Starting this weekend, theatergoers can pay $25 to stroll through an old shipyard on the South Waterfront at sunset and imagine what it’s like to suddenly be homeless. It’s a very different theater experience than plopping down in a comfortable chair for a few hours and passively enjoying a play – and that’s exactly what it’s all about.
This is the third year that the Hand2Mouth Theatre is hosting HOMETOWNa piece of the genre “immersive theatre”. HOMETOWN is set after a fictional catastrophic event such as a natural disaster or war. The government has asked anyone in need of shelter to gather at Zidell Yards to participate in an intake process. Viewers are given a timed entry ticket with three-minute gaps to begin their exploration of displacement and homelessness.
“It’s a theatrical experience, but one that’s rooted in authentic stories – it’s a kind of installation,” says director Michael Cavazos. “I don’t know of any other piece like this.”
HOMETOWN Visitors will walk through the set beneath the Ross Island Bridge and explore their new home – a fictional government-run shelter village called Lot 6B – while interacting with actors who guide them through the carefully choreographed experience. The tour winds through a government office set, down a path past giant old ship parts, to the cabin and finally to a gazebo where the play ends. It lasts an hour and guests walk about three-quarters of a mile.
Through written texts and audio recordings via headphones, HOMETOWN weaves together true stories of displacement past and present, such as the Vanport flood of 1948, U.S. internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II, and farm workers who came to the U.S. through the Bracero program in the mid-20th century. This year, there is a special focus on displacement in Gaza, Ukraine, and, as a result of the clearing of homeless camps, in Portland.
“From the beginning, the most important thing was to be able to tell these stories without exploiting anyone,” says Cavazos. Cavazos and her team at Hand2Mouth originally had HOMETOWN in collaboration with the New York WaxFactory and the French Begat Theater.
The immersive or interactive theatre movement was born in New York City in 2011 with a production called Sleep no more. Audiences move at their own pace through a converted warehouse in Chelsea while actors perform scenes based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. (Sleep no more is scheduled to close on September 29.) Local theatergoers may remember the 2023 production of Shaking the Tree Theatre In another reality she scratches at the walls by Max Yu, which took the audience around the block and through various scenes of a dystopian, hyper-technologized hellscape.
Perhaps the most well-known immersive cinema experience? A haunted house.
And although the audience will explore an old shipyard after sunset in HOMETOWNCavazos, who is also the artistic director of Hand2Mouth, assures that they will never feel unsafe or pressured to perform. Rather, they will interact with a cast of five actors during the show. Going through it all on their own is part of the deal.
“They actually experience what it can be like to be isolated, alone and thrown into this bureaucratic chaos of a camp,” says Cavazos.
Actress Maia McCarthy played a role in the 2022 and 2023 productions, leading audiences through their new tiny homes on Lot 6B, encouraging them to touch things, read stories and rummage through a suitcase. Three minutes later, McCarthy’s performance began again with a new audience member.
“My role puts me in close proximity to the audience, and from a live theater perspective, it was really fun and fascinating to have that kind of intimate experience with one person after another over and over again,” says McCarthy. “I felt like it gave me a different opportunity than when I’m performing in front of a big house to really care about that person.”
Director Cavazos’ goal is to inspire people to be a little kinder to their fellow human beings and to keep them safe and ensure their basic needs are met – a message that is especially apt during this election season.
“I would love for Ted Wheeler to come to the show,” they say. “I want all the mayoral candidates to watch the show and think about our homeless problem.”
WATCH IT: HOMETOWN plays at Hand2Mouth Theatre, 3121 S Moody Ave., hand2mouththeatre.org. 7-10 p.m., Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 30-Sept. 14, $5-$25.
