Editor's pick: ‘American Value’: a unique experiment

Friday, July 14 and Saturday, July 15. 8:00 p.m. NACL Theatre, 110 Highland Lake Road, Highland Lake, NY. $8 to $20; no credit cards accepted. 845/557-0694.

The theatre group NACL is so typically referred to by its acronym that it is easy to forget that the “L” stands for “Laboratory.” (The full name is North Americal Cultural Laboratory.) The terminology is fitting. The troupe has established a name for itself as a group that is as daring in experimentation as it is enriched by venerable theatrical traditions such as street performance. This is evident in spades in “American Value,” an endeavor undertaken in partnership with Sojourn Theatre of Portland, Oregon, Carpetbag Brigade, and Strike Anywhere, to be performed at the NACL theatre in Highland Lake this weekend.

Sojourn Theatre artistic director Michael Rohd has interviewed over 30 people in local communities over the last two weeks with the questions, “What does it mean to be an American?” and “What are your core values?”

These interviews have provided the raw material from which a phantasmagoria of song, movement and word has been crafted. A cast of 30 stilt walkers, community members and theatre artists from across the country have worked together to fashion the play in only about 10 days. The original theatrical event will combine song by a chorus of community members, stilt walking, spectacular moments, and words and text based entirely on the interviews with local residents. It is a peculiarly Sullivan County event, crafted by us, for us, about us, at a particular moment in time, and it promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime show.