World-renowned artist, director, and playwright Michael Rohd recently spent a week at Albion as an artist-in-residence for Jennifer Chapman's first year seminar in the Theatre Department called "Theatre, Youth, and Social Change." Rohd taught classes in the department and offered a Theatre for Social Change Workshop in the evenings and weekend that was open to interested students of any year. The workshop culminated last night with All Roads Lead..., a "devised" performance generated by the workshop ensemble and written by Rohd.

The performance piece was inspired by the First Year common reading experience Farewell to Manzanar. Like the book, the performance was based around the theme of “rules” and used examples that dealt with society in general as well as a piece about the recent alcohol situation at Albion.Though the performance did not deal directly with the text itself, it dealt with a variety of issues such as gender, homosexuality, religion, and etiquette. 

Though it was a challenge to perform a theatrical piece in the lecture atmosphere of Norris 101, Michael and the performers met the challenge with a truly thought-provoking piece.

"All Roads Lead... gave many students in and outside my FYE class an opportunity to understand how theatre is most powerfully political when it is asking questions rather than providing answers." says Chapman.  "Michael took my class, from the pages of his book, which we read earlier in the semester, to a true understanding of how process-drama has to be active and alive to engage a group,"

Katie Aumann, '05, responds to Chie Okada, '07, on a question about underage drinking on the Albion campus.  Nearly 200 students crowded Norris 101 for the performance.

Michael Rohd is the founding artistic director of Sojourn Theatre in Portland, OR, where his work as creator/director/performer includes The Justice Project (in a historic Federal Courthouse), the warehouse performance journey 7 Great Loves, and Passing Glances: mirrors and windows in Allen County, Ohio a documentary theatre piece about race and leadership supported by a 2001 Animating Democracy grant. He is a recipient of Theatre Communication Group’s 2001 New Generations Grant, and their 2002 Extended Collaboration Grant (as a playwright) with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre. He is an associate artist with Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles and an artistic associate with Ping Chong & Co in New York City. He is founding artistic director of Hope Is Vital, an international theatre and community dialogue resource, and author of the book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue (Heinemann, 1998).