Camden, NJ
Child Support
A site-specific, immersive experience set in a typical Camden row house
Urgent, searing and wildly inventive, the world premiere of Child Support by Desi P. Shelton uses humor and hypertheatricality to examine single parenthood and financial responsibility from the points of view of everyone impacted by a broken system. A mother struggling to provide. A father trying to rise above his statistical odds. A daughter desperate to be loved. Child Support lays out the unspoken rules of a game in which everyone loses. A site-specific, immersive experience set in a typical Camden row house, the action is scored by composer Jamal P. Dickerson and features a live band under the eye of musical director JoJo Streater. Barrymore Award-winner Ozzie Jones directs. As part of the immersive experience, the sidewalk leading up to the theater entrance will be decorated to look like a Monopoly board; patrons will enter the block on the “GO” square.
Audience Role
Pre-show "game show" warm up with audience. Fly on the wall, with audience reaction, call-and-response encouraged. Game show sequences.
Ages: All ages
Content Advisories
Interaction Advisories
Mobility Advisories
Tags
1
Events
3
Years on EI
About Camden Repertory Theatre
Camden Repertory Theatre is a professional company that uses the performing arts as social activism to encourage, heal and transform lives. It was founded by Desi P. Shelton in 2005 when, returning to the city with an M.F.A. in theater from Sarah Lawrence College, she heard her friends and neighbors complain they were not welcome at local venues, had no artistic outlet in Camden, and that their stories were being left untold. In addition to producing plays, the company uses theater to improve life and literature skills of at-risk children through its P.A.C.E. (Preparing Artists for College Entrance) program, which helps students prepare for college auditions; assists with the application and financial aid process; offers supplementary education in written language, cultural, financial, emotional and social literacy; and creates jobs and apprentice training for returning college students. Shelton has received the Valentine Foundation Award for female executives and is a Dodge Emerging Leader. She completed the Woman and Power Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and is a recipient of a Leeway Transformation Award for social change artists.