The Spring 2022 Mystery Project is revealed!
Olympia Family Theater announces FULLY VAXXED: a statewide, bilingual theater project at the intersection of art and public health!
FULLY VAXXED is a community-centered theater project at the intersection of art, public health, and what it means to get vaccinated. Will you help us build a healthier community with theater?
In late 2021, Olympia Family Theater (OFT) received the news that we had been selected by the CDC Foundation as one of 30 organizations being funded to create innovative community art projects that harness the power of the arts to engage audiences and participants of all ages in overcoming COVID-19 and influenza vaccine hesitancy. Read the CDC Foundation’s full press release here.
The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between the CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. Since January 2020, the CDC Foundation, through the support of its donors, has addressed a wide variety of critical needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work has included providing personal protective equipment for frontline responders; care kits for schools, jails and the unhoused; studies examining the impact of COVID-19; work to strengthen communities and community-based organizations to improve vaccination uptake and address misinformation; more than 100 projects focused on health equity; and much more.
Olympia Family Theater’s contribution to this national effort is FULLY VAXXED: a bilingual theater project, co-designed with community organizers and partners across Washington state who serve Latinx communities, including: WashMasks, TOGETHER!, Nuestra Casa, Wenatchee Café, and the L.U.C.H.A Club at LaVenture Middle School among others. The project has commissioned three original, bilingual, one-act plays. The plays will speak to Latinx and migrant communities – communities who have been especially hard hit by COVID-19 and who have relatively low vaccination rates. The plays are currently under development by three adult Latinx playwrights, working with a cohort of Latinx youth from around the state. Our adult writers are professional playwrights and educators Rámon A. Esquivel, Mabelle Reynoso, and the co-founder of Porcupine Media, Miguel Pineda.
Our incredible creative team includes: Ana María Campoy (Principal Organizer & Producer), Kate Arvin (Company Manager), Madeline Farías (Director & Facilitator), Vanessa Postil (Director, Facilitator, Curriculum Builder), Luz Gaxiola (Director), Alfonso Campos (Facilitator), Claribel Gross (Curriculum Builder), and many more. We are also lucky to be supported by Trial & Error Productions who are contributing pro bono documentary work.
We are still building our community network – and need the participation of many people in order to make this work possible! If you are interested in being involved or sharing resources, please reach out to Lily Raabe, Artistic Director at OFT, . In particular, we are currently seeking Latinx and bilingual community members/actors. This is a paid opportunity to build community through theater!
HOW TO SEE THE WORK IN ACTION & MORE DETAILS
The FULLY VAXXED plays will perform at Olympia Family Theater the weekends of March 18-20 and April 1-3. Tickets will be reservable on our website, on a sliding scale of $5-$35. We will also have free walk-up tickets. The plays are bilingual – two plays will be a fluid mix of Spanish and English, and one play will be entirely in Spanish. We will provide one night of ASL interpreted performances.
OFT is working with Sky Bear Media to film all three one-acts during their first weekend at OFT. The plays will be available on-demand shortly afterwards – and will be released with an educational resource kit including videos, play scripts, and educational activities translated into both Spanish and Mixtec so that any community who wants to hold a FULLY VAXXED event will be able to.
In addition to our weekends at OFT, the FULLY VAXXED plays will tour to community hubs around the state in Wenatchee, Mt. Vernon, Sunnyside, and the South Sound. Touring events will include applied theater workshops with local communities to develop additional original material with people from around the state. We are finalizing our tour dates now and will release a complete list soon for any community members who want to travel to see our work.
Funding for this effort is made possible through a subaward from the CDC Foundation and is part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) financial assistance award totaling $2,500,000.00 with 100 percent funding from CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.
Download a copy of the press release.
Get more info on the rest of our Spring 2022 reopening plans.
