Your Town
A Living History Residency and Performance, Available Live & Virtually!
Put the history of your town to work transforming the present! By working with museums, arts organizations, historical societies, professional and local historians, librarians, schools and community groups, Piti Theatre can develop original scenes that our professional actors and musicians create alongside local actors of all ages. The new script, videos and/or podcasts become widely distributed cultural resources.
"Collaborating with Piti Theatre Co has been an incredibly gratifying experience and a great joy to stretch ourselves to produce creative and challenging virtual content amid the multiple shutdowns and uncertainty of this unprecedented year. " - Namulen Bayarsaihan, Director of Education, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (read the whole letter of support or listen to excerpts from the podcast series)
I saw 'Olde Coleraine' at Riverfest in Shelburne Falls, MA, and was so facinated, moved and impressed - the MUSIC was amazing and so sweet, with the children singing, and the subject matter was near and dear to my heart having grown up along-side a river . . . I actually cried - really enjoyed it!" - Shauna Lynn, Shelburne Falls
Residency goals include
Giving citizens of all ages a deeper connection with their town
Framing current events in a historical context
Case Study: Hindsight Is
In collaboration with the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT, Piti Theatre developed a series of podcasts in the radio play genre highlighting figures and events from Ridgefield that spoke to our historical moment in 2020.
The "Hindsight Is" podcast series was made possible in part by Connecticut Humanities and the New England States Touring Program of the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Podcast Series
Press
Ridgefield Patch: "Ridgefield Museum Makes History . . . "
Recorder "Hindsight Is" Feature
"Thank you for the opportunity [to be in the podcast] and the wonderful job you and the cast did in honoring our father's legacy. The exchange between Delita and Bill Webb made me smile as it brought back many fond memories of the love and harmony within their marriage. The conversation between Private William and Bill Webb was compelling in such a way that it provoked the thought of how wonderful it would be for a similar writing/work to be created by Jonathan Mirin and Cast in today's time period depicting Bill Webb (my Dad) and William Webb of today (2020) having that same discussion. Thank you again to all for the care and detail expressed in this production!" - Nancy Dixon, William Webb's daughter
Case Study: "Olde Coleraine"
In response to a request for a new play with music about the history of Colrain, MA – and funded by Mass Humanites and the Mass Cultural Council – Piti Theatre created a dramatic framework that can be adapted to any New England mill town.
Selected Music
"One of our students is a fourth or fifth generation Colrain resident. She was able to grasp the connection between her experience in rehearsal and the oral history lessons her family had handed down through the generations. She was able to be a part of the performance and have her family come and witness her acting out the very life of their ancestors . . . Another student in the class is a very reserved boy. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine he would participate so willingly and enthusiastically in this performance. However, he really came out of his shell and enjoyed the experience."
- Amy Looman, Principal, Colrain Central School
Case Study: "Dexter and the Dinosaurs"
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, a museum and education center in Deerfield, MA, asked Piti Theatre to create a performance inspired by the local history of Greenfield, MA as it relates to the birth of paleontology. The performance also helped usher in a new town-wide annual festival called "The Great Greenfield DinoFest" which engenders civic pride as well as inspiring young people with the story of citizen-scientist Dexter Marsh who discovered dinosaur tracks outside town hall in 1835 before the word "dinosaur" had been coined.
Selected Music
This program is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.