Fifth Year of Festival UnBound Returns This Month

Touchstone Theatre opens its 2023-24 season with a fifth year of Festival UnBound: a five-day celebration full of arts-infused events, performances, and hands-on workshops for all. Featuring visual arts, live music, participatory dance, original theatre, community dialogue, and more, the Festival is a unique, hyper-local arts experience taking place from September 27-October 1 at venues throughout Bethlehem, with pre-Festival “pop-up” events throughout September. Attendance is free for most events; select events have an admission fee. The Festival includes work by the Touchstone Ensemble, local artists and organizers, and acclaimed guest artists from beyond the Lehigh Valley.

The first year of Festival UnBound took place in October 2019, twenty years after the closing of Bethlehem Steel, and explored questions of community and identity: Who are we, now that the Steel is gone? What are the challenges ahead, and what are the values that hold us together as we shape our future? Festival UnBound has since evolved into a five-day series of events taking place in streets, parks, and venues across Bethlehem and beyond: a celebration of arts for everyone who calls the Lehigh Valley home. “We say it every year, and it’s true: Festival UnBound is a genuine community festival,” says Festival Director Mary Wright. “It’s art of, by, and for the people of the Lehigh Valley.” 

A sampling of the delights you can expect at this year’s Festival include “Hidden Bethlehem” Pop-Up Events throughout the month of September, a mural unveiling, workshops, sing- and dance-alongs, and a Festival Block Party featuring original indie music and local LVAC wrestlers signing autographs. Touchstone also welcomes three guest residencies this year, with acclaimed singer-songwriter Jesse Ruben bringing the joy of music to local schools and to Godfrey Daniels; renowned community arts activist ashley sparks heading the Festival’s cornerstone performance about housing; and Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble leading story-gathering exercises throughout the Festival. 

The centerpiece of the 2023 Festival has been over a year in the making: a Bethlehem-centric production entitled, The Most Beautiful Home…Maybe. Spearheaded by nationally-recognized directing duo Mark-n-Sparks (Mark Valdez and ashley sparks), this interactive civic engagement project brought Touchstone artists together in conversation with local residents, nonprofit organizations, housing advocates, and government officials to address the question: Can we imagine a future where everyone in the Lehigh Valley is housed? Informed by the stories of local residents’ lived experience, its creation has involved dozens of community meetings over the past 12 months, hosted by sparks and Touchstone artists. “The skills that you have as a theater artist are actually superpowers,” says sparks, “for solving community problems and creating spaces for people to have hard conversations.” 

The result? A participatory performance juxtaposing housing data, torch songs, and tales of home insecurity. The Most Beautiful Home…Maybe is packed with zebra stripes, sprinkles, music, and laughter – and invites audiences to collectively create housing policies and envision a future where every Lehigh Valley resident has a home.

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