In 2024, Atlanta noticed a 7% improve in its homeless inhabitants, reaching roughly 2,867 people, together with these in shelters and people residing unsheltered. This consists of 1,827 individuals in shelters or transitional housing and 1,040 unsheltered people, as said by The Atlanta Mission of their Level-In-Time depend.
The Atlanta-based firm Out of Hand Theater goals to sort out that drawback of their latest manufacturing, How To Make A House.
On Friday, March 7, Out of Hand Theater premiered its newest present, which focuses on the rising homeless drawback in Atlanta. The manufacturing, the one-man present, is carried out by actor Markell Wayne Williams and follows the story of a veteran and single father, Antonio, as he makes an attempt to get his life collectively to buy an residence for himself and his daughter.
Williams performed ten characters, together with an keen chaplain, an idealistic politician, and a wayward teen.
“To me, on the heart was Antonio and his daughter Anika, and it was making an attempt to determine who they might be,” stated Williams. “As soon as I discovered their voices, then it was a little bit simpler for me to determine the remaining.”
The twist is that as an alternative of acting on a conventional stage, this present is performed from the residing rooms of native properties, a deliberate creative alternative that aligns with the corporate’s mission.
“That’s how our Exhibits in Properties productions work,” stated Nikki Younger, Affiliate Inventive Director of Out of Hand Theater. “We convey a brand new play yearly specializing in a urgent social justice situation to homes round Atlanta. This 12 months’s play is about homelessness, so the setting ties in in another way, however we at all times convey theater to the individuals.”
In contrast to conventional productions confined to theaters, every efficiency takes place in a distinct front room, which presents distinctive challenges. Nonetheless, the method is a well-oiled machine for Alyssa Brosy, a seasoned stage supervisor with the corporate.
“I get a full listing of areas earlier than we even begin rehearsals,” Brosy defined. “Rehearsal began three weeks in the past, however I used to be employed again in December. That is my third 12 months doing this, so I do know the method. We sometimes obtain host info a month or two prematurely—who they’re, the place they reside, and what the house appears like. I’ll attain out and allow them to know, ‘Hey, I’m bringing a complete present to your own home—be prepared!’.
Hosts work with the manufacturing staff on furnishings and extra seating to make sure the very best setup for the viewers.
Given the rotating nature of Exhibits in Properties, Williams should adapt to completely different efficiency areas all through the manufacturing’s run. “It’s gonna be attention-grabbing. It’s a thriller,” he admitted.
“The present is concerning the unhoused, and we’re performing it in properties,” Brosy displays, “I’m curious to see how the viewers responds. Individuals cried in our ultimate gown rehearsal as a result of they related with the story. This situation—shedding housing, struggling to search out stability—can occur to anybody,” continued Brosy.
Amina S. McIntyre, the playwright behind How To Make A House, brings each creative and private perception to the manufacturing. A seasoned Atlanta-based author with an MFA in playwriting, McIntyre additionally teaches at Louisville Seminary, the place she trains ministers in empathy and pastoral care.
Homelessness is not only an summary situation for her.
“Earlier than seminary, my first chaplaincy internship was at Crossroads Group Ministries, adopted by volunteering at St. Joseph’s and Metropolis of Refuge,” McIntyre shares, “So, when Out of Hand approached me for a fee about homelessness, it was already a problem near my coronary heart.”
Initially, the present featured 15 characters, however McIntyre needed to convey it all the way down to 10.
“It was necessary to indicate completely different experiences—dad and mom, lecturers, college students—as a result of homelessness impacts so many individuals in several methods,” McIntyre stated. “We frequently consider moms with youngsters in shelters, however fathers with youngsters face distinctive struggles. As an example, in lots of shelters, male youngsters over 16 are thought of adults and should keep in grownup services, separating them from their households. The daddy-daughter dynamic within the play reveals not simply survival however the love and creativeness required to defend a baby from the load of their circumstances.”
Regardless of the intense themes, the play additionally highlights resilience.
“The daddy and daughter depend birds collectively, make up video games—it’s about discovering pleasure within the hardest moments,” McIntyre says. “The daughter in the end turns into his supply of energy, reminding him of the affirmations they repeat to push via.”
At its core, the present is about human dignity.
“I don’t simply need audiences to really feel empathy—I need them to acknowledge that they might already know somebody who’s fighting homelessness,” McIntyre stated. “These are actual individuals, sitting subsequent to you in a room, working alongside you. If we begin viewing them with dignity, we’re extra keen to construct group with them”.
The manufacturing shall be carried out in over 40 areas throughout town. To discover a present close to you go to https://www.outofhandtheater.com/shows-in-homes-2025 .
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