Freeways and Sidestreets

Freeways and Sidestreets is a daylong performance event taking place along Conant Street between the Davison Freeway and I-94, at Play House, and online, exploring the myriad of ways this tiny commercial corridor straddling Detroit and Hamtramck ties into and parallels places, communities, and imaginations around the globe. Working with residents, artists, and businesses on Conant, along with their international counterparts, The Hinterlands uses live-streaming, theatrical actions, and one-on-one conversations to explore how hyper-local stories can connect with global audiences.

Blending their signature genre-busting style of theater with internet art and participatory performance, Freeways and Sidestreets consists of five "acts" ranging wildly in style, from playful to meditative. Each of these acts reveals hidden aspects of Conant and how these different layers reflect across the globe. The project pairs philosophers in Hamtramck and Moscow for a psycho-geographic stroll through Conant’s alleys; examines the GM Hamtramck Assembly plant via an on-site puppet lecture, with a response from Chinese synth manufacturer Meng Qi; and brings together two restaurants for a bi-national coffee hour—one on Conant and another in Pristina, Kosovo.

Freeways and Sidestreets makes the ties that bind one small geographic space with others across the globe visible, delving into the idiosyncrasies of one neighborhood to learn something profound about another community and ourselves. The event builds off four years of publicly engaged work by The Hinterlands, collaborating with partners old and new in a celebration of this unique neighborhood.

Date: October 12–13, 2019
Partner: Play House and Power House Productions
Location: 12657 Moran St, Detroit, MI 48212
Coordinates: 42.41277, -83.06103

About the Artist

The Hinterlands is a Detroit-based company creating performances and public events that are highly irrational and deeply American. From their original touring pieces to the events they curate in their Detroit neighborhood, their work is built around pressing into the unknown areas of personal and collective history with fearless physicality and a sense of humor. Formed in 2009 by Richard Newman and Liza Bielby, their performances smash seemingly disparate images and ideas together, culminating in new, highly layered meanings that are greater than the sum of their parts. Their work has been seen at the Shanghai Biennale, the Berlinale, Alverno Presents, Flynn Center, Detroit Institute of Arts, Charlestown Working Theater, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, among others. The Hinterlands are the artists-in-residents and program curators of Play House, a Detroit neighborhood-based performance space in collaboration with Power House Productions.

Liza Bielby (co-director) is a former Fulbright scholar, a student of the Sichuan Chuanju Academy (now Sichuan Vocational College of Art), a graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, a board member of the Bangla School of Music, and a professor of movement at Wayne State University’s Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance.

Richard Newman (co-director) has led workshops and trainings at universities and theaters around the world, and has performed abroad in China, Spain, Poland, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Canada. He was an ensemble member of Double Edge Theatre from 2004–2008 and an artist in residence with The Dell’Arte Company in Blue Lake, CA.