Reba Place Church will be hosting the theater group Ted & Company for two shows on Friday, March 17 at 7 pm & Saturday, March 18 at 3 pm. Starring Ted Swartz and Michelle Milne, We Own This Now is a play by Alison Casella Brookins. Ted & Company TheaterWorks "uses humor and professional storytelling to talk about issues of faith and social justice through live shows." Their team of dynamic actors and musicians are "passionate about creating art that provokes both laughter and reflection, as all good comedy does."
Sponsored by Reba Place Church, Unitarian Church of Evanston, and Garrett - Evangelical Theological Seminary.
Tickets Not Required / $10 Suggested Donation. Please note the play is intended primarily for settler audiences.
Image from tedandcompany.com
Starring Ted Swartz and Michelle Milne, We Own This Now is a play by Alison Casella Brookins that looks at love of land, loss of land, and what it means to “own” something.
Chris has farmed the land his grandmother found as a home in Kansas after fleeing Russia almost 100 years ago; his daughter Riley is learning more about who was on that land before her Oma arrived, and the jarring connections she has to the fate of those people. We follow Chris and Riley as they navigate their changing relationship to each other and to the land their family has farmed for several generations.
Diving into historical documents, absurd situations, and extended metaphors, the audience discovers alongside Riley and Chris how the Doctrine of Discovery (the legal framework that justifies theft of land and oppression of Indigenous Peoples) is still being used and causing harm today.
We Own This Now provides a starting point for further conversation: What does it mean to “own” something? What is the relationship between “owning” and “taking” — and what is the relationship between “ownership” and (taking) responsibility?
From our audiences:
“You took the content from the head to the heart.”
“Your play reminded me how art can engage not just the intellect, but the soul and our emotional lives in a deeper way that has more potential for change.”
“The stories were both beautiful and painful to watch, as it should be.”
www.tedandcompany.com office@tedandcompany.com (540) 421-3462
Facebook: Ted & Company, Ted Swartz, Michelle Milne, and Alison Casella Brookins Instagram: TedNCo, Ted Swartz, Michelle Milne, Alison Casella Brookins
Photos taken by Glenn Riegel