Mission of the Project

In light of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf and subsequent environmental catastrophes, the Beyond the Horizon Festival seeks to use performance to map and explore our changing relationship to the natural world and offer models of community response to ecological crisis. The festival consists of three original devised theatre pieces developed by an interdisciplinary community of theatre artists, musicians, dancers, and environmentalists from UMASS, Amherst College, and Smith College.  The pieces, What Have We Learned, To whom it may concern, and Nightingale, address sites of connection and disconnection in our interactions with the world around us.  Following select performances, panel discussions and talk backs with festival artists, performer/playwright Will Power, and leaders of local environmental programs will be held to give audiences a platform to engage in the conversations surrounding festival themes.

Connected to the festival is a reading of Caridad Svich’s new play The Way of Water, which  addresses the aftermath of the BP spill on human life in the Gulf.  This reading at 4:30 pm at Food for Thought Books in Amherst is free and open to the public.

Beyond the Horizon Festival is presented as part of the UMASS Theater Department season April 5-7 and 10-14. For ticket information click here or call 545-2511 or 1-800-999-UMAS