My new show:
I spent an incredible month at the Fish Factory in Iceland developing a new solo work with music. I will be performing in the Milwaukee Fringe in late August and the Charm City Fringe Festival in Baltimore in November. TBA other performances coming soon!
The play weaves together events in my personal family history – – turns and twists of US politics since the 80’s and imaginary alternative life trajectories. The fantastical story includes espionage, dark humor, friendship and second chances and is filled with live punk music and karaoke. Still in development!
At the border
Workshops and Happenings with The Living at the Mexican Border:
As the world watches the massive deportations and atrocities the US government continues to commit against immigrants, The Living Theatre headed to the frontlines. We organized a series of workshops and daily performance interventions with locals in Tijuana and San Ysidro, criss crossing the border in the summer heat; just a taste of what locals experience regularly. Thanks to our collaborators at Nett Nett and The Front Arte Cultura for hosting us and inviting us into your beautiful, strong communities. Our daily performance acts addressed femicide, border control, human connection and culminated with a homemade saint procession through the center of Tijuana's Zona Rosa neighborhood with gifts of love notes, humor, chocolates, and balloons.
Check out The Living
and videos of some of the performances from Jessica Daugherty
Back to the occupied homeland
I traveled for three weeks with my mother to our unrecognized ancestral homeland in North Ossetia, occupied by Russia, at the southern border above Georgia. You can read more about my experience there in this post.
Athens
JAFRA:
I volunteered for two weeks at Jafra, a Palestinian organization that supports and offers free programming for all refugees. I taught theater to children, teens and adults and a special workshop for staff on how to teach theater and use it for healing. While I was there, the children's space, along with all of its programming, got shut down by the Municipality of Athens because of licensing, one of the ways the city is cracking down on NGO and volunteer-run centers for refugees. Please take action and get involved with this stellar organization that offers free Arabic, English, Math, computer access, drama, crafts, music and more.
REV. BILLY and THE CHURCH OF STOP SHOPPING:
The timing worked that I was able to I rejoin my NYC choir family for the Greek Festival. We had some hopping revivals in Saint Paul's Church and outdoor interventions in Syntagma Square, the site of the uprising 7 years ago, when I first came to Athens, and down through the center of the shopping/ tourist district. The Church of Stop Shopping launched the beginning of their global movement, Tourists Against Trump.
Words from the Rev:
#TOURISTSAGAINSTTRUMP . No meaningful change can take hold in the United States until we solve Consumerism. What is this society where 2/3's of our residents run their everyday lives through instructions they receive from the products that surround them? American life seems to be genetically engineered to resist the end of racism and sexism, or the Earth-hating of the big financial institutions. We have found that international tourists, the most depoliticized of the consumer sector - are roused to anger by the children-in-cages of this President. We also found in a high tourist and high refugee city, Athens Greece, that high-end consumers and immigrants could dance together. Will the consumers look up from their iPhones? We see them look up and discovering. And that's the wall coming down. #TOURISTSAGAINSTTRUMP
Vienna
I returned to Brunnenpassage to participate in the culmination of a month long photography workshop on Love, Loss and Longing. I offered a workshop in expressing these ideas through the body in ensemble creations and street performance.
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