No Room for Wishing

kickstarter website:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/563348135/the-world-premiere-of-no-room-for-wishing

September 13 – 22 at the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Black Box Theater and September 30 – October 9 at Central Square Theater’s Studio Theater

My interview with Danny Bryck from May:  https://www.netheatregeek.com/2012/05/20/geeks-nerds-and-artists-episode-7-danny-bryck/

(copy from kickstarter page)

“Hailed by Company One’s Artistic Director Shawn LaCount as, “an important and timely play by one of Boston’s most dynamic young theatre makers,” No Room for Wishing is comprised only of exact words compiled from interviews and live recordings at the occupation of Dewey Square from October to December of 2011.  Both personal and political, the show pieces together the voices and experiences of a diverse range of individuals into the larger story of the Occupy movement, both in Boston and as a whole.

No Room for Wishing follows Occupy Boston from its formation, through clashes with the police, infighting among the activists, legal battles and collective victories, to its eviction by the City of Boston. The play’s real-life characters, played by a single actor, represent a diversity of age, race, occupation, opinion and background, from college students to bankers to lifelong activists to the homeless. Their stories shed light on the complex identities and contradictions of Occupy, and of contemporary America.

The play has been in development for the past ten months, and has been presented in readings and workshop productions at Apollinaire Theatre Company, the Wall Street to Main Street Festival in Catskill, NY, Central Square Theater, and Boston University. The show has had a powerful impact on those who have seen it so far, and we want to bring it to a wider audience.

The World Premiere

In honor of the one-year anniversaries of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Boston, No Room for Wishing will have its world premiere this fall. Company One and Central Square Theater, two of Boston’s most vibrant theatre companies, will co-produce the play, with support from Boston Playwright’s Theatre. The production is still dependent largely upon independent fundraising. With your help, the play will run September 13 – 22 at the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Black Box Theater and September 30 – October 9 at Central Square Theater’s Studio Theater. We also hope to bring the show to other venues, including local schools and universities, and to tour the show beyond Boston. Your donation will go towards materials needed for this production, stipends for the actor, director, designers, and post-show discussion facilitators, the accrued costs of developing and touring the play, and more.

The Story

[Danny[ started working on No Room for Wishing in early October 2011, about a week into Occupy Boston’s occupation of Dewey Square. He had been interested for some time in documentary theatre in the style of Anna Deveare Smith, the Tectonic Theater Project, etc., and was feeling more and more of a need to unite his artistic pursuits with my political ideals. He began interviewing people on site, and the project continued to evolve from there as my understanding of the movement deepened, events unfolded, and stories he collected from people began to shape the direction of the piece. On the one hand, he wanted this play to serve as a deeper and more meaningful account of Occupy than Americans were getting from the news, and to challenge preconceived notions of why someone might decide to Occupy and what Occupy sought to and could achieve. On the other hand, he knew it was important for the play not to have a singular agenda, but rather be a genuine attempt at capturing all the rich complexity and contradiction of these people, this time, and this place, without apology.

Bryck wanted the play to ask – not necessarily answer – how do we relate to each other as individuals and as perceived groups in our society, what do we value, and what happens when we try to actively break down and reinvent those structures, those relationships, and those values? And he wanted to pose those questions indirectly, by letting the individuals and the events speak for themselves, forcing the audience to draw their own, hopefully new and more informed, conclusions. He believes this sort of true investigative process is sorely lacking in our society. Perhaps the main purpose of this play is to address that need.

To find out more, visit dannybryck.com/noroomforwishing. You can also listen to an interview about the project on The Bridge – Arts for the 99%, and watch a performance of an excerpt from No Room for Wishing on The Civilians’Occupy Your Mind.

Please be a part of this exciting and important labor of love. They have an ambitious goal of $10,000, but they’re confident thy can get there with your help. If they don’t reach our goal, they get nothing, so please pitch in and give what you can. In return for your generosity, they have a number of awesome rewards including complimentary tickets to the show, your own piece of the set, a remix of the sounds of Occupy Boston, an original song by Ruby Rose Fox featured in the show, the chance to be a part of your own documentary project, and a command performance of the play. Thank you so much, and he hopes to see you at the show!”