Welcome!
As the dramaturg and assistant director of this piece, it's my privilege to give the first shot at explaining what it is we're doing here.It will change, of course, as creative products are wont to do. But as we progress, I hope you'll continue to join Stephanie and I here, where we will track whatever curves the piece throws at us.
In academic terms, Stories in Blue is a multimedia, processional performance based on ethnographic texts of sex trafficking victims from West Michigan. Less opaquely, its the story of six women, whose texts are based on interviews with actual sex trafficking victims, who are struggling with their past. Every victim we interviewed still holds profound trauma inside as a result of what happened to them. Many still deal with guilt, addiction, and stigma from their parents, their peers. It defines them, marks them, though most would rather just leave it all behind. Because of this, they are continually forced to return to their stories, revisiting the sites of their trauma again and again.
In a way our piece simulates this. Each place our characters perform will be a historical site of sex trafficking in the city. And each performance tells the story of one woman's experience being trafficked. Repeating the performance over and over again, especially the three times we're planning to do so on peak ArtPrize days, carves a path in the city in the same way that the revisiting of memories carves a pattern in the brain.
Sex trafficking is an invisible crime. What we're attempting to do is make it visible again, help people remember, so that one day women like those in our piece won't have to.
