Empathy School

An immersive performance set on a bus driving through post-industrial landscape surrounding Troy, NY. You will board at sunset and hear stories about time and separation. The stories will be accompanied by an ambient score that respond to the movement of the bus, subtly changing with shifts in speed and direction. This EMPAC-commissioned work was conceived a year ago, while Aaron Landsman lived in central Illinois as his wife completed graduate school at the University of Illinois. Landsman’s work often took him out of town; to get home he flew back into Chicago, and rode a night bus for three hours, overhearing riders’ stories as they spoke to relatives on the phone or talked to one another. The stories were of financial desperation and separated families, reflecting the difficult circumstances of those left in parts of America that were being abandoned by the post-industrial economy. Produced in collaboration with visual artist and filmmaker Brent Green, Empathy School combines theater, travel, and audio in a contained space where listening to another person’s stories is the only possible act of togetherness.

Empathy School is made possible by additional funding from The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital, primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with additional funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.