R. Michael Oliver in SASQUATCH AND THE MAN, part of the Lost and Found 10-Minute Play cycle.
Alex Perez in THE TRUTH ABOUT TINY TIM, part of the Lost and Found Ten-Minute Play Cycle.
The Art of Being Lost Map Collage
(image credit - LaRonika Thomas)
10-MINUTE PLAYS: The Art of Being Lost
LaRonika Thomas, Dramaturg, illuminates the 10-Minute Play Lost & Found group with an excerpt from Laurene Vaughn’s The Art of Being Lost: An Alternate Approach to Mapping
“It is interesting to consider the relationship between the Art of Being Lost and the creation of maps and atlases. Although it is generally assumed that maps, atlases and other cartographic way-finding devices are designed to help us find clarity, there are many who see the value of breaking this rule. For the readers of maps there is a belief that what lies within a map is true. Maps and atlases have authority. They are designed and presented in a manner that reassures the reader of their validity, that truth lies within their representation; for this is what a map is, a representation, a visualization of something else. A map is not a place, a map is an thematic articulation of somewhere (Ackerman & Karrow 2007, Harley 2001).
It is by reading maps that we can make sense of our world and place ourselves, we create some sense of here in relation to there (Noble Wilford 2002, p.6); and it by reading maps that we translate these representations to create our own meaning and understanding of where we are. We trust that maps will enable us to find our way, that we can place ourselves along or within their marks and from there move toward our destiny (this is true whether it is a map of a place or a thing).”
10-MINUTE PLAYS: Associate Producer and Dramaturg LaRonika Thomas Solves Lost & Found
These six plays offer up distinct stories of things lost and things found. A young woman loses an idol in exchange for finding her own voice; an eater loses his identity as he finds his hunger; a mother loses the punch line, but finds her children’s hearts; an iconic writer finds a business partner and his greatest story; a lovelorn man loses his fear in order to find his lover; and two friends find each other while they wait to be discovered by the rest of the universe. It is a well-worn trope that sometimes you must lose yourself in order to find yourself, but never has such a familiar idea been given so many dimensions as in this group of plays. Come along on this adventure with us and ask yourself what you are willing to lose and what you are aching to find.
