CPT to Start Conversation About HOW TO END POVERTY IN 90 MINUTES

Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) and United Way of Greater Cleveland are proud to present Sojourn Theatre's How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes(with 119 people you may or may not know). The production is onstage from January 24 through 28 at CPT's historic Gordon Square Theatre.

How do we tackle poverty in America? In our community? Over the course of 90 minutes, audiences listen, explore, and ultimately decide how to spend $1,000 cash from that evening's box office sales. An experiment in dialogue, collective decision-making, shared responsibility, and the potential for art to transform our world, How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 119 people you may or may not know) is spectacularly eclectic in form, often delightful, and occasionally uncomfortable. The production engages audiences alongside community experts, blending adventurous theatricality with real time, task-based connective encounters amidst strangers.

According to CPT's Executive Artistic Director, Raymond Bobgan: "This is a truly exciting collaboration between a national theatre, a local theatre, and United Way. For a long time, I've been wanting to bring this play to Cleveland but I couldn't quite figure out the right partners. And it was just so exciting to have United Way of Greater Cleveland step up. So many of the challenges we face in our community come back to poverty and basic inequity. Theatre's role is to help us as a community think deeply about what matters most."

According to United Way of Greater Cleveland's President and CEO August A. Napoli, Jr.: "People have been talking about the intersection of the arts and social justice to transform lives and communities for a long time. It's important to move beyond simply talking about it - and this collaboration is actually doing it - and breaking ground."

Sojourn Theatre's How to End Poverty in 90 minutes (with 119 people you may or may not know) is a devised, community-specific, participatory theatrical event that explores issues of poverty and democracy. The play is not a single story, but the journey of strangers (the audience) making a decision about how to best engage with a seemingly intractable and complex public issue. The production, created after a year of research and community partner-building, opened in May 2013 at Northwestern University. Since then, Sojourn has mounted productions in Baton Rouge (at LSU); Portland, Oregon (at regional theatre Portland Playhouse); and Big Sky, Montana (Warren Miller Performing Arts Center); among others. As of 2017, Sojourn Theatre has re-purposed over $65,000 from the arts economy towards the poverty reduction economy across 6 states where the show has been presented.

ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE
The audience is invited to arrive at 7:00pm for a pre-show installation that's part "interactive museum" and part "science fair." The entire Gordon Square Theatre space will be activated with small performances, interactive displays, and opportunities for audience members to ask questions and reflect on values and experiences.

The production combines discussion, statistics, drama, testimonials (and even a dance number), to create a kind of socially conscious variety show asking audience members to contemplate poverty in their community. Audiences are invited to consider five different approaches most frequently deployed in the US to fight poverty: Daily Needs, System Change, Education, Making Opportunities, and Direct Aid. The performance includes appearances by "cameo performers" - individuals with expertise or personal experience with poverty - to help the audience's thinking on their journey to make a decision (for current list, see below). The evening culminates in an audience-wide vote that will decide what approach will lead to an onstage reveal of a local organization that will receive $1,000 of that evening's ticket sales.

An important aspect of the production is engaging in partnerships with research partners (local nonprofits, service providers, government agencies, and community sites) and working to build as diverse of an audience as possible (ideologically, generationally, and geo/economically) so that the conversations among audience members, which make up a portion of the show's experience, are complex and dynamic.

How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 119 people you may or may not know) provides a space for people who may not often connect around certain content to come together, forge new relationships, and grapple with a complicated societal matter in innovative and productive ways.

CAST, CREW, AND CAMEOS OF How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 119 people you may or may not know)

The cast includes Sojourn Theatre Ensemble Artists Bobby Bermea,* Jono Eiland, Soneela Nankani,* Sara Sawicki, Alejandro Tey, Nik Zaleski, and Cleveland Artists Wes Allen, Ananias J. Dixon, Tim Keo, and Cathleen O'Malley. *Actor appears courtesy of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 119 people you may or may not know) was conceived and led by Michael Rohd, and created by Sojourn Theatre and collaborators. The creative production team includes Rebecca Martínez (Sojourn Theatre) - Associate Director; Shawn Ketchum Johnson - Original Scenic & Pre-Show Design; Danielle Littman (Sojourn Theatre) - Community Partnerships Mentor; Shannon Scrofano (Sojourn Theatre) - Original Video Design; Rick Sims - Sound Design/Composer; Raymond Bobgan - Producer; Beth Wood - Line Producer; Benjamin Gantose - Lighting Design; T. Paul Lowry - Video Consultant/Engineer; and Ryan T. Patterson - On-Site Scenic Design Collaborator.

The current list of cameo performers includes Hon. Nickie J. Antonio, Hon. Bruce Akers, Rachel Dissell, Hon. Matt Dolan, Shajuana Gaston, Eric Gordon, Kristie Groves, Diane Howard, Hon. Frank LaRose, August A. Napoli, Jr., Natalie Leek-Nelson, Randy McShepard, Bernie Moreno, Jeffery K. Patterson, LaJean Ray, Ana Santiago, Natoya J. Walker Minor, Tecia Wilson, Tracey Winbush, Hon. Matt Zone, and more to be announced soon.

TICKET & SHOW INFORMATION

How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 119 people you may or may not know) runs January 24 - 28, 2018, at 7:30pm (pre-show begins at 7:00pm) in CPT's historic Gordon Square Theatre, located at 6415 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44102, in the heart of the Gordon Square Arts District.

Tickets are $25 (or Pay What You Can, via in-person or phone purchases only). Students/Seniors receive $3 off any performance.

PURCHASE TICKETS at www.cptonline.org or call the CPT Box Office at (216) 631-2727 x 501. (Reserve early! - CPT never charges any ticket fees, ever.)

The Gordon Square Theatre is ADA compliant, featuring a ramped entrance and an all gender, wheelchair accessible restroom.

Every Friday is Free Beer Friday at CPT. Mingle with the artists after the show and discuss the performance in a lively, social atmosphere - your drinks are on CPT.

Photo by Brud Giles

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