Skid Row covers fifty city blocks immediately east of downtown Los Angeles and is home to approximately 5000 homeless people. It has been called the ‘worst man-made disaster in U.S history,’ and was recently dubbed ‘the place where people go to die,’ filled with ‘zombies, absolute drug addicts with mental illnesses.’
Part of the impetus in the Creative Thinking Project going to L.A was to create a theatre project to counter these dehumanising narratives by telling other stories. Stories of people struggling to stay alive through acts of kindness, of generosity, and how the arts are central to their survival on skid row. We worked alongside artists from the multiple organisations committed to making lives bearable for the thousands of people on Skid Row who far from being zombies are living testimony to the resilience and the possibility of the arts.
Having just completed a successful run with Auckland’s Hobson Street Homeless Theatre, Professor Peter O’Connor was invited to L.A to inspire those who live on Skid Row to express their hopes and experiences on stage. For the past 40 years, Peter has created theatre in earthquake and war zones, prisons and psychiatric hospitals. The ensuing Skid Row production would be performed twice in a large gallery space at L.A’s Museum of Contemporary Art and completed in just three days. Author Justin Brown joined Peter to document the process and watched as Peter, Craig Christie and Kristina Friedgen created a show named ‘It’s Time’ with 25 strangers, who created powerful theatre and became whanau. What a thing to see.
Directed and produced by Justin Brown.
Leave a Reply