Dmae catches up with Michael Rohd, founder and artistic director of Sojourn Theatre. It’s been since 2010 when Sojourn produced an original interactive theatre piece in Portland. This time they’re teaming up with Portland Playhouse to debut the regional premiere of HOW TO END POVERTY IN 90 MINUTES. We’ll hear how Rohd and Sojourn have created a model for a new kind of theatre that can be personalized for any community, any locale.

And in the latter part of the show, we hear a poem from Dilip Sunar, a Bhutanese refugee. It’s about his journey being forced out of Bhutan with his family of 10 people  in the 90s to a Nepalese refugee camp  till 2009. He will be featured at the Migrations Arts Fair on Jan. 31st at 2:30-4pm at IRCO. 

(Aired 11am Tues 1/20/15 on KBOO 90.7FM and podcast that same day.)

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Michael Rohd
Michael Rohd

Michael Rohd and Sojourn Theatre brings its inventive social practice theatre piece to Portland Playhouse in an imaginative collaboration called HOW TO END POVERTY IN 90 MINUTES. Part physical theatre stage play, lecture, interactive workshop and public conversation, the play aims to challenge each audience in attendance to tackle the problem of poverty within our own communities. Each performance the 99 people in the audience will give away $1000 drawn from box office receipts. Since there are 17 performances, that means $17,000 will be given away to help end poverty in Multnomah County.

Rohd and Sojourn previously created this at Northwestern University where Rohd teaches. It was so successful that they have planned other locations to create an individualized version of show. After Portland, the play moves to Montana in 2015  and Nashville the following year.

HOW TO END POVERTY IN 90 MINUTES
Conceived and Written by Michael Rohd and Sojourn Theatre.
Directed by Liam Kaas-Lent. Includes Sojourn ensemble members Rebecca Martinez, Bobby Bermea, Shannon Scrofano, and Hanna Treuhaft

The show runs Feb. 4th-22nd. All shows are at Portland Playhouse is located at 602 NE Prescott St. in Portland. For tickets, visit  PortlandPlayhouse.org  or call our Box Office at 503-488-5822

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And in the last part of the show, we hear a poem from Bhutanese-Nepali refugee. He and his family of 10 were evicted from Bhutan by the government because they didn’t conform to the language and culture on the country.  Sunar write about his journey from Bhutan to refugee camps in Nepal. His interpreter is Suprina Koirala.

This is part of  Migrations, a multi-disciplinary project with Dmae Roberts creating radio stories and essays with photographer Nisa’ Haron on immigrant and refugee arts in Portland. It’s been a collaboration with IRCO, the Immigrant and Refugee Community of Oregon. And now the project is hosting an event with the performances, stories and artwork of artists in the Portland community in a FREE event!
You are invited to the Migrations Arts Fair
January 31st, 2:30-4pm at IRCO (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization), located at 10301 Northeast Glisan Street, Portland, OR 97220.
See/hear a variety of arts and performances with some samplings of cultural foods. It’s all FREE!

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