Locals participate in state-wide democracy exercise

The dictionary definition of “democracy” is as follows, Heather Hughes said, addressing a room of locals in the Gunnison County Library. She glanced down to a ruffled yellow notepad, and recited Webster’s best shot at the popular word. Around her, people from all corners of the community listened in, prepared to offer their own interpretations as the afternoon wore on.

The gathering on Saturday, Jan. 13 was coordinated by Heather and husband Stephen Cole Hughes, both theater professors ar Western Colorado University. The conversations will be used as inspiration for a play about democracy in the Gunnison Valley. Locals gathered at the library both days over the weekend to participate.

It will be just one of three similar plays put on this summer, as part of a state-wide project to connect disparate communities through theater. The work is a collaboration between three Colorado-based theater companies: Local Theater Company in Boulder, Curious Theatre Company in Denver and the Gunnison Valley Theatre Festival, organized each year by the Hughes’. 

As the disruptions caused by the pandemic subsided, staff at the Local Theater Company began wondering what the next phase of American, and Colorado, theater would look like, said Nick Chase, one of the company’s artistic directors. The company settled on collaboration, with a focus on assembling creative minds from both urban and rural Colorado. With support of a grant from the Redline Contemporary Art Center, the “We the People: The Democracy Cycle” was born.

“This summer is going to be slightly fraught for a lot of people, because there's a looming federal election,” Chase said. “We've seen that divide our communities … So how can we communicate in ways that feel constructive, not destructive?” 

The circles are meant to create an open dialogue about democracy through small group activities, written answers and sticky notes. The goal is to filter out what themes are most prevalent in each place. Participants in each community are given the same set of prompts, the “controlled variable” that will create unity between the final products, Chase said.

Throughout January, each company will hold several story circles in their respective cities. At each gathering, a local playwright observes the event and uses the answers and discussion as prompts to write the script for a 20-30 minute play. Once that’s done, each theater company will bring on a director and actors to bring the concept to life. This summer, the plays will show back-to-back in each respective community, all in the same evening.  

“You might see common denominators between the communities, but you're also going to see each community’s unique spirit,” Chase said. 

Sheltered from the whipping snow and welcomed with cookies, locals gathered for a session on Saturday. School district parents, Western Colorado University staff, longtime writers and even a new school board representative took three hours to grapple with the valley’s most complicated, and sensitive issues. 

Chase invited the audience to be “soft-brained” about democracy, and consider what it means outside the American binary of Trump or Biden. 

“These conversations are not fiction, but it's an opportunity to create something that gives an open window. It’s an opportunity to take a peek into each other's lives and find ways that we can talk about who we are, proudly and without shame,” Heather said. 

While the group talks, playwright Stephen was on scene, furiously scribbling notes as participants responded to prompts like: “What are the sounds of my community,” “I feel most like a local when I do this” and “These are the biggest issues in my community.”

At the end of the event, Post-It notes speckled the long white wall. They included what this room full of people considered the greatest issues facing the Gunnison Valley today: affordable housing, mental illness, quality education and a growing wealth disparity. The group debated the responsibility, and effectiveness, of Gunnison’s elected officials, and the ways in which neighbors can take better care of each other. 

“I’m exhausted and burned out by all things political, and it makes me think about conflict and stress, but I do it out of a sense of obligation,” attendee Karen Hausdoerffer said. “Whereas when I was at this workshop, it was enjoyable, I would have done it just for fun because it was interesting to hear people's thoughts … It doesn't matter if you agree with people. It's just interesting to see what they have to say.”

For Heather, using theater to broach real-world issues is a way to talk about them in a more comfortable setting. 

“It's like a little window that people feel safe looking at, and looking through,” Heather said. “Theater is more accessible and digestible.” 

(Abby Harrison can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or abby@gunnisontimes.com.)