Lightning Rod is a flexible framework for creating “flash theater,” an action of community involvement and political action, and an exercise in the most basic qualities of collaborative performance-making.
A time- and resource-limited invitation for artists of all backgrounds and skill levels to embrace constraints as opportunities for creativity, in its original format, Minneapolis-based performance art incubator Patrick’s Cabaret invited six teams of participants spend just six days making and then performing devised (collaboratively created) work that responds to the immediacy of that week, generating performance from the prompt: “What needs to be said this week?” Drawing from curated prompts related to current events, and what’s on the hearts and minds of artists in our community, this unique collaborative process is a lightning rod to capture the electricity in the air.
The name Lightning Rod itself pays tribute to Patrick’s Cabaret—it was chosen after a board member described the organization as being “a lightning rod for the electricity in the air.”
All images by Ari Newman.
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