By Holly Van Woerkom

The people at the Provo City Council aren't the only ones talking about transportation.

This month, both the Theatre and Media Arts Department (TMA) and Provo's Gallery OneTen will be addressing the impact of transportation on the lives of Utah Valley residents. The two projects grow out of a common objective to create a community-enriching experience.

For the past two weeks, director Amy Jensen and six TMA students have been working to collect stories from community members about their experiences, thoughts, hopes and concerns about transportation.

"We thought transportation worked well because theater is about bodies moving through space, and that's what transportation is," said Wade Hollingshaus, co-chair for the annual grant from Ira and Mary Lou Fulton, which will fund the production.

"At first the choice [of transportation] seemed potentially cumbersome, but I've come to realize that not only does everyone have a connection to transportation - and usually everyone has at least one great story - but everyone is affected by transportation," Jensen said. "Everyone is influenced by where they can go and how they need to get there, just some to greater degrees. Transportation is also at a crucial moment in Utah, with development decisions and legislation about everything from I-15 to parking permits."

Yet the play produced by TMA, called "Here To There," has no agenda to convey, other than exposing the intricate effects transportation has on the community. Janice Jenson, a senior theatre arts studies major and stage manager for "Here To There," explained the TMA students' approach to this production is community-based, using devised theater.

"Devised theater means that you don't come in with a script," Jenson said. Jenson has stage managed for several large musical productions, including "My Fair Lady" and "Little Women," but she was attracted to the challenge of this unconventional theater style.

"Devised theater is more about playing around and finding the text within yourself," Jenson said. "It's more organic and real."

The freeform, community-centric nature of the TMA production will tie in nicely with the concurrent exhibit at Gallery OneTen, which drew its inspiration from "Here To There." Annalisa Jensen, one of the organizers of the transportation art show at Gallery OneTen and Amy Jensen's sister, said," ... hearing about a community-based play about transportation was one catalyst for the idea of this show."

Gallery OneTen, which has been encouraging local art in Provo since 2006, made a call earlier this month for transportation-related entries from community members. The announcement asked for visual entries such as drawings, paintings, photography and sculpture, as well as written entries - essays, manifestos, wish lists and all.

The art show will run for about three weeks; at its conclusion, a select number of entries will be displayed by The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change in "a traveling exhibition of sorts," according to the Gallery OneTen Web site. Also, written entries will be compiled into a book about the community members' stories about transportation.

"People who have heard about it have been interested and enthusiastic," Annalisa Jensen said. Some of the objectives of Gallery OneTen, she said, are to encourage artistic collaboration and "to create a forum where art can raise awareness and promote dialogue about issues of interest to the community.

"We will feel like the show will be successful if it generates thought and conversation that reach outside the gallery and continue after the show is gone."

Transportation Stories

Here To There: A Play About Transportation

6:30 p.m. Jan. 24 at Farrer Elementary School, 7:30 p.m. Jan. 25 in the Nelke Theatre, HFAC, 2 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Provo Library at Academy Square. Admission is free.

Transportation Show at Gallery OneTen

Jan. 24 through Feb. 12 at Gallery OneTen, 110 S. 300 West. Admission is free; donations are welcome.



Copyright Brigham Young University 22 Jan 2008