How can we dream about the future when it feels so heavy?
YOUR OPTIMISM IS NOT REQUIRED takes place at an intimate, outdoor performance site encircling a campfire. Guided by two performers, the audience comes to embody characters in the lives of Daughter and Dad: a biracial teenager and her white father on a camping trip confronting futures shaped by climate change.
Inspired by renowned Buddhist ecologist Joanna Macy’s work Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in Without Going Crazy, OPTIMISM is an original piece of participatory theater from Team Sunshine that aims to move despair, anxiety, and hopelessness from immobilizing obstacles to animating forces of human connection.
YOUR OPTIMISM IS NOT REQUIRED is Co-Presented in parnership with The Village of Arts and Humanities.
This production is part of TRADE SCHOOL: PHL+Detroit, a festival and exchange that celebrates the work of Philadelphia and Detroit performing artists, June 16-25, 2022.
Trade School is a program of The Philadelphia Thing. To learn more, please visit: philadelphiathing.org
COVID-19 Information: In order to keep our artists and audiences safe, please note you will be required to show proof of vaccination before entering the venue and you will be expected to wear a mask indoors at all times. Masking in outdoor venues is optional. All performers and Trade School staff have been vaccinated and boosted.