Compelling Theater: KoFest 2021

SUMMER 2021: 1 live + 3 online productions

Justice, Environmental Safety & Climate Change

Amherst College, where we usually present our live performances and workshops, is not hosting summer programs this year, due to Covid. Thus, most of our offerings are staying online for 2021. The silver lining: no matter where you live, you’ll be able to join us!

A different, live and lively post-show, hosted by Trenda Loftin and featuring the artists and field experts, will follow each of the streamed performances.

2021 PERFORMANCE EVENTS

Playwright Deletta Gillespie - a middle-aged Black woman with dreadlocks and a gentle smile

Held Over Through August 8! • THE MAGIC CITY MASSACRE • Video-on-Demand June 19-July 4 2021

selections of the play by DELETTA GILLESPIE

Video-on-Demand of our Zoom event from June 2020 about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Post-show discussion includes DARYL DAVIS, noted for his work convincing Klansmen to leave and denounce the KKK.
Closed Captioning Available.

Situated in the fictional Museum of Conveniently Forgotten History, “The Magic City Massacre” tells the story of one of the most prosperous black communities in the history of the United States, how Tulsa came to be the site of the worst incidence of civil unrest second only to the Civil War, and why almost one-hundred years later, most Americans still don’t know about it. Your exhibit guide is JUSTICE, a docent....

A rehearsal of Serious Play's "Moving Water" showing 3 actors in front of a projected image in blues, aquas and purples. A wavy, watery image, it shows one of the actors faces at the top of the frame. In front of the projection an actress stands left of a table looking out at us. She is lit from the left side. The rest of her body is shadowed. She is next to a table filled with glass paraphernalia. A man is is seated behind the table in shadow pouring water into a glass. A 3rd man sits at the table opposite the woman. He is lit from the left and we can see that he is reading a piece of paper.

MOVING WATER • ONLINE: July 30 & 31 at 8pm; Aug. 1 at 4pm (Live performances July 22-25 SOLD OUT.)

a devised theatre production by SERIOUS PLAY THEATRE ENSEMBLE written by ERIC HENRY SANDERS, with music by JONNY RODGERS, directed by SHERYL STOODLEY, designed by ROBIN DOTY, lighting by SABRINA HAMILTON with KERMIT DUNKELBERG, XIMENA CALDERÓN, WILL SWYERS

Ko Theater Works/Ko Festival, Associate Producer

LIVE for a limited audience, ages 12 and up, at APE@Hawley, Northampton MA

ONLINE, with closed captioning available.

During a pandemic exacerbated by threatening storms, three apartment dwellers are thrown together in an existential struggle hinging on their personal stances on climate change and a developing water crisis. Zara, Pakistani immigrant and friend to Sergei the building’s super, is missing. They’ve been designing a secret project to save their building from an impending flood. Luna, a Mexican oceanographic student and Drew, a climate denier, son of the building’s owner, are quickly embroiled in the search...

Man in Hawaiian shirt on beach with palm trees and cell towers behind him surrounded by 3 L Lego "Hawaii Five-G" figures.

HAWAII FIVE-G: Canary in the Gold Mine • NEW DATES! ONLINE: Nov. 12 & 13 at 8pm; Nov 14 at 4pm

PITI THEATRE COMPANY

Written and performed by Jonathan Mirin

With a partner sickened by electro-hypersensitivity (a.k.a. “microwave sickness”) Mirin has become part of a landmark suit against the FCC. During the pandemic he’s felt compelled to transform what could be an earnest public health lecture into a fun and compelling dive into the opposing forces of corporate profit vs. public safety. Created for the web, Mirin's eco-justice mockumentary is like theatre…but flatter! After raiding his son's Lego stash...

Captions Available

TRANSFORMING YOUR WRITING BY RESTING YOUR MIND

A meditation and writing workshop with JUANITA ROCKWELL
MAY 15-16 & OR JULY 10-11.

Whether we write for our own pleasure or for others, to be read on the page or to be spoken aloud, we want our writing to reflect our experience of the world. But our habitual thinking and the ways we tell these stories become a kind of spell of doing, of busy-ness; a spell that binds us, separates us from others, and limits our authentic expression. If we release this imprint of Doing, what might happen if we can rest in the stillness, silence and spaciousness of our Being? In this two-day, small group workshop, you will learn practices that will ...
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TRANSFORMING YOUR WRITING BY CLEARING YOUR MIND (level 2)

A meditation and writing workshop with JUANITA ROCKWELL
JULY 17-18

A spacious and lively restfulness can be more elusive than we might think. In this workshop we will explore practices that work with breath and body to refresh and clear obstacles of aversion, attachment and confusion. These energetic practices can facilitate a more open and aware resting of your mind in stillness, silence and spaciousness. They can also stimulate memory, imagery and imagination that can enrich our writing and our lives. The first day of this small group workshop focuses on ...
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STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY

Ko stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter; with Black, Indigenous, and POC artists, and colleagues. We stand with the movement-building cultural organizations, collectives, and individuals that have invested decades and generations in the struggle to undo systemic racism. We grieve with and for the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the many others brutally murdered at the hands of the state and of white civilians. We are horrified by the wave of violence agains Asians and Asian-Americans.

We call on our larger community to listen and respond to the national and local leadership of frontline organizers who are, as ever, leading us with grace and integrity. Please help leverage and distribute resources to support their labor and amplify their vision, as you’re able.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

The Amherst and Pelham Cultural Councils, local agencies supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Ko Theater Works, Inc. is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts through the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with major funding from the federal CARES Act from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Also funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

Art Angels

The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts

2021 MEDIA SPONSOR

Hilltown Families

In addition, for seasons when we are able to gather in person, we are most grateful to the AMHERST COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF THEATER AND DANCE, for access to their lovely theater and studios.