was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia.
Stage: Various / Site Specific
Capacity: 100-10000
Traveling Personnel: 2
Running time: 70 min per Act
Manmade Earth
Created by 600 HIGHWAYMEN
In conversation with and performed by Nur Aisyah, Nasra Ali, Raiza Almonte, Dimyana Angelo, Amanda Barsi, Augustin Bonane, Jeanvier Nkurunziza, and Diaaeddin Zabadani
Original Music & Sound design by Michael Costagliola
Production Design by Eric Southern & Deb O
World Premiere: October 2019
A complex portrait of 8 young Americans and their audience, who, together, explore the distance between all of us — the assumed and the real; the past and the present — and the possibilities that come about from sharing a space. Performed by eight teenagers from all over the world (DR Congo, Egypt, Malaysia, Somalia, Syria, Tanzania, and the United States) who each bring to the stage a unique story and path to this country, MANMADE EARTH digs deep into questions of belonging; who we’ll support, the ways in which we can support, and the nature of performance and spectatorship itself.
Built over a year of conversation with the ensemble, with text by Silverstone and Browde. Produced in partnership with Torn Space Theater in Buffalo, NY. World premiere at The Invisible Dog Arts Center in 2019.
Stage: Blackbox Format
Capacity: 100-350
Traveling Personnel: 14
Running time: 80 minutes
The Fever (premiere 2017)
The Fever tests the limits of individual and collective responsibility, and our willingness to be there for one another. Performed in complete collaboration with the audience, The Fever examines how we assemble, organize and care for the bodies around us. Who will you be when our eyes are on you? What will we see when we all look your way?
Stage: Blackbox
Capacity: 60-85
Traveling Personnel: 7
Running time: 70 minutes
Language: English
Performance space: 40′ x 27′ min.
Freight: Minimal
The Record
45 strangers come together for 61 minutes to show us who they are, and who they could be. Part theater, part dance, part group hallucination – vivid human assembly on an epic scale. The subject is us; the time is now.
Created in phases of collaboration with local cast and presenter.
Stage: Proscenium
Capacity: 100-500
Traveling Personnel: 7
Running time: 60 minutes
Language: n/a
Freight: Minimal
Employee of the Year
Five young girls perform one woman’s journey, from beginning to end. Intimate and arresting, Employee of the Year asks what it is to discover your own path and find your own way in life. With original songs by Obie Award-winner David Cale.
Stage: Proscenium
Capacity: 100-600
Traveling Personnel: 11
Running time: 75 minutes
Language: English
Freight: Minimal
calendar
A Thousand Ways
Part One: A Phone Call
Part Two: An Encounter
Part Three: An Assembly
On the Boards, Seattle, WA – WORLD PREMIERE
Part I: Sept 9-27, 2020
Part II: Nov 3-22, 2020
Part III: Fall 2020 (TBD)
Dublin Theatre Festival, Ireland
Part I: Sep 27-30, 2020
The Arts Centre @ NYUAD, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Part I: Oct 7-18, 2020
Part II: Feb 21 (TBD)
Part III: Spring 21 (TBD)
’62 Center, Williams College, Williams, MA
Part I: Oct 2-4, 2020
Part II: Feb 11-13, 2021
Part III: Spring 21 (TBD)
Canadian Stage, Toronto, ON
Part I: Nov 4-22, 2020
Part II: Jan 18-Feb, 2021
Part III: June 12, 2021
Carolina Performing Arts, Chapel Hill, NC
Part I: Nov 9-22, 2020
Part II: Feb 21 (TBD)
Part III: Sep 21 (TBD)
Arizona Arts Live, Phoenix, AZ
Part I: Nov. 13-22, 2020
Part II-III: Spring 21 (TBD)
Singapore Int’l Arts Festival, Singapore
Part I: Nov. 9-22, 2020 (TBD)
Part II-III: May 21, 2021 (TBD)
The Momentary, Bentonville, AR
Part I-III: Spring TBD
Stanford Live, Stanford, CA
Part I: Dec 3-6, 2020 (TBD)
Part II: July 7-18, 2021 (TBD)
Part III: October 16-20, 2021 (TBD)
CAP UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Part I: Dec 6-13, 2020
Part II: Jan 23-24, 2021 & May 2-16, 2021
Part III: Fall 21 (TBD)
The Public Theater, New York, NY
Part I: Dec 21 – Jan 17 & May 18-July 18, 2021
Part II: June 8 – August 16, 2021
Part III TBD
La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, CA
Part I: Jan 21 – Mar 7, 2021
Part II: June 3-27, 2021
Part III: Fall 2021 (TBA)
Volkstheater, Vienna, Austria
Part I: Mar 30–Apr 29, 2021
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Part I: Mar 2-14, 2021
Part II: Apr 22 – May 2, 2021
Part III: TBD
Theater Garonne, Toulouse, FR
Part I: May 12-29, 2021
Part II: TBD
Boom Arts, Portland, OR
Part I: Jan 21-24, 2021
Part II: May 14-23, 2021
In Between Time, Bristol, GB
Part I: May 17-22, 2021
Part II: TBD
Take Me Somewhere, Glasgow, Scotland
Part I: May 28-29, 2021
Part II: TBD
Ann Arbor Summer Festival + Univ. Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
Part I: June 15-20 & Nov 9-14, 2021
Part II: TBD
Take Me Somewhere, Glasgow, Scotland
Part I: May 28-29, 2021
Part II: TBA
Part III: TBA
The Fever
February 8-9, 2019 | Williams College ’62 Center for Theater and Dance CenterStage | Williamstown, MA
Feb 28 – March 2, 2019 | Wesleyan University Center for the Arts | Wesleyan, CT
March 22-23, 2019 | Portland Ovations | Portland, ME
April 11-21, 2019, Democracy Is Coming! Onassis USA with The Public Theater, New York, NY
June 4-9, 2019, Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC
Manmade Earth
July 20-21, 2019, Lumberyard (Manmade Earth Workshop), Catskill, NY
Sept. 13-15, 2019, Crossing the Line Festival @ Invisible Dog, Brooklyn, NY