Submitted by Reba Place Church
What if the land you love was stolen?
Ted & Company TheaterWorks presents We Own This Now, a play that looks at love of land, loss of land, and what it means to “own” something, by Alison Casella Brookins, starring Ted Swartz and Michelle Milne. Co-sponsored by Reba Place Church, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and Unitarian Church of Evanston, the performance will be at 7 p.m. on March 17 and 3 p.m. on March 18 at Reba Place Church, 620 Madison St.
In the play, Chris has farmed the land his grandmother found as a home in Kansas after fleeing Russia almost 100 years ago. His daughter Riley is learning more about who was on that land before her Oma arrived and the jarring connections she has to the fate of those people. We follow Chris and Riley as they navigate their changing relationship to each other and to the land their family has farmed for several generations.
Diving into historical documents, absurd situations and extended metaphors, the audience discovers alongside Riley and Chris how the Doctrine of Discovery – the legal framework that justifies theft of land and oppression of Indigenous Peoples – is still being used and causing harm today.
We Own This Now provides a starting point for further conversation: What does it mean to own something? What is the relationship between “owning” and “taking” and what is the relationship between ownership and (taking) responsibility?
The 90-minute play will be followed by a brief talkback.
Tickets not required / $10 suggested donation.