Ezell: Ballad of a Land Man

We acknowl­edge the priv­i­lege and com­plex­i­ty of liv­ing, work­ing, and pro­duc­ing this expe­ri­ence on the lands of the Alleghe­ny Riv­er as well as the Aniyun­wiyvi (Chero­kee), Shawan­wa­ki (Shawnee), and oth­er peo­ples indige­nous to the place from which Ezell arose. We strive to be good stew­ards of the lands and to resolve the lega­cies of oppres­sion and dom­i­na­tion that have come before and per­sist today. We offer the expe­ri­ence of Ezell with a hum­ble, heal­ing spir­it and in recog­ni­tion of all those who have come before and are yet to come in this place and in all the places we visit.

THE EXPERIENCE

Here’s what to expect when you arrive on site at Tree Pittsburgh:

Act 1: The Wel­come. Ori­ent to the expe­ri­ence and site, con­nect with your jour­ney guide and enjoy a tasty treat & drink if you’d like.

Act 2. The Jour­ney. Make a con­tem­pla­tive trek with guide & group to the per­for­mance site amidst wood­land art & music.*

Act 3. The Sto­ry. Wit­ness Ezell: Bal­lad of a Land Man per­formed out­doors along­side the Alleghe­ny River.

Act 4. The Reflec­tion. Engage with your guide, the land, and one anoth­er to reflect on the themes of Ezell as you return from the per­for­mance site for the final act.*

Act 5. The Cel­e­bra­tion. Enjoy live music and a farm-fresh, fam­i­ly-style meal inspired by the season.*

*See notes regard­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty below.

BE PREPARED

We rec­om­mend:

• com­fort­able close-toed shoes & socks
• long pants & lay­ers for rain/warmth
• nat­ur­al bug spray
• water bot­tle if you’d like to car­ry water with you to the per­for­mance site
• a light (the per­for­mance will fin­ish by dusk and the meal area will be lit, though it’s a good idea to have a light avail­able as you make your way out)

You will move through this expe­ri­ence togeth­er in a small group. If you are attend­ing with oth­ers that you’d like to be grouped with, please be sure to let us know when you register.

In the case of rain, we do per­form in the rain and will com­mu­ni­cate by e‑mail if we intend to con­tin­ue as planned or adjust tim­ing as con­di­tions per­mit. If there are storms or oth­er dan­ger­ous con­di­tions that require can­cel­la­tion, we will do our best to accom­mo­date tick­et hold­ers on anoth­er date or pro­vide a refund.

ACCESSIBILITY

We strive to make this out­door immer­sive expe­ri­ence avail­able to every­one who would like to join us. The jour­ney and return will be offered in two formats:

• Walk­ing Path: A guid­ed jour­ney walk of about 1/4 miles along a well-main­tained river­side trail that is most­ly lev­el with one brief steep decline and one brief steep incline and occa­sion­al­ly uneven sur­faces. The walk be rough­ly split in half with the first por­tion pri­or to the seat­ed Sto­ry per­for­mance and the sec­ond por­tion of the walk after the performance.
• Rid­ing Path: A guid­ed jour­ney in an open-air vehi­cle through the Tree Pitts­burgh grounds. There will be a trans­fer area of approx­i­mate­ly 20 yards between the vehi­cle drop-off and the per­for­mance seat­ing area. The vehi­cle dri­ver will be avail­able to pro­vide assis­tance for enter­ing and exit­ing the vehi­cle dur­ing the trans­fer before and after the performance.

Bath­rooms will be acces­si­ble with­in 20 yards of the park­ing area and wel­come / cel­e­bra­tion site. A bath­room will not be acces­si­ble near­by dur­ing the performance.

The meal will offer dairy-free, gluten-free, and veg­e­tar­i­an options.

If you have oth­er acces­si­bil­i­ty con­sid­er­a­tions or requests, please con­tact us via cb@clearcreekcreateive.net.

SUPPORTERS
The Pitts­burgh pre­miere of Ezell is made pos­si­ble through local sup­port from the Hen­ry John Simonds Foun­da­tion and Tree Pitts­burgh with addi­tion­al sup­port from:

The New Eng­land Foun­da­tion for the Arts’ Nation­al The­ater Project, with lead fund­ing from the Andrew W. Mel­lon Foun­da­tion and addi­tion­al fund­ing from the Doris Duke Char­i­ta­ble Foundation.

Ezell is a Nation­al Per­for­mance Net­work (NPN) Cre­ation & Devel­op­ment Fund Project co-com­mis­sioned by Car­pet­bag The­ater in part­ner­ship with Mon­do Bizarro and NPN.

Ezell is made pos­si­ble, in part, through a Con­tin­u­a­tion grant for our part­ner­ship with Mon­do Bizarro from the Net­work off Ensem­ble The­aters’ Trav­el & Exchange Net­work (NET/TEN), sup­port­ed by lead fund­ing rom the Andrew W. Mel­lon Foundation.

Ezell has also been sup­port­ed through an Al Smith Fel­low­ship Award grant­ed to Bob Mar­tin for artis­tic excel­lence from the Ken­tucky Arts Coun­cil, the state arts agency, which is sup­port­ed by state tax dol­lars and fed­er­al fund­ing from the Nation­al Endow­ment for the Arts.

The tour of Ezell to com­mu­ni­ties on the front­lines of the fos­sil fuel econ­o­my is sup­port­ed by the Cho­rus Foun­da­tion as they work togeth­er with our com­mu­ni­ties for a just tran­si­tion to a fair and sus­tain­able economy.

Ezell was seed­ed and evolved over many years with the sup­port of Alter­nate ROOTS through the Part­ners in Action pro­gram, an Artis­tic Assis­tance grant, fis­cal spon­sor­ship and the ongo­ing learn­ing & sup­port of an amaz­ing net­work of artists.