ASHBURTON: Secret Venue: directions will be provided!

Sunday 22nd August, 2021

2:00pm

Event information

The Spirit of Woodstock is an open-air show about the 1960s in America.
The performance will happen in a beautiful field, 10-15 minutes walk from the Arts Centre. Come early and have a picnic.
Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.

It is:
“…a massive theatrical achievement. Anyone that can shift roles every
two minutes, with a script as thick as a dictionary, on stage for near 2 hours, outdoors, managing all the sound & props, deserves some kind of award!” Brighton Source (Full Review here)

A thought-provoking, poignant, lump-in-throat, dynamic, energetic and semi-immersive theatre collage of the worlds and era that surrounded the “Mother of Free Festivals.”

Inspired by the ethos of the hippie, counterculture, and free festival movements, and still retaining remnants of these traditions, Award winning Something Underground Theatre Company brings you it’s tribute to Woodstock ’69

The Spirit of Woodstock is a vibrant, dynamic, semi-immersive show staged on a scaff tower, where the solo performer (ironically) plays a huge cast, including many of the 400,000 “kids” that attended Woodstock ’69; organisers (e.g. Mike Lang / Joel Rosenman); MC (Chip Monck); a helicopter pilot; some of the performers (e.g. Jerry Garcia, Pete Townshend, Arlo Guthrie, Janis Joplin, Country Joe Macdonald, Jimi Hendrix and more), local residents, policeman on the nearby road, acid dealers, Max Yasgur (farmer who owned the land), parents of kids attending, local shopkeepers, toilet cleaners, medical personnel, Wavy Gravy, and The Hog Farm (food distributors and Please Force), TV News Reporters, lighting rostra guys; sound techies; and many, many more…

The performer also creates many of the characters and events that portray the background scene to the whole era, including the Lunar landings, counterculture revolutionaries, “resist the Draft” and civil rights protestors, The Merry Pranksters, Abbie Hoffman, Vietnam Vets, those that supported the Vietnamese war, Politicians (e.g. Nixon), Nelson Rockefeller (Governor of New York State), state troopers and national guard, members of the Wallkill chamber of commerce who opposed the Wallkill original venue, people who threatened the Jewish Yasgur, Chair of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, Jerry Rubin. (Writer for underground / counterculture papers such as The Rat). And many more. There was even a deadly Hong Kong flu pandemic at the time… but hey.. we need a break. The whole show is imbued with strains of the music, soundscapes, announcements, voices and background atmosphere, dramatically creating the haunting ethos of the time,… and echoing our time.

Staged upon a 20 ft high and 2.8 m wide al scaff tower with a small stage in front, and includes some minimal set, & props that enable the audience to leap in their imaginations from being in the Woodstock crowd itself to being in the office of The Governor of The State of New York, to being in a helicopter over the Bethel site, to being next to the guy who’s cleaning the toilets, to being on stage, to witnessing the moonlanding.

The piece is semi-immersive, including some audience participation, from the audience’s imagination to arrive in each moment, to joining in with chants (“Gimme an F!”… from Country Joe & the Fish) or being recipients of the New York Stock Exchange money-scattering theatrical-protest pranks of the Yippies. As the performer moves often amongst them, They, the audience, will in turn become (for example): Janis Joplin’s band being helicoptered in; cars abandoned on the approach road; festivalgoers waiting in line for a toilet; the nosy neighbour of the Head of The Wallkill Chamber of Commerce; the wife of Max Yasgur; the audience of Woodstock; Michael Lang; an onsite payphone; the crowds that gathered at Cape Canaveral to watch the Apollo 11 liftoff; boulders & craters on the moon; the wounded of Vietnam; Anti-war protesters and more.

This piece is really a story of the time and people, the era, around Woodstock, and so rather than following one person’s trajectory, is a thought-provoking but highly dynamic and energetic montage / collage of the worlds that surrounded the event.

Written and performed by Jonathan Brown
Best New Play New Writing South 2012
Best New Play New Writing South (Shortlist) 2013
Bruntwood Prize (Longlist) 2019
Best Male Performer 2013 (Brighton Fringe)
Best Male Performer (nom) 2007 (Brighton Fringe)

“Mind blowing!! Staggered... spellbound for so long… Respect!” Suzanne Cowie
“Wow!!!! Moving, thought provoking, and totally inspiring!” Aaron Swartz
"Jonathan Brown is a crazy genius!” Tom
"...stunningly crazily gifted..." Ruby Vine
“Bloody brilliant, and very groovy. Thank you” Lianne Campbell.
“Absolutely brilliant..” Cate Grundy
“…..a massive theatrical achievement.... deserves some kind of award!” Brighton Source Mag.

Venue information

ASHBURTON: Secret Venue: directions will be provided!

0	The venue is a field about 10 minutes walk from Ashburton Arts Centre. Bring torches!
>	ashburtonarts.org.uk
!	07980680052
`	Limited access to vehicles. Anyone with mobility issues, please email boxoffice@ashburtonarts.org.uk