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Michael Morgan is someone who has deliberately chosen to do a hard thing — to take his training in classical acting and voice and attempt to use it to make an impact in the lives of young men and women in the correctional system. "People who choose hard things" has been something of a sub-theme for this season of Ask Me Anything, and it always seems to lead us to interviews that are inspiring, fascinating, and unique in each case.
Michael is a professor at the UCSB Department of Theater and Dance, and is a classically trained actor and voice teacher who grew up in Harlem, NY. He founded The Odyssey Project in 2011 as collaborative theatre project with youth in juvenile detention using the Homer’s The Odyssey to engage with the stories of their own lives. More recently he directed The Trojan Women Project – an experimental arts-activist project with incarcerated female youth in collaboration with the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility and UC Davis, and The Going Home Project – a theater initiative with homeless youth which was part of the 2018 Arts Residency Program at the Community Arts Workshop.
The Odyssey Project is a collaborative theater process between youth from a juvenile detention facility in Santa Barbara County and undergraduate students from UCSB. Using the template of Homer's Odyssey, the participants gather to explore the mythic elements in their lives in order to reconstruct the epic poem in their own voices, and create a public performance. The project is designed to honor youth in identifying their heroic life mission and map a course of action. It employs theater arts as a strategy for inspiring life affirming choices.
Tune in this coming Thursday, November 5 at 4pm, for our happy hour free-flowing interview with Michael at facebook.com/sbcaw/live! In addition to the wisdom they offer young people, these myths and plays spring from the society that originated the idea of democracy — ancient Greece — and we are excited to explore with Michael what they have to say to us today. We hope you’ll join us and ask questions both during the live Q&A and ahead of time as well via our Facebook and Instagram feeds, or by e-mailing hello@sbcaw.org, and we'll pass your questions on to Michael.
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We are deeply grateful for the support of
Season Sponsor: Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery
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The Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative has developed an Ask Me Anything video interview program during this coronavirus-restricted period, a free-form online Q&A with Santa Barbara art & culture figures who’ve got stories to tell.
Interviews take place live on Facebook Live— anyone can ask questions and participate in real time via the comments. (A Facebook account is not necessary to watch the video.) Questions can also be submitted beforehand via our Facebook and Instagram feeds, or by e-mailing hello@sbcaw.org.
And follow along via our mailing list, Instagram, and Facebook feeds for the next Ask Me Anything!
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