The Empty Space features creative scholarship developed by students and faculty in the Hugh Downs School, often in collaboration with other ASU departments and schools. Projects range from extended solo performances to group performances, including explorations in (auto)ethnography, literary-based texts, adapted scholarship, and trigger scripting. The Empty Space also hosts local and national artists and performance educators who offer lectures, workshops, and performances.
Creating a video
In March 2023, the cast of “Toma el Trago” (Spanish for "Take the Drink") filmed a video at The Empty Space as part of Associate Professor Jonathan Pettigrew’s “Seeding Social Movements” grant. The video will be shown in Nicaragua as an educational tool for youth, families, and educators to generate discussions about alcohol and drug addiction and paths to recovery.
Sara McKinnon, Ph.D., wrote the script and collaborated and co-directed the video with Artistic Director Jennifer Linde. Professor Emerita Linda C. Lederman advised on the content of the script.
Seeding Social Movements grant activities are designed to implement a suite of programs and training that will support a sustainable anti-drug, grassroots social movement to empower youth and communities. Training will develop local capacity to reach youth, young adults, parents, and community groups with relevant programming. The project will also include social media and radio campaigns and will collaborate with The Recovery Story Project to produce Spanish-language performances that will de-stigmatize help-seeking and recovery.
Toma el Trago
The cast and videographer are all members of the ASU community. Ricardo Leo, who works in media production for EdPlus, recorded and will edit the video.
The cast was built from an audition and includes both undergraduate and graduate students majoring in film and theatre.
The cast includes Beatriz Vargas Medina, Leonardo Tavera-Montiel and Alejandro Bastien-Olivera.
The characters speak about how they became addicted to alcohol and what happened in their lives to move them to sobriety and recovery.
The script, written in Spanish by Sara McKinnon, PhD, is an adaptation of interviews conducted with Nicaraguan youth in recovery.