PAST PROJECT GALLERY

FREIGHT (October 2024)

FREIGHT was a performance in the freight elevator of Summit Artspace. This piece was driven by the curiosity of life lessons, and built by the Chameleon Village ensemble and from collecting input from community members who did “Life Chats.” Audiences were brought on the journey of a woman who travels through memory to find that she has much to learn about the game of life. FREIGHT was a partnership between the Chameleon Village and Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture and Summit Artspace, with support from the ArtsNow’s ArtsForward initiative.

if a tree falls (September 2022)

if a tree falls is a site-specific, theatre workshop-performance created by the Chameleon Village Theatre Collective exploring the connection between land, Black joy, and storytelling. Can Black joy matter if no one else is around to see it? How can we connect with land in order to find a deeper connection to ourselves? Using movement based creation techniques, actors use their natural environment as a stage to explore these questions.

HOME (September 2021)

HOME (April 2021) 

Beginning in September 2019, the Chameleon Village began to collect interviews from residents of West Hill asking them “What does HOME mean to you?” Projected for a performance in early-mid 2020, HOME production was halted and had to be adjusted to fit into an open theatre space. Funded by the Akron Soul Train residency, the Chameleon Village created a workshop performance of HOME in the Balch Street Theatre in April 2021 before reconstructing it to bring it to a physical house as a site-specific performance in September 2021. The work continues to be developed, allowing audiences to see it at each iteration of its evolution.

Reimagining the Village (2019)

In 2018, our founder, Josy Jones, was named a 2018 Emerging Cities Champion through 8 80s cities! They provided $5,000 and project planning assistance for Reimagining the Village. While working with Art x Love on the @PLAY project, she heard negative perceptions of the neighborhood formerly known as Elizabeth Park. After meeting some of the talented, kind people who live in the neighborhood, now Cascade Village, she decided to teach a site-specific playwriting class to help residents reshape the narrative of their neighborhood and encourage exploration. Their works were then produced as a walking theatre tour through the neighborhood. Participants marveled at the beauty of the neighborhood and acknowledged the joy of seeing theatre in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

Rebranding the City: A Humanizing Tour of Akron (2018)

In 2017, the Chameleon Village partnered with Gum-Dip Theatre and Art x Love to collect interviews from residents from Akron, Ohio’s 24 neighborhoods. These interviews became a play, “Rebranding the City: A Humanizing Tour of Akron.” Residents talked about the effects of addiction in our community, their joys, their fears, their childhoods and much more! The piece toured throughout Akron, including to two community correctional facilities, a nursing home, community centers and public parks with the hope that Akronites would see more humanity in one another.

Talk to Me (2016)

Tattoo parlors aren’t normally theatre venues, but we decided to highlight a local tattoo parlor in Downtown Macon! Company members were interested in honing their writing and directing skills. We paired our love for exploration and bringing theatre to odd places with our talented company members’ passion and created shows written for a tattoo parlor! Talk to Me was a night of short plays paired with a discount on piercings for attendees! “Home,” followed the journey of a husband as he tries to convince his wife to come home after the loss of their only child and “The Color Game” was a look at mental illness in a child and a father’s struggle to get his child the help she needs. Both were written to take place in a tattoo parlor!

The Chameleon Village Did Improv? (2016)

Artists interested in exploring their own creative passions are always welcome into the Village. In 2015, company members were interested in improv. There was a void in Macon, and they wanted to practice their skills and have performances. Before it even had a name, the group was hosting improv shows for the community in 2016. It was fun, and a completely unexpected course for the new theatre company. We’re not kidding about being adaptive. We serve our artists and communities, and are willing to shift our work to stay true to our mission! Nothing was off limits. Everything from a Russian cowgirl to selling adult toys through infomercial. We went wherever our imaginations took us!

Aren’t you Steve? The Improv Group (2016/2017)

Aren’t you Steve? became the name of the improv group created by company members of the Chameleon Village. During the time, our home was Ampersand Guild [&] for rehearsals and performances. Aren’t you Steve? would meet for regular rehearsals, come up with improv games together and host shows in order to hone the skills of the artists involved.

“CUPID #5” (February 2016)

“Cupid #5” is a playful Valentine’s Day piece created for the Lost Keys Literary Festival’s Anti V-Day event. The Chameleon Village was asked to create a new piece to fit the event. Originally written to take place in a bar, the piece followed Indigo, a single woman who is preparing for a blind date and her trusty Narrator, who lifts the veil on her hard exterior to reveal a woman looking (but failing) at love.

Lost Keys Literary Festival Mobile Advertisement (2015)

The Lost Key Literary Festival requested that the Chameleon Village perform a creative advertisement for their upcoming literary festival. In the spirit of literary witches, we created what would sound like a spell but instructed the listener to attend the literary festival and passed out advertisement for the event. This traveled around Downtown Macon, GA, in public spaces.

“COPE” (August 2015)

In collaboration with the 567 Center for Renewal, we developed a short, site-specific play to take place in their gallery space. ”COPE” accompanied their First Friday event and encouraged audience members to come to a show and see the exhibition. “COPE” focuses on siblings Haley and Shannon as they prepare for Haley’s grand opening in her new art gallery. The siblings clash when Haley realizes she’s lost something important in the gallery and Shannon tries to talk about the loss of their mother. Sparks fly as they confront their regrets and Haley is forced to deal with her grief head on.