No Answers
“Once it’s all gone, what gets left behind?”
No Answers
An Epidemic Art Project (2020-2021)
Co-Director and Co-Devisor: Matthew Greenberg
Co-Directors, Co-Devisors and Collaborators: Eryn Alys, Rina Hajra, Sean Naughton, Kylie Logan, Jess Hughes, Lillian Brown, Jacob Athyal, and Connor Graham
Project Supervisor: Tom Dugdale
Community Partners: Steve Koczwara, R.N., Maryhaven Addiction Stabilization Center, Columbus, Ohio
How do we create empathy and visibility around a stigmatized population?
No Answers: An Epidemic Art Project is a multi-directed, ensemble created experience, responding to the current opioid crisis in the state of Ohio. It was devised by a team of interdisciplinary performance artists at The Ohio State University's Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts.
Starting in the winter of 2020, my colleagues and I visited Maryhaven Addiction Stabilization Center every week to listen, learn, and speak with patients dealing with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) in Central Ohio. We would bring their words, stories, experiences and adversities, back into our studio and begin devising moments around what we hope would shine a light on this harrowing epidemic in our community.
My research was rooted in the transportation of synthetic opiates into Ohio and the geographical factors that explain why SUD is so high in the Mid-Ohio Valley region.
We tried to answer how art could help de-stigmatize SUD and realized that there are “no answers” because each individual has a different experience, and simply by grouping a patient population into a statistic does much more harm than intended.
9 Microfilms were created at various locations in Ohio aiming to make visible the reality of SUD. We worked as actors, directors, devisors, film editors, camera-folk, and everything in between to create an experience unique to each person who watches the project. The site functions as a “choose your own adventure and pace.” No two viewing experiences are the same, much like cases of Substance-Use Disorder.
