Refuge with Samantha Van Der Merwe and Rebby Yuer Foster
On this episode of Radical Listening, we talk with Sam and Rebby of Shaking the Tree Theatre Company about their current theater installation piece Refuge. We also learn about the origin of Shaking the Tree Theatre and cover some exciting new headlines!
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Samantha Van Der Merwe
“As a director, I have long been interested in the synergy between drama and the visual arts, and “using the architecture” around me to create a world unto itself. I strive to use the theater space as a visual artist would use a canvas, maximizing the audience’s suspension of disbelief and encouraging full immersion in the material. Entering a visually evocative space allows the audience to inhabit the world of the play even before the action begins. I find that working in a non-traditional theater space, in collaboration with visual artists, offers rich opportunities both for heightening the emotional experience of the audience and for supporting key ideas contained within the play.
My ultimate goal is to create a meaningful, intimate point of connection between the work and the audience: to inspire people to think, feel, wonder, marvel, use their courage, and perhaps even change. Although this kind of thoughtful, inclusive theater is indeed profoundly “entertaining,” the end-goal is not entertainment for its own sake. I believe that literature and storytelling are central to our humanity, that is, fundamental to the elemental need for understanding and meaning-making.”
Rebby Yuer Foster
Rebby Yuer Foster (she/they) is a Portland-based multidisciplinary artist & theatrical collaborator. She is currently an Artistic Associate at Shaking the Tree Theatre. Regional Theatre credits include A Christmas Carol (Seacoast Repertory Theatre), Once (Seacoast Repertory Theatre), We’ve Come to Believe (Humana Festival ‘19), A Christmas Carol (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville), Dracula (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville). Rebby is a former Acting Apprentice at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville ‘18-19.
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