The University of Iowa’s Hancher will present All Recipes Are Home at 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 17-18, at the Johnson County Fairgrounds in Iowa City. This new play, co-commissioned by Hancher and created by Iowa City’s Working Group Theatre, is a culmination of a two-year project that explores the many ways that food, farming, sustainability, and agriculture affect our lives and culture.
All Recipes Are Home tells the story of a brother and sister held together by a family recipe when one of them leaves to work on a farm across the country. The play incorporates interviews with Iowa farmers and other experts to tell a universal story grounded in Iowa. The show also features original music by local band Awful Purdies. All Recipes Are Home continues a collaborative relationship between Working Group Theatre and Hancher, following the successful development of four other full-length works.
For the development of this piece, Working Group Theatre conducted extensive research into the experience of agriculture workers, historians, and scientists from around the state, spending time in Grinnell, Decorah, and Spencer. The play combines direct testimony and interviews with storytelling, poetry, and music. The play is part of the UI’s Food for Thought theme semester, and Working Group artistic director Sean Lewis visited a number of university classes as part of the project, working with students in the College of Public Health and a variety of departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, including English, American studies, global health studies, social work, and theater.
Founded in 2009 by Sean Christopher Lewis, Martin Andrews, and Jennifer Fawcett, Working Group Theatre engages a diverse audience with original plays, events, and educational programming, created in collaboration with artists and community partners, and intends to uncover and present the untold stories around us. Working Group Theatre seeks to involve the audience in the stories told as commentators and collaborators, reaching out to new audiences by eliminating the social and economic barriers to arts participation. Working Group and its members have toured nationally and internationally, garnering numerous awards and a feature in the New York Times Magazine.
All Recipes Are Home is co-commissioned by the Center Stage Series at Luther College and Grinnell College. Funding for the performances was provided, in part, by the F. Wendell Miller Fund and by the Hancher Partners and gifts to the Hancher Circle through the UI Foundation.
Audience seating will be at tables and attendees may bring a picnic or snacks. Drinks will be available to purchase. The Awful Purdies will play music starting at 6:30 p.m. Audience members are encouraged to bring a canned food item to benefit the United Way and local food banks.
Tickets, which are available from the Hancher Box Office, are $30 ($25 for senior citizens; $10 for college students and youth). The Hancher Box Office, located on the first floor of the south end of Old Capitol Town Center near the parking ramp, is open for phone (319-335-1160 or 800-HANCHER) or walk-up business from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. Tickets also may be ordered online. Any remaining tickets will be available for sale one hour before show time at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the Hancher Box Office in advance at 319-335-1158.