The trail divides here.You may:
1. Get an update on Spiral Theater, the company
2. Learn about the upcoming show
I’ll be honestly, literally right after Ghostrunners closed; we stopped, dropped and rolled ourselves into a cave to hibernate. Although I’m still very, very proud of the end product, that baseball show ended up being quite the feat, so treating ourselves to a retreat felt like the only bearable thing to do. It was a moment of rest and reclusion. Sometimes it was solitude and hiding. But it was also reflection and connecting with the spirit of Spiral.
We’re entering our fifth year as a theater company (whoa…). I’ve been told that, naturally, five years is when companies begin to explore what their path forward is. Do we continue growing? Do we try new things? Do we hone in on what’s working? Do we bring in more people? Apply for more grants? Host different kinds of events? Or retire? What kind of company do we want to be? And also… what kind of producer-artist do I want to be?
I love theater because it has to be a group project. The process is a collaboration between different kinds of artists. The product is a collaboration between artists and audiences. And through that mixing and melding and negotiating and rollicking, a person is shown who they are or who they want to be.
So, we’ve awaken from our hibernation just in time for a lot folks to be retreating in the name of self-care. That’s fine and so important. But know that we’re here embracing community care. It’s nothing too overwhelmingly significant, and our reach isn’t that wide, but experiencing joy is an act of rebellion. I know whatever path Spiral choses, it’ll be one rooted in joy.
—Kevin
What is Road to Nowhere? Is it a staged reading? Is it a radio play? Are we actors? Performers? Am I a playwright?
Is this about roads? Trails? The Oregon Trail? The computer game or the real thing? News from Lake Wobegon?
Is it like Prairie Home Companion? Little House on the Prairie? Little Women?
Pavement? Path? Is it about highways that destroy communities? Paths we don’t want to follow? Is it about colonization and militant manifest destiny?
Is this about my own understanding of my own complicities, learning curves, and prejudices? Does Road to Nowhere! interrogate the author’s relationship to the text?
What is the Road to Nowhere? Do snowflakes vanish into a blizzard? Do we march towards a future of dense nothingness or rich possibility?
My original idea for this play was an interactive theater experience that took place on Central Minnesota’s Wobegon Trail. Performers and audiences would start at Saint John’s University in Collegeville and travel to the “promised land” of St. Joseph to get beers at Sal’s and pizza at Gary’s. Along the path, scenes would take place; companions might die of dysentery, bandits might attack the wagon, we might have to ford a river. I can confidently say this show is NOT that, but might be in the future.
I love writing these radio plays; this one in particular feels in many ways like a portrait of my past. I’ve been thinking a lot about Radio K, playing the Oregon Trail on massive desktops in elementary school, and biking from Collegeville to Freeport on that very same Wobegon Trail during my undergraduate experience.
This one’s a doozy—see you spoon.
—Kyle
