by David L’Heureux, Senior Editor, Rodale
New York-based performance ensemble Strike Anywhere premieres its show Same River at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn from February 23 – March 3. The multimedia, interview-based, improvised production uses dance, music and theater as a lens for examining the practice of hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation beneath New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. (Read how fracking works here). An audience-ensemble forum to discuss the show and the potential impacts that fracking could have on water supplies throughout the region follows each performance.
New York-based performance ensemble addresses the impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in its show Same River.
“Ultimately we are trying to raise awareness and incite dialog around this issue,” says Leese Walker, an actor and the Artistic Director of Strike Anywhere. “That’s one of the reasons we do the post-show dialog. We want people in the audience talking to one another about fracking.”
The practice of hydraulic fracturing in its current form has been around for a little more than 10 years. In that short time, fracking has become a very divisive and polarizing issue in the 34 states in which it’s done. Proponents from gas and oil companies say it is a safe, clean way to provide domestic natural gas for United States citizens and also a source of jobs for ailing local economies. Detractors believe it is a dangerous practice that produces millions of gallons of wastewater, increases the risk of seismic activity and has the potential to poison and contaminate air and water supplies in watershed areas adjacent to drilling sites. The state of New York is currently considering over 60,000 public comments on the matter before deciding if gas companies can drill in the state.
The show is roughly 50 percent scripted and 50 percent improvised. The dialog and scenes were crafted from a series of interviews Strike Anywhere did over the past 18 months with landowners, sales people from the gas companies, local government officials, and individuals whose water or health have allegedly been effected by proximity to natural gas drilling sites.
“Most characters in the show are composites of people we’ve talked to during our interviews,” says Walker. “My character combines a woman who signed a lease to allow drilling on her property and another woman who got sick after drilling began on a neighbor’s property.”
Another character is a landsman, the name for salesmen who secure drilling leases from individual property owners for the gas companies. He’s conflicted about his job because it’s a source of money for him and for the local economy. But he also sees the potential health hazards and effect fracking can have on communities. “This issue comes between neighbors, friends, and even family,” says Walker. “We are seeing instances in Pennsylvania and New York where it is tearing communities apart and that is something we try to convey in Same River.”
The company devises work collectively in a style of performance known as Ensemble Theater. The Strike Anywhere actors and musicians, many of whom have performed together for 10 years or more, often improvise their dialog, music and movement. “The quality of the experience is much different than in traditional theater because our artists have worked together for years and we have a deep level of trust and playfulness” says Walker. “That really comes through on the stage.”
Music is a key component of the performance as well, says Strike Anywhere guitarist Rolf Sturm. And the music in Same River serves as more than just accompaniment to the acting and dancing. “We’ve worked at developing techniques where the music is the focal point of the scene and the other disciplines play a supporting role,” says Sturm. In one scene, Sturm ison stage by himself with nothing but a guitar. The music he is playing represents the inner workings of the mind of the conflicted landsman tasked with selling leases for hydraulic fracturing. The actors off stage take on the voices of the characters that have a relationship with this landsman. “All of these voices are in this character’s head and effecting his emotions, thereby affecting how I play the music,” explains Sturm. “We feel like the interview-based dialog in Same River provides a voice for regular folks who often times don’t get heard from during the corporate, political, and media discussions about our national energy policies.”
Another interesting component of Same River and Strike Anywhere is its involvement of local high school students in a residency program and the show itself. For this performance, Strike Anywhere took up residency in Brooklyn High School of the Arts and worked with students and teachers there.
“The students involved learned about the water cycle, shale drilling and issues surrounding fracking,” says Walker. “Then they engaged in a creative process that applied what they learned during the research.”
The Brooklyn High students created an art installation with Haifa Bint-Kadi, a local installation artist. The installation is inside the entrance to the Irondale Theater and audience members interact with it as they enter the show. “The idea is to animate the water cycle, remind us of the importance of clean water and to give the audience a little context about fracking. It is set up like a labyrinth and constitutes the first act of the show,” says Walker.
As NY considers drilling as many as 100,000 wells in the watershed for over 16 million people, Same River brings the human stories of those who are in the pathway of this industry to the fore. Tickets for the show at the Irondale Center are available by phone at 1-866-811-4111 or online at Irondale.org. The Irondale Center is located on 85 S. Oxford St. Brooklyn, NY 11217.
They cannot allow these companies to continue to pollute our waterways…the trickle down effect will be the death and disease for untold thousands both people and animals because of the chemicals used and the methane gas that makes up 80% of natural gas. Destructive earthquakes caused by fracking and violent weather with tornado’s will be the norm since methane is in itself a potent greenhouse gas that is far more dangerous to the atmosphere than carbon monoxide. Gas wells have to release natural gas when there is too much pressure and one can only see this gas escaping at night with night vision goggles. Our president Obama needs to close the ‘Haliburton Loophole’ to protect our water supplies throughout the United States. When will big oil realize that we cannot drink money. Cheney, Bush and big oil should be held responsible for all death and destruction caused by their greed, They are the “Terrorists among us”!
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The implicit support for tracking is growing. The goal for so called energy independence, and our natural gas reserves touted by President Obama in his State of The Union address ignore the environmental impact of this method of tracking, and more importantly, the potential impact on public health.
The public as whole are not yet aware that fracking uses a cocktail of undisclosed chemicals to dissolve – yes dissolve – marcellus shale so as to release the bubbles of gas in the rock. This would have environmental impact anywhere, but in New York State this is going to take place near Hancock, right at the watershed from which New York City gets its drinking water.
As his State of The Union address indicates, for all of his talk of support for clean energy, President Obama hasn’t shown real commitment. He must be taken to task for it when he is seeking reelection. The battle for clean energy is a battle that we are losing. It is depicted as an issue of interest only to a small group of liberals and of minor consequence compared to the economy and jobs.