Troy Anthony's Fire Ensemble Presents Adrienne Maree Brown's TO FEEL A THING: A RITUAL FOR EMERGENCE, December 10

Today, The Shed announced the continuation of its three-year partnership with Artistic Director Troy Anthony and The Fire Ensemble to foster community-building, intersectional artistic practice, and resource sharing with a new musical work, To Feel A Thing: A Ritual For Emergence by award-winning author and resident artist adrienne maree brown (Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism).

With aims to expand the canon of musical works that place community, ritual, and collective liberation at their center, The Fire Ensemble is a choir community where singers of all backgrounds, identities, and abilities gather for weekly rehearsals at The Shed. This fall, The Fire Ensemble, in collaboration with brown, workshopped songs from their new work To Feel A Thing: A Ritual For Emergence. Featuring original music and text from brown, this work acknowledges the spirit inside each of us that is a wild creature of Earth, along with the feelings that lead us to adapt for survival and to come together to care for ourselves and our communities. Tickets are free and will be available here.

On Saturday, December 10, these rehearsals culminate in a free public performance in The Shed's Tisch Skylights. This developmental concert sharing of To Feel A Thing: A Ritual For Emergence, featuring the choir and a gospel band, is directed by Charlotte Braithwaite and co-produced with Oregon Shakespeare Festival. To Feel A Thing: A Ritual For Emergence is co-commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and will be performed in the OSF 2023 season.

"I created The Fire Ensemble with the self-understanding that I am a better creative and human when I am collaborating within a community, and I have a deep desire to share this fundamental truth with other creatives," said Troy Anthony. "I also believe that you should not have to dedicate your entire life to the arts in order to work at the highest levels of artistic expression. This is why I am beyond grateful that I've found a true collaborator in adrienne maree brown as our inaugural resident artist. Like me, adrienne understands the healing and transformative power that can be found in communal singing and ritual practice. I am grateful that she's chosen to workshop To Feel A Thing with our choir community as the first stop on what is sure to be a long and fruitful creation journey. Her songs are already working their magic on us in rehearsal and we are excited to share them with a larger audience."

"Taking inspiration from his spiritual and church technology roots, Troy Anthony creates new ways of making, expressing, and building community-reconnecting people with themselves and each other," said Tamara McCaw, Chief Civic Program Officer at The Shed. "Over 100 voices gather each week to uplift one another through music rituals that celebrate both process and intention. On December 10, we invite the larger community to join in this collective voice and experience the transformative and healing power of The Fire Ensemble."

"To Feel A Thing: A Ritual for Emergence is a musical ritual rooted in emergent strategy, the sound and spirit of gospel, and creating more possibilities for our species by awakening our capacity to feel what is, and feel each other," said adrienne maree brown. "It is being developed with the idea that anyone will be able to use the score and lyrics to create their own Ritual for Emergence."

In April 2022, The Shed and Troy Anthony's The Fire Ensemble announced their three-year creative partnership. During the inaugural year, The Shed co-produced the choir's first public performance, The Revival: It Is Our Duty, on June 18 in celebration of Juneteenth.

Anthony welcomes choir members to rehearse, workshop, and perform in transformative, large-scale music theater works and rituals rooted in predominantly Black musical styles including gospel, R&B, and musical theater. The emphasis of The Fire Ensemble's sessions is on the process of rehearsing, community-building through the weekly gatherings, and the end-of-session performances as public celebrations. As part of this collaboration, The Shed provides the intergenerational choir community with rehearsal space, production support, resources, and strategic consultation to develop projects and support its members.

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