ON TOUR: September 27 - October 6, 2024 @ Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, El Paso, TX, USA
ON TOUR: October 11 - 20, 2024 @ Center for the Arts at Kayenta, Ivins, UT, USA
ON TOUR: May 2025 @ Museum of Science Boston's Planetarium and Arts Emerson, Boston, MA, USA
PREMIERED: September 2021 @ MITU580, Brooklyn, NY, USA
PREVIOUS: October 2022 @ ASU's MIX Center, Mesa, AZ, USA
PREVIOUS: January 2023 @ National Theatre, Manama, Bahrain
A telephone hotline, a vinyl record, a performance.
Is anyone out there? Is anyone listening? Are we alone? In 1977, NASA launched the twin Voyager spacecrafts to try and answer these questions. Aboard both is an artifact intended to communicate who and what we are: The Golden Record. After traveling over 13 billion miles, this proverbial message in a bottle is the farthest human-made object from earth. If we were to send another message into the distant future, what message would we send?
To answer this, Theater Mitu created a public telephone hotline prompting people to leave messages to the future. These voicemails make up the source material for a vinyl record and a live performance created in partnership with SETI Institute, Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative, and Brooklyn Independent Middle School.
As we travel through these unprecedented times, Utopian Hotline creates a moment of community. Thirty audience members will gather, not in the darkness of a traditional theater, but under soft light, on a pink carpet, around a communal table, to re-imagine our shared future. Together, we will acknowledge coming into community as a radical action. An action that has consistently shaped this planet’s future. An action that reaffirms that someone is listening, that we are, in fact, not alone.
Created by Theater Mitu, the piece premiered at MITU580 in September 2021.
DIRECTED BY: Rubén PolendoCREATED BY: Kayla Asbell, Denis Butkus, Cinthia Chen, Alex Hawthorn, Michael Littig, Dima Mikhayel Matta, Justin Nestor, Rubén Polendo, Scott Spahr, Corey Sullivan, Monica Sanborn, Isabella Uzcátegui, and Ada Westfall.IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: SETI Institute, Arizona State University's Interplanetary Initiative, and Brooklyn Independent Middle SchoolUTOPIAN HOTLINE WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE SUPPORT OF The National Endowment for the Arts, New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, The New England Foundation for the Arts, The MAP Fund, The Foundation for Contemporary Art, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, The New York Community Trust, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and our generous individual supporters.
– This is a non-narrative performance installation, which is experienced entirely on headphones. Think of it as a puzzle and the missing piece is you. The headphones act as a tether, connecting you to the performers.
– This is an immersive installation. You will be invited to remove your shoes upon entrance to the exhibit and choose a spot to sit on a comfortable pink carpet. We are happy to support any additional accessibility needs.
– Each performance is approximately 45min in duration with multiple performances occurring on each day (please see the schedule for exact timings).
– There is no intermission.
