Through theater, Western students share what it means to be American

Submitted by admin on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 8:43am

For most of the last school year, a handful of Western Washington University students worked together to create, from scratch, a theater production that asked "What does it mean to be an American?" Throughout the process, which required many long days (and nights) of collaboration on the piece, they discovered who they are and what they mean to each other.

An investigation of the young American experience, "US" is inspired by Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and photographer Robert Frank's book "The Americans." The production explored why these two artists traveled thousands of miles to ask "what does it mean to be an American?" and investigated what that question meant 50 years ago and how it resonates for audiences today.

With the help of Rich Brown, an assistant professor of Theatre Arts at Western the ensemble of WWU students devised the original piece, which contained live music, singing, dance and moments of heightened theatricality.

Video filmed and edited by Becky Tachihara | WWU University Communications intern

Video URL