YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHER MAN TO KNOW WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS

There was poison hanging in the trees downtown, during the hottest summer on record, a viral surge and ecological collapse. We looked around and worked to divine pattern: swifts, bees, flowers, sun, moon, stars, people in large groups moving together for justice.  Isolated from friends’ embraces and accidental encounters with strangers, we found ourselves seeing the meaning and augury of every-day beauty. These are not new patterns, nor are we the first to divine them, but we are joining the work. We are looking back and remembering histories, marking out a place for observation of the now-instant, and making predictions about a future we want to make real. 

What if dreaming the future can give us an understanding of how to live our present?

We engineered an environment and a series of conditions, in which every detail is attended to for a precise duration of time: 23 minutes and 26 seconds (A number drawn from the tilt of the earth’s axis.) This time-based environment became the ‘text’ or ‘script’ that the performers ‘read’. Led by scenographer, Peter Ksander, director Amber Whitehall, and our phenomenal team of designers (Miranda Hardy, Mark Valadez, Jenny Ampersand, Maggie Heath, Trevor Sergant), PETE performer/creators (Cristi Miles, Jacob Coleman, Rebecca Lingafelter) made a series of performance events, as they weather the room. Oh, and did we mention, it’s all on wheels?

Weather Room is made possible by Ronni LaCroute, Harold Goldstein and Carol Streeter, Ellen Walkley and Brian Myers, The Mental Insight Foundation, MAP Fund, The Kinsman Foundation, and The Reed College Theatre Department.

Production history:

August 29/30/31, 2020

Scenographer, Peter Ksander; director Amber Whitehall; Miranda Hardy, Light design; Mark Valadez, Sound Design; Jenny Ampersand, Costume design; Maggie Heath, Property Design; Trevor Sargent, Video and Streaming; Molly Gardner, Production Manager; Kristina Mast, Location and Patron Services; Mike Wax, Carpenter and Transportation; PETE performer/creators Jacob Coleman and Rebecca Lingafelter.

All proceeds from the August 2020 WEATHER ROOM performances benefited Native America Youth and Family Center and Don’t Shoot PDX- Children’s Art and Social Justice Council.