UMS Announces Three Week Festival 'No Safety Net'

From January 17 to February 3, 2018, the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan (UMS) presents No Safety Net, a three-week theater festival of four productions that foster timely conversations around slavery, terrorism, transgender identity, and radical wellness and healing. Two of the titles are U.S. premieres and will receive their only U.S. performances as part of No Safety Net. Performances will be held in Arthur Miller Theatre (1226 Murfin Ave, Ann Arbor) and the Stamps Gallery (201 S. Division St, Ann Arbor), with each title examining a different topic related to contemporary social issues.

In addition to the performances, UMS will present a suite of contextual programs, including workshops, lectures, panel discussions, and a keynote lecture/conversation by Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen: An American Lyric and P. Carl, the director and co-founded of HowlRound, a think tank and knowledge commons that is actively creating community across theater-makers worldwide. These activities, listed in complete detail at the end of this release, are intended to encourage open and constructive dialogue, and to embrace the calls-to-action embedded in the theatrical presentations.

"No Safety Net is an idea, an initiative, and ultimately a new chapter in the way that UMS thinks about presenting theater. We've selected four works by very different theater artists with a goal of bringing our audiences on a journey around some very interesting - and sometimes troubling - areas that are socially relevant. We live in interesting times, and we want this work to spark important dialogue and conversations among our audiences and among members of our community," said Matthew VanBesien, president of UMS. "This festival is for those who like to dig into the deeper and thorny issues of our time - but it's also for those who are hesitant about doing so. We want to bring people together to think about how we're moving ourselves forward as a community, as a country, and as a global society."

University of Michigan president Mark S. Schlissel added, "The arts provide a powerful opportunity for exploration and dialogue around some of the most challenging issues that our society is confronting. I am thrilled that UMS is taking this bold move to present a collection of socially relevant stage work, along with surrounding activities that bring important context and opportunities for reflection and action around those productions. No Safety Net provides a place and a context for members of our community to have difficult but necessary conversations and come to a deeper understanding about the world."

No Safety Net will kick off with six performances of the Ars Nova production of Underground Railroad Game, which runs in Arthur Miller Theatre from Wednesday, January 17 through Sunday, January 21. In the work, actors Jennifer Kidwell and Scott Sheppard perform the roles of two middle-school teachers who incorporate an interactive role-playing game into their lesson on the history of the Underground Railroad. Outside the classroom, their relationship turns romantic, offering the audience their own lesson about the cross-sections of race, sex, and power. Underground Railroad Game debuted at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and was named one of the best theater productions of 2016 by the New York Times, which called it "the year's most resounding testament to theater's continuing power to shock."

The following week, the Belgian theater company BRONKS, which produces theater for young audiences, will perform Us/Them in Arthur Miller Theatre, with five performances between Wednesday, January 24 and Sunday, January 28. The story of the play is based on the hostage drama in a school in Beslan that started on September 1, 2004. More than 1200 people, mainly children and their mothers or grandmothers, were taken hostage. When the crisis ended several days later, more than 300 people had died, including 186 children. Us/Them is not an account of these tragic events, but about the individual way that children cope with extreme situations, contrasting their views with those of adults. In addition to the public performances, UMS will host two special performances of this production on Thursday, January 25 and Friday, January 26 for area schools. This production, which was the hit of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016 and recently completed a sellout run at the National Theatre in London, receives its U.S. premiere as part of No Safety Net and will not be seen anywhere else in the country this year.

They, Themself and Schmerm, a one-person show written and performed by transgender artist Becca Blackwell, will come to Arthur Miller Theatre with four performances between Wednesday, January 31 and Saturday, February 3. A New York-based trans actor, performer, and writer who prefers the personal pronoun "they," Becca recounts their personal experience being adopted into a Midwestern religious family, trained to be a girl, and plagued by the question "How do I become a man, and do I even want that?" Inspired by a self-produced video by the late actor Corey Haim called Me, Myself, and I, the production details the tragi-comic transitions in life, family, sex, and gender while asking what it truly means to be authentic. Becca last appeared at UMS as part of the Young Jean Lee Theater Company's production of Untitled Feminist Show.

The Glasgow-based performance artist FK Alexander's sonically immersive production of (I Could Go On Singing) Over the Rainbow will run from Friday, January 26 through Saturday, February 3 in the Stamps Gallery in downtown Ann Arbor. FK Alexander identifies as living in recovery from drug addiction and mental collapse. Her work is concerned with issues of wounds, recovery, aggressive healing, radical wellness, industrialization, and noise music, an "outsider music" that still exists on the fringe. In this unique experience with the Okishima Tourist Association, self-selecting audience members are invited into an intimate, personal experience, where they take Alexander's hand as she sings alongside a distorted recording of the last time that Judy Garland sang "Over the Rainbow," just months before she died. The music is played through a wall of noise by the abrasive noise band Okishima Island Tourist Association. This deeply personal experience is intended to create a therapeutic space through ritual, repetition, and intimate connection. The performance on Saturday, January 27 will be a three-hour durational presentation; other performances will last about an hour. (I Could Go on Singing) Over the Rainbow also receives its U.S. premiere as part of No Safety Net and is currently not scheduled to be seen anywhere else in the country this year.

Tickets and additional information can be found at ums.org/nosafetynet.

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