New Hampshire Theatre Project Presents WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS YET

In March of 2020 New Hampshire Theatre Project Company Artists Catherine Stewart, CJ Lewis, and Genevieve Aichele began capturing the experiences of New Hampshire residents, and in particular the artists connected to the applied theatre company.

In March 2021 as part of that project, the creative team will release elements of that documentary work through a new podcast. The We Don't Know What This Is Yet Podcast is hosted by Company Artist Robin Fowler and is produced by CJ Lewis. The first episode will drop on March 13 and will be available for free on Spotify most podcast streaming services. For more details visit the On Stage Now section of NHTP's website, nhtheatreproject.org.

The We Don't Know What This Is Yet Podcast gathers accounts of 2020 from individuals, holds space for community dialogue, and directly engages and supports a diverse pool of artists in the creation of new work. "Each episode of the podcast will be in two parts," says the podcast's host, Robin Fowler. "First, we'll sit down with a guest and talk to them about a simple theme: uncertainty." The podcast includes a diverse range of people from all sorts of backgrounds including non-profit consultant Elissa Margolin, Music Hall Communications and Community Engagement Director Monte Bohanan, Craft brewer and restaurateur Dagan Migirditch, and Maria Carrasquillo who works in the legal department of a medical device manufacturer in New Hampshire. "We're asking people what uncertainty means to them, and what feels uncertain about our paths and our fields right now." explains Fowler.

As the interviews are concluded, that source material is given to artists working in a variety of disciplines, including visual art, music, dance and video creation, as a means of inspiration to a new piece of work. "It could be a song, some poetry, a painting, a photo series, or even a dance," explains co-producer CJ Lewis. "And we'll talk to these creators about their experience making this work: What inspired them? What did they relate to? What seemed unfamiliar? What were their own uncertainties in this process?" Artists include dancer and choreographer Amanda Whitworth, musician and composer Jonny Peiffer, videographer Dan Freund, and artist and designer Sam Paolini.

The creative team understands that this is an opportunity to draw connections across the state and within their communities, while giving artists a much needed paid opportunity to create new works of art based on the stories that are happening to us now. "NHTP uses the process of applied theatre to raise awareness, build connections, and inspire community change," says Artistic Director Catherine Stewart. "I like to think of us as Second Responders. Artists look at the world, we gather information and then we interpret it. We tease it apart and we ask difficult questions, we look for bias and unique perspectives. Then we turn those findings into work - pieces of art, music, literature and theatre. In uncertainty we can find beauty."

The podcast will also serve as source material to We Don't Know What This Is Yet's culminating work. "The plan was always to make a new play, about this moment," continues Stewart. "It's what we promised our supporters last June, and it's what NHTP does - we uncover and amplify the stories of our community, across the state, and transform them into provocative theatre." The Uncertainty Principle will premiere June 10 - 13 2021, and will be presented online for audiences around the globe. In science, the Uncertainty Principle states that "the momentum and position of a particle cannot both be precisely determined at the same time." Using this theme as a metaphor for the ever-changing landscape of life during the Covid-19 pandemic, NHTP artists will create a new docudrama based on interviews with community members between April 2020 and April 2021.

For more information about the artists and work in New Hampshire Theatre Project's 2020-2021 season, visit nhtheatreproject.org

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