DRAMATIC ADVENTURE THEATRE: a DAT history

A DAT History

Beginnings
Dramatic Adventure Theatre was dreamt up by Jesse Baxter, a service-oriented working actor who loved to travel. He was always looking for ways to combine his interests, but traditional touring theatre companies never fully satisfied this need. Then one day, during a lunch with Ryan Keith, a good friend from college and founder of FORGOTTEN VOICES INTERNATIONAL (a non-profit that helps children who are victims of aids in Zimbabwe), Jesse nonchalantly suggested that someone should give these “forgotten voices” a voice. Jesse suggested that these kids could write their own short plays and that professional actors could perform these plays especially for them. After this talk Jesse thought nothing of the idea…that is until Ryan Keith called him a few months later and told him to start getting ready to go to Zimbabwe because scripts would be in his hand shortly! A dramatic adventure had begun.

Jesse decided to team up with Mary K. Redington, a fellow actor and recent college graduate looking for a new project to get involved with. Together they started to frame the structure of Dramatic Adventure Theatre. Soon Kathleen Amshoff, a fantastic Director, was on board (Jesse, Mary and Kathleen met while working on Run of the Mill Theatre's award winning production of Variations on Fear in Baltimore during the summer of 2006) and the team was well on their way to making this project a reality.

But, there were still bumps in the road. This was going to be a very intense trip, DAT needed the right people to commit to this adventure. This first Zimbabwe project went through three teams before the final team (Jesse, Mary, Kathleen, and actor Lisa Pettersson) was finally ready to depart.

More Bumps in the Road
* News from Zimbabwe in the weeks before the departure was not good, the inflation rate had sky rocketed to over 1700% (the average person could barely afford a loaf of bread per day, if they could find a loaf). Their doctors, teachers, and many of their civil workers were on strike and to make matters worse, they had experienced a drought. Family members feared for the team's safety. Zimbabweans were focusing on surviving, not writing plays... so DAT adapted to the crisis. The new plan was to build a play in collaboration with the local people, a play that told the stories THEY wanted to tell, that empowered their voices in this difficult time. This simple adaptation has enhanced our efforts, strengthened our company's working model. and continues to have an impact on all DAT projects.

* Passport Problems! This was Mary's first time leaving the country so she applied for her passport 3 months before the date of take off. On June 18th, the day of the flight, Mary still didn't have her passport. Determined to go to Zimbabwe, she went from New York City to Washington D.C. where she waited at the passport office for 12 hours to get her passport. Meanwhile, DAT's wonderful travel agent, Brent Sprunger at MTS Travel, changed her 8pm JFK flight to a 10pm Washington D.C. flight to London. Mary was handed her passport right as her teammates boarded the plane in New York. She jumped into a taxi, rushed to her plane and met her teammates at the airport in London the next morning. (Talk about a dramatic adventure.)

On the Ground The tension was building as the four weary travelers got off the plane in the Harare Airport. What would be waiting for them? It turns out Zimbabwe was waiting for them with open arms and hearts. They were welcomed into homes of the leaders of the Brethren in Christ Church and Amakhosi Theatre. And were carefully escorted throughout the country by their wonderful host, liason, and "Zimbabwean Father", Oscar. Over the course of 6 intense weeks relationships were formed, skills were shared, a play was devised, and DAT's ideals were cemented. It was clear from this experience that Dramatic Adventure Theatre is capable of being an incredibly powerful tool for cross-cultural connection, artistic empowerment, and individual hope. *
Thank You DAT would like to send a special thanks to those who were involved and helped support this initial project. Without that support, this project wouldn't have happened and DAT would probably not be here today. So, THANK YOU! Over the years, this simple idea has evolved into an ever-growing tribe of artists who want to make a difference with their art. In fact, it seems that nearly all who discover Dramatic Adventure Theatre want to be a part of it and to date we have taken over 100 artists on a Dramatic Adventure. This has been incredibly encouraging over the years.

Moving Forward Following 2007's success in Zimbabwe and the production of Voices from Zimbabwe, Dramatic Adventure Theatre travelled to Ecuador and created Flight 360 in 2008 based on their experiences. This led to the development of more diverse program offerings. And now DAT is currently preparing for it's first project in Slovakia which will launch in January of 2012.

Join DAT on their next dramatic adventure!