A newspaper clipping. A Polaroid photo. A tube of chapstick. These are just a few of the objects an audience member might find in a mailed package as they gear up to explore the nation’s capital and its surrounding neighborhoods through Rorschach Theatre’s immersive, tactile Psychogeographies project.
Psychogeographies, an innovative blend of self-guided adventure and object-based storytelling, was developed in the early days of the pandemic with three goals: to manifest hope, create community, and provide context in a time of crisis. This year’s narrative, Vox Populi (Latin for “voice of the people”), follows the time-traveling journey of two teenagers who land in the midst of D.C. protests throughout history.
“What makes a good protest, what makes an effective protest?” wondered playwright Jonelle Walker. In devising Vox Populi with artistic directors Randy Baker and Jenny McConnell Frederick and multimedia designer Kylos Brannon, she noted, “It’s been cathartic to think about protest through the eyes of a very young person. I think young psychogeographers approaching this, who are the age of the characters, will feel connected to these big questions.”
Participants have been receiving a new package each month since March, inviting them to explore neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C., area, both physically or virtually, as they follow the teenage characters. Participants can join at any point in the project. Through embodied experiences that revel in texture and touch, connection happens. Articles are printed on real newsprint; metal boxes are distressed with real rust.
The experience will culminate in August by combining with the theatre’s signature Klecksography showcase, in which short plays are written in a week. Local playwrights, continuing with the Vox Populi theme and characters, will be commissioned to write six short plays that could be alternate endings or spinoffs of the narratives so far.
Said Frederick, “It makes me think about storytelling in a different way, and what tiny things can reveal about a larger picture. How do you put something in people’s hands that feels like history?”
