On the air! Weekend Edition on WNYC, David Furst and Jennifer Vanasco talking about A Thousand Ways, Parts One and Two.
“It’s really deeply transformative. It does what the best theater does – creates a sense of empathy, builds a bridge between you and someone who might not be like you at all.”
A Thousand Ways (Part Two) is up and running in NYC, installed inside multiple venues at The Public Theater.
A Critic’s Pick from Laura Collins-Hughes from the NY Times.
“It is a joy; even if it scares you, go. This is a work of inquisitive humanity and profound gentleness, which over the course of an hour buffs away the armor that lets us proceed through our days brusque, numb and antagonistic.”
600 HIGHWAYMEN have been invited to be Associate Artists of IN SITU, the European platform for artistic creation in public space. Michael is spending this week in an artistic laboratory with the partners and other Associate Artists. We’re very excited to be a part of this groundbreaking platform with inspiring artists.
Thank you to Gemma Wilson at American Theatre magazine who put thoughtful attention and care into this profile of 600 HWM after she experience both Part One and Part Two of A Thousand Ways.
“This Time It’s Personal: 600 Highwaymen’s Intimate ‘A Thousand Ways’”
A Thousand Ways (Part One) continues to run (though we’ve just closed at The Public Theater, CAP UCLA, Stanford Live, Boom Arts). Just announced extensions at Arizona Arts Live and On the Boards. And tickets are soon available for Walker Art Center and Carolina Performing Arts.. Check our calendar for dates & tickets. And a reminder: you can attend from wherever you are. All you need is a telephone and a quiet hour alone. Here’s some recent press from David Cote at The Observer, and the SF Chronicle Datebook.
The New York Times featured Abby & Michael and A THOUSAND WAYS in the Sunday Arts section this weekend.
“It sounds odd to describe an hourlong telephone chat, which is what “A Phone Call” is, as a work of theater, and I’m not even sure that it qualifies. Yet the performance, which requires two anonymous strangers and one automated voice to guide them through a structured conversation, employs the tools of theater. And it achieves more goals of theater — telling stories, triggering imagination, nurturing empathy, fostering connection — than nearly any other show I have experienced since pre-pandemic days.”
Above photo of A&M by Lauren Lancaster.
A THOUSAND WAYS (Part One): A Phone Call is featured in this week’s New Yorker magazine, in a piece by Alexandra Schwartz:
“Duo Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone, who go by the moniker 600 HIGHWAYMEN and are known for devising inventive, sincere theatre of a kind that makes urbane audiences fatted on cynicism feel wonder afresh … The term “experimental” tends to signal an ambition to flaunt difficulty and occlude meaning, but 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s experiments with theatrical form are distinctly generous. That is the case with “A Thousand Ways,” which takes a simple premise and turns it into magic.” Read the full piece here. And note the excellent illustration by Raphaelle Macaron.
A THOUSAND WAYS (Part One): A Phone Call has started running around the world. We just completed a run at On The Boards (Seattle) and Dublin Theatre Festival. The Irish Times calls it: “An expressive gesture of hope. ⭑⭑⭑⭑.” And here’s a feature on the project by Crosscut: “For an hour, I forgot the world around me as I pieced together a blurry picture of a stranger from the clues in her voice and the breadcrumbs of her backstory. Sitting in the dark, I came as close to a theater experience as I’ve had in a long time.” (read the full piece here).
Next week, we’re doing something we’ve never done before.
Our new performance A THOUSAND WAYS (Part Two): An Encounter will premiere at the beloved Festival Theaterformen (July 2-12) in Braunschweig, Germany. We will stay put, here in the United States, unable to travel to see this project come to life for the very first time.
Toi, toi, toi to Martine, Wolfram, Lena and the team at Theaterformen. We can’t wait to hear all about it.
(Stay tuned for updates on future life of A Thousand Ways).
We’ve made our very first (short) film.
Thanks to Onassis Foundation for commissioning us as a part of their ENTER series, a platform for artists to create new works during the COVID quarantine.
Take a look here. (And we recommend watching the other projects, too). Hope everyone is staying safe, and taking care of yourself and one another.