By Jackie Rivera, The Project [theatre]

JULY! Its hot. Its sticky. and Miami just got one blonde blue-eyed stud hotter. Sorry to break the news like this…but our in-house hunk, David Hemphill, Artistic Director of The Project [theatre] is happening to Miami all over again, and this time with concerted permanence.

What does this mean for The Project? It means we just went from 0 to 60. Hemphill’s presence at our headquarters means that we are in full throttle and gearing up to bring the community our latest and greatest. The Project’s recent days are filled with conference calls for breakfast, meetings for lunch and idea-casseroles for dinner. Also! We have business cards, thus legitimizing us as a part of the business class… (that’s not what that means, is it? :/ )

Within the life of an artist, there’s a constant struggle to find where you’re needed. Where you fit. We, at The Project, have purposely given ourselves a large trajectory to aim for, allowing us to constantly reinvent and improve upon the style of theater we present. This means we are never done evolving, never done solidifying our process…but what if someone gave us a space to experiment? Gave us time to hone what exactly devised theater means to us and how we interpret that process, and gave us microcosmic guinea pigs to play with? What then? Its an enigmatic idea: giving us time to speed up.

Now, please excuse our dust, and step into what we will soon refer to as The Project [lab]…

Here in the preliminary Project [lab] we are hard at work developing a process to get our productions down to a concise formula easily duplicated to fit the needs and stories and venues we seek to promote. It has occurred to us many times in our theater educations, a notion we all inherently share, that theater has power. (1.21 JIGGAWATTS!) Historically, theater is uncontested as a platform for social and political change, it has the power to unite communities, and place into lore the triumphs and tribulations of society’s heroes. With a healthy balance of respect and innovation for theater as an art, we consider ourselves fit for the job of keeping theater in the race as our generations continue to grow technologically and philosophically into the next age…and the next.

But The Project isn’t all work and no play, we are roaming the social stratosphere as ever, collecting friends and collaborators hoping to enhance our productions and future endeavors with a touch of all artistic disciplines. We have even stumbled upon our potential gifts as a source of alternative advertisement and promotions, incorporating our shows into the realm of event entertainment. And we continue to push our demographic boundaries by taking in all of what Miami’s art scene has to offer.

Nothing happens in a vacuum. Especially not art. Keep an eye out for The Project at your favorite neighborhood art spots…