The Big 'Us' Project Announces Performances In Gulfton

THE BIG "US" PROJECT invites all of Houston to go on a journey. This unique, community-driven, devised theatre piece is being created by 100 members of Houston's refugee communities, including professional artists in all disciplines and first-time performers of all ages. The performances will be held on Saturday, March 9, at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at the Southwest Multi-Service Center (6400 High Star Dr., Houston 77074). Tickets are free, but reservations are recommended due to space limitations. To learn more about the project in English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, or Vietnamese, please visit www.thebigUSproject.com or Brave Little Company's homepage at www.brave-little.com.

Staged in several rooms of the Southwest Multi-Service Center, an important community hub in Houston's diverse and vibrant Gulfton neighborhood, the piece offers audience members a glimpse of the world through the performers' eyes as well as a chance to start a one-on-one conversation. The piece includes voices representing a wide variety of cultures, including Houstonians originally from Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Jordan, Afghanistan, Liberia, Mali, Sudan, Vietnam, Mexico, Guatemala, Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and more. Working in teams to create interlinked "chapters" that audience members can encounter in the performance spaces, approximately 50 adults and 50 children will appear in the final performances.

Since July 2018, the facilitators of the piece, Rachel H. Dickson, Neda Khan, Troy Scheid, and Sophia Torres - four women of diverse heritage and artistic disciplines - have been engaging community groups in telling stories through theatre, dance, visual art, and poetry. Brave Little Company has partnered with Houston organizations Culture of Health - Advancing Together, the Texan-French Alliance for the Arts, P.E.A.C.E. Gallery, KIPP Connect Middle School, Catholic Charities of Galveston-Houston, and other groups serving refugees.

Troy Scheid, one of the artist-mentors collaborating on the piece and the director of Brave Little Company, said, "Since we started producing plays in 2013, Brave Little Company has embraced the concept of making our 'us' bigger. It's imperative that those of us who have the privilege of being established artists learn to partner with and amplify the voices of those who have been historically excluded. THE BIG 'US' PROJECT is an opportunity to affirm our common humanity with refugee communities in Houston."

THE BIG "US" PROJECT is funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

Brave Little Company is in its fifth season of creating theatre about, with, and for kids and their grown-ups. BLC is committed to reflecting Houston's diversity in our artists and in the stories we tell. By creating theatre the way kids play and emphasizing interaction between performer and audience, we empower children to create art on their own. As a Young Audiences of Houston touring company, all of our productions, residencies, and workshops are available throughout the Houston region and beyond. BLC's touring productions for 2018 - 2019 include Cenicienta by Rupert Reyes and Caroline Reck, a one-woman retelling of Cinderella through he eyes of a girl who is bullied for speaking Spanish; and Grandpa's Garden, a musical science and history class taught by characters, with music and lyrics by Rodrick Randall. Brave Little Company received a Founders' Concept Development Grant to develop Grandpa's Garden from the Children's Theatre Foundation of America in 2017.