Making theatre from scratch together.
“You know what this play did for me? I used to never sing. Now– I just sing.”
— Erlene, where the river widens participant + performer
where the river widens.
p α n a w ά h p s k e k
a poetic, spare, lyrical movement through stories, place, and time. where the river widens is an original, community-devised play made by, for, and with Wabanaki people in partnership with Wabanaki REACH.
“With the river and ever-changing sky behind them, they creatively placed the Land Claims within a much longer arc of time, laying bare some often hidden truths about what has happened here in the Dawnland. The organic, non-linear form of this performance felt like a deep acknowledgement of interconnectedness, of people and land, past and present, sovereignty and wellbeing.”
— Erika Arthur on where the river widens
Threadbare Theatre Workshop
illuminates epics in a simple way through the magic of resourceful storytelling– laying bare our humanity so we may thread more empathy into existence.
Crafted in rural places with local people.
Created in community.
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
Mackerel Sky, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
The Royal Tar, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
The Royal Tar, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
Mackerel Sky, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
Mackerel Sky, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
The Royal Tar, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
Mackerel Sky, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
Mackerel Sky, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
The Royal Tar, photo by Dan Rajter
Mackerel Sky, photo by Dan Rajter
A Midsummer Night's Dream, photo by Dan Rajter
where the river widens, photo by Dan Rajter
“The moment I walked into the space and joined in on the process, I was blown away by what was happening in the room. Every voice mattered. Every opinion considered. At first, I just wanted to sit back and observe. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. What if we do this? Yes, and… Let’s try this. Ideas coming from the 5-year-old, the 95-year-old, and everyone in between.”
— Esther Adams
Threadbare is based on the coast of what we now call Maine— the ancestral homelands of the Wabanaki, people of the dawn.
Wabanakik means place where the sun first looks our way. We are on indigenous land, still home to the sovereign Tribes of the Wabanaki Nations– the Maliseet, Mi'kmaw, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot peoples. We invite you to “wonder on” the place where you dwell, the history of the people who have stewarded its land since time immemorial, and the ways we might support their efforts now for land + water protection, restoration, cultural healing + recovery.
We stand in solidarity with the black community in the fight against systemic racism and the insidious supremacy of whiteness. We acknowledge that this is an ongoing movement to overcome centuries-old systems of oppression, and it is not enough to simply make this statement. We are committed to engaging in meaningful dialogue with our team and providing resources to continue to understand our role in racism.