ABSTRACT
Using systems thinking, adrienne maree brown’s “emergent strategy” is a conceptual approach that allows directors to consider how a theatrical production resonates with community organizing practices to enhance both casting and audience engagement. Skidmore College’s production of Caridad Svich’s The Orphan Sea became an emergent space that extended the welcome table to a heterogeneous ensemble, creating an innovative experience that aligned the world of the play with the world of the audience. The author draws from her own creative work that engages the history of Freedom Summer 1964 to share how participatory site-specific immersive events work as an extended dramaturgy to broaden thinking about theatrical practice as community organizing, allowing for new entry points into our field. She provides examples from a walking tour and an interactive lobby display created through an emergent strategy that offered opportunities for interdisciplinary approaches and infused the theatrical production season with new collaborations that extended the welcome table.
