Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? The timeless New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne makes us wonder, whether we should forget the past or weave it into our future. What parts of 2020 will you leave behind or bring into 2021?

Throughout 2020, we saw a pandemic take over the globe. Over 60 countries protested in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. We were hit with one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression. The United States of America held a presidential election that captivated the attention of many. Large swaths of Australia to California were ablaze, Beirut suffered a terrifying ammonium nitrate explosion, and India held the largest organized strike in history. There were births, deaths, Zoom weddings, virtual graduations, glorious concerts held from tiny balconies and sporting events played out to stadiums full of cardboard cutouts. Through the archival and artistic process, we are attempting to make sense of a (leap) year that defies all categorization.

Artists of all disciplines are invited to converse with the year 2020 and collaborate in devising a virtual theatrical time capsule. 366 days have changed the world. How have they changed you?

Hindsight 2020 is looking for artists (theatre, music, fine arts, dance, writing, poetry, etc) to collaborate with us on a devised piece using the prompts provided here as the basis to develop a virtual theatre piece that will be shown via Zoom in early April, with rehearsals to take place in mid-February until the end of March. Most likely, we will hold 4 hour rehearsals once a week via Zoom on Sundays (subject to change).  If you’re interested in joining us on this journey, please fill out the google form here. We are particularly interested in working with artists of all races, ethnicities, genders, nationalities, ages, sexual orientations, and cultural practices to make this as inclusive of a piece as possible. International artists welcome. This show is being co-produced with Those Women Productions. Please note: You do not need to be a performance artist to apply, simply be willing to devise and collaborate.

We believe in compensating artists for their work, as such, we will operate via a profit-sharing model as a collective, meaning the revenue will be divided equally amongst the collaborating artists after paying for expenses. This will be detailed in the collaboration agreement along with specifics regarding time commitment, copyright, etc. One of the aims of this presentation, alongside with memorializing the year 2020 and providing an opportunity to make work, is designed to benefit an organization of the collective’s choosing, dealing with the topics of Human Rights, Social Justice, Anti-Racism, COVID-19 Relief, Climate Change and the like, in order to assist those most affected by the events of this year. As such, we will be donating 25% of the revenue to such an organization.

If you have any questions or comments please reach out to Rebecca Haley Clark and Cree Noble at hindsight2020production@gmail.com.

All applications are due by Sunday, January 31st 11:59pm PST. We will be in touch by February 7th regarding callbacks which will be held virtually on Saturday, February 13th. If you are unavailable at this time, please let us know so we can find alternate dates. We look forward to collaborating with you!

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Rebecca Haley Clark (she/her) – Director/Deviser/Concept

She is a theatre director and practitioner who has worked in New York, Brazil, and Scotland. She recently completed the Masters of Classical and Contemporary Text directing course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She received her undergraduate degree in Drama and Comparative Ethnic Studies at Columbia University and a Fulbright research grant to study Shakespeare and race studies in Rio de Janeiro. She was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California. Please visit her website to learn more: https://www.rebeccahaleyclark.com/

Cree Noble (she/her) – Assistant Director/Deviser

Originally hailing from Central Illinois, she is a 2018 graduate of DePaul University where she studied both Journalism and Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies with a minor in Performance Studies. She received her Master’s in Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Her work includes a documentary theatre one-woman show called Sasha from Chicago which documented the lives of women of color whose lives have been impacted by the Trump Administration. At NYU, she worked on a documentary-style theatre show called What’s It All For? that highlighted the 2019 Jussie Smollett incident. She was recently seen in the devised piece Rewriting the Declaration of Independence from NYU’s Theatre Education Production. She is currently pursuing her second Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at DePaul University to become a Registered Drama Therapist.  She is interested in theatre as a social justice and therapeutic tool, that not only creates social change but healing for people, especially Black women and girls.