“The Harrowing” review @ Knight Arts Blog
Nobody appreciates the blazing days of August like true Michiganders, who know that a long, cold winter is always just around the corner. And what better way to celebrate the rites of summer than with A Host of People. The theater group won $20,000 in the 2014 Knight Arts Challenge Detroit in support of their site-specific performance series, “The Harrowing,” which was developed and is being performed in community gardens across the city.
Led by co-directors Sherrine Azab and Jake Hooker, the Host of People crew was at Shipherd Greens Community Garden in Detroit’s up-and-coming West Village neighborhood on Aug. 16. A packed “house” was on hand for the Sunday performance, which began with an audio tour that highlighted some of the sights, crops, contributing community members and features of the garden—including a mural by former Detroit Waldorf School eighth-grader Molly Schneider and a sculpture by Cass Corridor great Robert Sestok.
The coming weekends afford several more opportunities to experience “The Harrowing.” No performance is exactly like any other, meaning that audiences can watch it develop, just like a garden, as it blooms to its full potential. For a complete listing of shows and gardens, visit A Host of People’s website.