“Shelter in Place” is a project I came up with to reach out to my community members who were experiencing how to cope while being sheltered in place. The idea began with emails from friends and phone conversations. The content is real, not imagined: “ I’ve still got a job”; “I need to see my Dad, who is ill; I’ve started this painting; I’m graduating online from college my class of 2020.” These stories became scripts for the actors and the scenes became video episodes under my artistic direction, with edits by writer Lynda Burris, and filmed edited by James Forbes. The participants used whatever technical means they had available in the space they were inhabiting. It is my hope that this original production of several episodes, each expressing a particular character’s situation while sheltering at home during a pandemic, will come to you in live- streaming this June.
UpStage actors and community members playing themselves
