Cabaret Theater on a mission:
art, higher education and community service brought together
to do
real work in the real world.
Gathered in a room is a microcosm of life - college
students in pursuit of higher knowledge with worldly aims and the time
and resources to explore them; the staff of the women’s shelter working
towards solutions and aid for real life circumstances; victims of domestic
violence who, though from all walks of life, now wear the blinders of
survival until they are safe to look beyond them...and us, two artists
looking to build the bridges between all these different lives. Clearly,
this is a room full of potential, particularly in the coming together.
But relationships take building and the work ahead is unclear. Where
to even begin and how long will it take?
We step to the front of the room and present a song that tells
the story of a woman who struggles to survive and, more, to thrive
with what she has been handed. When it is done, we ask some questions
we have about the woman in the song and what she's trying to say.
We try on a few different endings - same words, but different intent.
They experiment with the interpretation through theater, tempo and
tone. As we do, the others in the room start to question as well.
What will the woman in the song decide? And what, really, is her opinion
of her situation? Is there a right way to see it? Soon, everyone in
the room is thoroughly engaged and it’s almost as though the woman
in the song is there right along with them.
In fact, she is there several times over...as student, social
worker and victim. The façade of the fictional character fades away
easily and now the discussion is about the lives in the room. The
stories, decisions, opinions, and hopes. Everyone is a participant
and the barriers of role and unfamiliarity have gone quietly away.
*Based on a true situation - want the whole story? It's here in The
History of Plunge!
Plunge! Cabaret is a performing arts troupe and
residency program working in the cabaret style of music and theater
to bring reality into the spotlight. At the heart of the concept is
an array of endearing and compelling cabaret shows. Each is an engaging,
self-contained theatrical performance about realistic personalities
complete with struggles and achievements, times of hilarity and grief,
quirks and triumphs. In our residency program with higher education
and community service organizations, Plunge artists combine performance
and facilitation skills using excerpts from the shows and the venue
of music and theater as a catalyst for creative and substantive work
on a variety of human development issues.
:
Art draws out the most human
elements in us - the most passionate, instinctive, honest and vulnerable
of thoughts, opinions and feelings.
Higher Education institutions
engage in intellectual inquiry, driving scholars to discover how we
develop and advance, and inspiring them to create solutions for contemporary
social challenges.
Community Service organizations
come face to face with our human condition - addressing issues of health,
growth, strife and survival.
Together, these three form a powerful symbiotic
relationship - something unique and more encompassing than each part
alone. They create an atmosphere that encourages communication at
a very comprehensive and personal level, and a structure that incorporates
the focus and resources of higher education and community service
with the creative catalyst of art. An ideal setting that allows us
to Plunge! into the heart of the matter with lasting and positive
results.