“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.” Roy Batty, a replicant, explaining life in the Off-world, Blade Runner

I didn’t need to travel to the “Off-world” to see things most humans have no idea about. I merely had to spend most of my creative life in the arts—specifically theatre (with a peripatetic journey into music). In 1979, before the invention of gum, I co-founded A Traveling Jewish Theatre, along with the late Corey Fischer and Naomi Newman.

This led me to places I couldn’t have imagined. One of those places was the American Festival Project. As you read the description of the festival, keep in mind, NOTHING like it could possibly be done in today.

The American Festival Project

“Crossing cultural boundaries is not like attending a big cocktail party. It is more like being brought into a family circle. It is an intimate experience that requires patience and respect. It takes time.” Festival co-founder, Dudley Cocke

“The American Festival Project (AFP) developed from race, place, and class conversations between the late John O’Neal, then director of Junebug Productions from New Orleans, and Dudley Cocke, director of Roadside Theater. In 1980, the two theater companies began visiting each other’s community – one predominantly black and the other white. 

Ron Short, Roadside Theater with John O’Neal of Junebug Productions

Corey Fischer, Albert Greenberg, Naomi Newman A Traveling Jewish Theatre

“In 1983, Bob Martin invited Roadside and Junebug Productions to the Peoples Theater Festival in San Francisco. Appearing with them were two important California grassroots theaters, A Traveling Jewish Theatre and El Teatro Campesino. It proved a potent mix of aesthetics and politics, and the companies decided to look for opportunities to continue working together. Their performances at other festivals became the model for the American Festival Project. 

“In addition to Junebug Productions, Roadside Theater, and A Traveling Jewish Theater, core AFP coalition members included Artist & Community Connection, Carpetbag Theater, El Teatro de la Esperanza, Francisco Gonzalez y su Conjunto, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Pregones Theater, Robbie McCauley & Company, Seattle Group Theater, and Urban Bush Women.”