Kickstarter

As part of its 2011-12 theatrical season, San Antonio’s Jump-Start Performance Co. will collaborate with Divadlo z Pasáže (Theatre from the Passage)—an ensemble of profoundly mentally challenged performers from the Slovak Republic—on an original performance piece. The play, Stranger, will explore what it means to experience sudden freedom, echoing the Slovak experience following the fall of the Soviet bloc. The piece uses the metaphor of an unexpected guest's arrival into the lives of a group of people stuck in limbo, freeing them for their past constraints. How does sudden freedom affect one’s attitudes and actions? What is normal and what is strange? The play will run November 18-19, 2011 at the Sterling Houston Theatre in San Antonio and November 20, 2011 at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre in Austin, sponsored by VSA Texas, the state organization for arts and disability.

Stranger marks the second time Jump-Start and Divadlo z Pasáže have worked together. In 2009, the organizations partnered to present a United States tour of Divadlo z Pasáže's original play, Protected Territory, to Cedar Rapids, IA, San Antonio and New York City. Inspired by these incredibly gifted performers, the Jump-Start company then made plans to collaborate with Divadlo z Pasáže on a new work that includes artists from both companies.

This is an incredible opportunity - artistically and culturally - for both companies. However, an international collaboration of this scale is challenging and expensive.  Artists involved in the production will be paid a fair wage for their creative work. That's where you come in. We are looking to raise $2,500 to fund this very ambitious and exciting project and we need your help to do it. Every dollar is greatly appreciated, and there are some great rewards for those who help out.

Please visit jump-start.org and divadlozpasaze.sk for more information on these progressive theatre companies and the exciting work that they do.