Theater artists, Sarah and Jack Greenman, are working with Eastern Oregon University students to bring the Urban Rural Theater project to the stage. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, Sarah, Jack and EOU students through the REV Center worked on collecting stories of the people of Oregon, from rural, suburban, and urban areas. By excavating and deepening our collective understanding of the “urban-rural divide” in the state of Oregon, the project is to give voice to unheard narratives, honor the stories of those interviewed, and invite audiences into a deeper conversation about community and connection, myth and lived experience, harm and progress.
Interviews have been conducted with over 30 individuals across the state to identify common themes and utilize the words of real people to write a script for a true verbatim theater production. These individuals represent the stories less often told in mainstream media including rural folks, women, Native Americans, formerly incarcerated individuals, and the LGBTQ+ community.