In Our Words:
Community Portrait Live Documentaries
About In Our Words
Every community is made of people whose stories matter, but many go unheard. Sharing and listening to these stories can be transformative: They open windows into human courage, what people have learned about moving through loss, love and laughter. They offer constellations by which we navigate challenges and opportunities with greater humanity, imagination and possibility.
In Our Words is driven by the conviction that everyone’s story matters and that we vitally need to hear more of one another’s stories.
In Our Words is a framework culminating with a moving multimedia performance of real-world stories, candidly told by the people who’ve lived them through theatrical projections, together with live original narration, score and musical segments. In Our Words builds stirring community portraits made with, of, and for specific communities.
Key Aspects
Micro-Memoir
IOW centers true stories of participants spanning backgrounds and ages, many of whom do not consider themselves storytellers. We are especially interested in stories fellow community members do not yet know, from people from whom others may be unaccustomed to hearing (e.g. because of age, community roles, status, etc.) Participants work through a fun, easy, safe process for transforming seemingly ordinary experience into resonant story.
Theatrical Projection
Many participants may be uncomfortable before crowds. To bring out their candor, we film extemporaneously told stories and spontaneous sharing in facilitated conversation. Theatrical projection enables film to follow live musical/narrative performance, allowing pacing a breathability to vary responsively.
Narration
Live narration — at turns humorous, poignant or poetic — guides audiences through thematic curations of participant stories.
Bespoke, Original Score & Musical Segments
World-class, multiethnic sextet layers intricate percussion, nuanced vocal harmonies, and pan-cultural influences over a Western classical foundation.
Staging & Lighting
Evokes warm intimacy.
Artistic Direction
To create moving multimedia experiences, Mendilow and Gibson tap devising/directorial/writing/composition processes from collaborations on 6 multidisciplinary productions since 2017, and independently on productions and national performing arts center tours since 1998.
What Organizations Use In Our Words?
Civic, social justice and faith initiatives seeking to strengthen communities and bolster against dehumanization. IOW addresses dangerous reductions of complex people/situations into simplistic binaries, usually an “us” vs monolithic, dehumanized “them.” Developing relationships in which people feel valued, understood, and worthy of full regard offers strong, enduring resilience to such reductions.
— IOW cultivates such relationships through story, stirring explorations of who people are and who they wish to be.
— The resulting empathetic connections enable IOW to elevate in-common identities and experiences above socio-political, ethnic or religious differences (e.g. parents and parenthood; pain, loss, joy; we are all Americans, etc).
— Being open to and moved by each other’s stories can strengthen the conditions for people to generatively — and generously — disagree. IOW further builds the safety to listen to opposing viewpoints/experiences by solidifying people’s sense of self around their own core values, rather than group allegiance often threatened by considering opposing viewpoints.
Historical and educational organizations seeking to widen historical lenses to include a greater diversity of the people, backgrounds and experiences making places what they are.
Communities of Faith, Nonprofit/corporate boards and teams seeking to cultivate greater capacities to navigate challenges and potentials with greater flexibility, creativity and possibility through deepening understandings of a group’s multiplicity of experiences and perspectives, irrespective of agreement.
Challenging Assumptions of Worth
In Our Words demonstrates that everyone has a story that matters, in which others can find courage. Many focus on the stories of a rarified few, like high-budget celebrities, intensely curated ‘influencers,’ or national politicians rousing polarized identities. In Our Words dispels notions that change comes from ‘important’ people and ‘big’ actions. What if each of us is exactly what is needed? What if history is more than “the biographies of great men,” as Carlyle wrote, but is alive in each of us?
By integrating theatrical projection technologies with high-impact live performance, In Our Words spotlights a greater diversity of people, including those who do not consider themselves artists, performers or storytellers.
Efforts to showcase community members’ experiences often fall under “outreach,” secondary to the main stage, less resourced despite aspirational rhetoric, and frequently guided by artists and designers still earlier in their careers. Sometimes this backfires, inadvertently implying that some stories matter less. To expand notions of which people, and what stories, are worthy of main stages and foremost interest, In Our Words taps artistic/social psychology/projection processes and decades of expertise of a team of artists, facilitators, writers, composers and designers.
In Our Words shows that the arts/artists have vital roles to play in seemingly disparate civic realms. We stretch the boundaries of where theatre happens, what it looks like, and what sorts of organizations use it to strengthen their communities.
Team
Created and Produced by Guy Mendilow
Directed by Regie Gibson & Guy Mendilow
Featuring: Storytellers from the communities with which we work
Hosts: Regie Gibson and Guy Mendilow
Musical Performance: Guy Mendilow Ensemble (GME), Musical Director: Guy Mendilow
Ponder to Page StoryCrafting Workshop Creator & Lead Instructor: Regie Gibson
Participant Interview/Conversation Facilitation: Guy Mendilow and Regie Gibson
Participant Filming & Editing: Chris DeSanty, DeSant Productions
Theatrical Projection Design: Seághan McKay (Boston Ballet; IRNE Best Projection Design Awards)
Score Composition: Guy Mendilow
Orchestration: Chris Baum
Hosts’ Script: Regie Gibson
Project Management: Arts for Social Cohesion staff
Lighting Design/Stage Management: Joe Lavasseur (Meredith Monk; ‘Bessie’ awards; Knight of Illumination Award)
Projection Operation: Bill O’Donnell
FOH Sound Engineer: Ariel Bernstein
“ …An unimaginable affirmation of all it can mean to strengthen, deepen, and encourage community connection through the prism of the Arts. To foster connection by helping members see beyond themselves, Recognizing that their needs, hopes, hurts, dreams are shared. And, therefore, to open people up to one another, enabling them to see in someone else’s story a thread of their own.”
Impact Evaluation
In Our Words operates on three interconnected levels: Individual, Community and Inter-Community.
To understand these impacts and further calibrate our efforts, we measure efficacy using:
Pre/post questionnaires to gauge attitudes/beliefs and measure changes according to specific project purpose. We are especially inspired by initiatives such as Project Zero and the American Immigration Council’s Belonging Barometer to develop systematic ways of measuring belonging across disciplines.
Interviews exploring participants' experiences
Attendance tracking and audience demographics