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Theater company Hiawatha Project developed a new work titled “My Traveling Song,” an interactive original play that uplifts memory, music, and sensory elements from nature to create a theatrical experience designed to cherish relationships between child and caregiver. The show is especially created to be experienced in pairs or small groups by children ages one to five and a grown-up who loves them. The world premier production of “My Traveling Song” debuts in the South Hills of Pittsburgh at Carnegie Stage in April. In “My Traveling Song,” a mother and child are confronted with unexpected natural obstacles. They weather through earthquakes, windstorms, and rhythmical rains by relying on music and play, sweet and silly memories, and new discoveries about the fascinating and connected world around them. Despite a world that can be unpredictable and sometimes sad, the play reveals that connections between loved ones, communities, and the physical world around us can help to make us feel safe, loved, and free to imagine a more empathic and playful world. In “My Traveling Song,” thunderstorms relinquish to cheerful mud puddles, and darkness reveals magical firefly constellations in the night sky. Heather Irwin, Monica Stephenson, and The play’s creative team comLiz Bartley interact with children in “My prises working professional female Traveling Song.” Photo by Anya Martin. artists, who are also parents of young school age children. Several of the artists are from Pittsburgh’s South Hills, including the founding artistic director of Hiawatha Project and “My Traveling Song” director Anya Martin, who resides in Upper St. Clair, Hiawatha Project associate producer and “My Traveling Hiawatha Project Awards Song” actor Heather Irwin, who also resides in Hiawatha Project was a recipient of the Upper St. Clair, and actor and lead composer August Wilson Center Programing for Monica Stephenson, who resides in Dormont. $50,000 in 2016 and is a proud recipient With this production, Hiawatha Project also aims of numerous prestigious funding to focus on the need for equity and representation awards, including The August Wilson Center Legacy Fund, Heinz Small Arts of women in the professional fields of theater. “My Traveling Song” was originally conceived Initiative, The McKinney Charitable and created out of a need to find joy and connec- Foundation, Opportunity Fund, Spout tion in times of upheaval and to support and uplift Fund, Pennsylvania Council of the the intrinsic connections between young children Arts, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and and their caregivers. Hiawatha Project hopes that PNC Charities. Hiawatha Project’s “JH: audiences will be comforted and encouraged by Mechanics of a Legend” was chosen to this work—to hold onto each other, to be present be developed and presented as a part together, and to relish and uplift the intrinsic and of the competitive New Hazlett Theatre vital connections found in relationships between CSA Series in 2015. Hiawatha Project’s young children and those who love them. n “Camino” was presented as a part of
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An interactive original play for children ages one to five
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My Traveling Song
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“TENACITY: Sprout’s 10th Anniversary Retrospective,” with an installation presented as a part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival juried show in 2013.
“My Traveling Song” Dates: April 5–14 Location: Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main Street, Carnegie For more information, visit https://hiawathaproject.org/tickets/. Hiawatha Project, a Pittsburgh-based original performance company, explores specific social questions through myth, free association, and movement. Visit www.hiawathaproject.org.
Spring 2019
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