Location
Portland, OR
Artist
Progress Theatre
Project Title
The Burnin'
Fiscal Year Awarded
2017
Grant or Program
National Theater Project Presentation Grant
Grant Amount
$5,000

Progress Theatre will perform 6 shows of The Burnin', an a cappella musical inspired by two nightclub tragedies; one in 1940 in Mississippi, one in Illinois in 2003. Straddling time and space, The Burnin’ offers an imaginative exploration drawing on the tragedies as a narrative inroad to exploring central themes of identity. The piece follows a group of clubgoers through the before and after of the fires to examine the sociopolitical complexities of race, gender, class, community, legacy and freedom during times of survival.