Highways stages Outflow: Where Will We Live?

Oral history piece lends an ear to gentrification's victims

Comments (0) By Steven Leigh Morris Sunday, Aug 19 2007

Like a performance-art cousin of Cornerstone Theatre Company, TeAda Productions goes inside communities and gathers stories for theatrical offerings that bring homegrown insight and the kind of staging that might be more raw and freeform than traditional forms of presentation. This company’s acclaimed Refugee Nation, performed from New York to Seattle, studied Laotian refugees of the Vietnam War now living in America, and told their stories as part of an investigation of myriad issues, from the legacies of war to assimilation to cultural identity to the precarious balance between hope and despair. Coordinated by founding artistic director Leilani Chan, the artists involved with Outflow —which could easily be subtitled Refugee City— gathered personal and public oral histories from “underserved” residents of Santa Monica, focusing on the long-standing effects of gentrification and displacement as Santa Monica’s rents keep rising, and its population undergoes a slow fade to white. The performances are by interdisciplinary artists Joy Anderson, Jessica Gudiel, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, Mitsu Salmon and others. After a series of workshops, the project’s culminating performance takes place at HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE, 1671 18th St., Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., Aug. 24-25, 8 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 26, 3 p.m. (310) 315-1459.