POVA IN THE NEWS: Vanderbilt News - Vanderbilt Theatre engages audience to end Nashville poverty

Vanderbilt Theatre Rehearsal for 'How to End Poverty' (Joe Howell/Vanderbilt)

Vanderbilt Department of Theatre, in partnership with Sojourn Theatre and the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, will offer an interactive show that challenges the Nashville community to respond to local poverty.

By: Ann Marie Deer Owens

How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 179 People You May or May Not Know) will take place in Neely Auditorium at 8 p.m. Feb. 24-27 and at 2 p.m. Feb. 28. The audience is encouraged to come 30 minutes early at each performance for pre-show engagement activities. Participating students have produced a video about the project.

Leah Lowe, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre, worked with Michael Rohd, founding artistic director of Sojourn Theatre, to bring the production to Vanderbilt after she took part in an intensive Sojourn workshop. The award-winning professional ensemble theatre company is noted for its arts-based civic dialogue.

“Nashville is just booming,” Lowe said. “However, our local leadership has started discussions about who gets left behind as our city adjusts to all this explosive growth. This production offers audience members the chance to learn and to shape the response.”

Students and community experts will come together to explore the impact of poverty and to consider different approaches to addressing a very complex problem. Throughout the performance, audience members are in dialogue with each other and with the performers.