Audience Entering (taken at invited dress rehearsal)

In the first act of Tea Party, actors played small children of different socio-economic classes. Audiences were then asked to propose solutions to the fights that arose when the child of the maid (the boy in the t-shirt above) wanted to play with the toys of the more affluent children. The host of the tea party then challenged audiences to consider whether they, as adults, shared their resources in the ways they recommended to children.

The second act of Tea Party featured a church community with a financial crisis. Audience members had to solve the problem by weighing the importance, as well as the financial burdens, of investing a community’s resources in welfare programs.

In the last and most highly interactive act of Tea Party, actors played colonists in 1775, debating the appropriate response to the taxies levied by England. Audience members were also given 18th century identities and invited to join actors in playing out this debate.

Actors Engaging Audience in Dialogue (photo taken at an invited dress rehearsal)