Walker Art Center Presents A Thousand Ways, An Intimate Performance Work About Communion, Distance, And Reconnection, By Acclaimed Theater Company 600 Highwaymen

This spring, The Walker Art Center presents 600 Highwaymen’s A THOUSAND WAYS, a new, multi-part work that offers enthralling social interactions that deliver us from isolation and toward togetherness.

Obie Award–winning, New York-based theatermakers 600 Highwaymen (Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone) are known for exhilarating performances that challenge the very definition of theater (their celebrated work The Fever was a hit of the Walker’s Out There Festival in 2018). With A THOUSAND WAYS, Browde and Silverstone have created a quietly radical, deeply humanistic response to our current COVID-19 reality. Each installment presents an opportunity to connect with a stranger, offering a moving moment of showing up for one another. Exploring the line between strangeness and kinship, distance and proximity, these experiences are designed around physical distancing rules to meet participants where they are and when they are.

Audience members are encouraged to participate in both Parts in order to gain the full experience of the work, however, a commitment to both Parts is not required. Each Part is a self-contained, complete artistic experience.

A THOUSAND WAYS (Part One): A Phone Call
Mar 2–14, 2021, various times
Location: Wherever you are
$25 ($20 Walker members)
Tickets now on sale

Post-experience Q&A with the artists on Zoom, March 17, 7pm, freeOn a simple phone call, you and another audience member—someone you do not know—follow a carefully crafted set of directives. Over the course of the journey, a portrait of each other emerges through fleeting moments of exposure and the simple sound of an unseen voice.

Total runtime: 45–60 minutes. Recommended for ages 16+.
Please read the Important Information section of the event record for more details about what audience members can expect when they purchase tickets for Part One: A Phone Call.

A THOUSAND WAYS (Part Two): An Encounter
April 20–May 2, 2021,various times
Location: Walker Art Center
$25 ($20 Walker members)
Tickets on sale March 18, 11 am

You and a stranger meet on opposite ends of a table, separated by a pane of glass. Using a set of notecards, a simple exercise of working together becomes an experience of profound connection with another person.

Total runtime: 45–60 minutes. Recommended for ages 16+.
Please read the Important Information section of the event record for more details about what audience members can expect when they purchase tickets for Part Two: An Encounter, including the COVID-19 safety protocols in place for this event.

Refund and Exchange policy
If you are sick, experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, call the box office at 612-375-7600 or email orders@walkerart.org. You can choose one of the following options:

• Exchange your tickets to another performance
• Hold the value of your tickets on your account for future use
• Donate the value of your tickets for future Performing Arts programming
• Receive a refund

Credits
A THOUSAND WAYS
by 600 Highwaymen
written & created by Abigail Browde & Michael Silverstone
Executive Producer: Thomas O. Kriegsmann / ArKtype
Line Producer: Cynthia J. Tong
Dramaturg & Project Design: Andrew Kircher
Sound Design for Part One: A Phone Call: Stanley Mathabane

This production was commissioned by The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, Stanford Live at Stanford University, Festival Theaterformen, and The Public Theater, and was originally commissioned and co-conceived by Temple Contemporary at Temple University. Part One: A Phone Call was developed in partnership with On the Boards production and technical teams. Original support for the production was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia.