Top Moments from No Safety Net 3.0

By UMS

Five unique ticketed experiences. Contextual events connecting the University of Michigan Campus. Activities for families and schools. And a powerful free digital presentation.

More than 5,000 audience members of all ages participated in UMS’s No Safety Net 3.0 Festival, centered around critical topics in today’s world — including the environment and climate change, capitalism, forced migration, and unspoken private lives.

Enjoy a look back on our favorite moments:

The Plastic Bag Store Grand Opening

The Plastic Bag Store opened to tremendous success, quickly selling out more than 40 public performances. Extensive local and national media coverage of the show included artist interviews and videos produced by the University of Michigan, The Associated Press, USA Today, and The Weather Channel…just to name a few!

In the week of its grand opening, creator Robin Frohardt joined the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series at the Michigan Theater. The presentation was also streamed online and is available to watch on YouTube.

All attendees to The Plastic Bag Store had access to a digital guide, complete with behind-the-scenes features, program notes, and more resources about the effects of single-use plastics.

Welcoming Students

More than 20 full-length showings of The Plastic Bag Store were made available to University of Michigan class groups and local K-12 schools. We also invited students and teachers to share their post-show experiences with us online.

“I love how much was put into this exhibit and I also appreciate how they got their point of the entire thing while making it entertaining and enjoyable.”

Free Family Days

UMS welcomed 500 guests across two specially designed Plastic Bag Store family days in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Young “shoppers” (ages 3+) could explore products and participate in a guided, hands-on art-making activity with local artist Sajeev Visweswaran.

Working Backwards

Immediately following their appearance at New York City’s Under the Radar Festival, Belgian theater collective Ontroerend Goed presented two public shows and one school day performance of their palindromic Are we not drawn onward to new erA. The striking and inventive work, which gets filmed live and then replayed “backwards” for the audience, questions whether we can undo the damage we’ve inflicted on the earth.

The company also presented a workshop at the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, showing students their process of performing in reverse.

Crossing Borders

UMS offered 32 performances of Tania El Khoury’s multi-sensory Cultural Exchange Rate in the Stamps Gallery. Audiences were given a set of keys and invited to unlock safety deposit boxes that held pieces of El Khoury’s family history. The work examines the never-ending story of migration through oral histories, family archives, and reconstructed memories.

During the run, Tania El Khoury joined the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series at the Michigan Theater, exploring the work as a case study in audience interactivity and the political potential of live art. The presentation was also streamed online and is available to watch on YouTube.

A Powerful Journey

No Safety Net 3.0 included another powerful work of storytelling that crossed borders and continents, in our digital presentation of salt:dispersed by UK-based performance artist Selina Thompson. Her award-winning dramatic monologue follows a journey she made by cargo ship to retrace the triangular route of the transatlantic slave trade.

Audience members graciously shared how the experience of viewing salt:dispersed resonated with them:

“Breathe deeply and step into this sacred space. You will have your heart cracked open.”

“Very revealing. Priceless and thought-provoking. Thank you.”

“A beautiful, heartfelt and healing journey.”

“Excellent performance. Excellent storytelling. I felt as if I was in the story.”

President Ono and Guests Visit The Plastic Bag Store

University of Michigan president Santa Ono, Ann Arbor mayor Christopher Taylor, and other special guests attended The Plastic Bag Store alongside UMS’s leadership and board of directors, and had the opportunity to meet and interact with creator Robin Frohardt.

What a joy to watch a performance of @UMSpresents Plastic Bag Store Project. This custom-built public art installation and immersive film experience uses humor, craft, and a critical lens to shine a light on the enduring effects of our single-use plastics on our environment pic.twitter.com/JBPzVGhk3j

— Santa Ono (@SantaJOno) January 29, 2023

Talking Trash

In support of The Plastic Bag Store, the U-M Museum of Art, U-M Arts Initiative, the Graham Sustainability Institute, and UMS joined forces to offer “Talking Trash” — a livestreamed panel discussion exploring various ways to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics.

Unleashing Inside Voices

In advance of their performances of Our Carnal Hearts, theater maker Rachel Mars and singer/arranger Louise Mothersole led students from the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance’s ‘Heightened Language’ class in a traveling project called “Sing it! Spirit of Envy.”

Students submitted their “envies,” which Mothersole crafted into a witty, disruptive, 5-minute choral work they all performed together in the lobby at the U-M Ross School of Business. The performance was filmed and will be shared soon!

The Art of Letter Writing

Sold-out showings of Rachel Mars’s Your Sexts Are Shit: Older Better Letters sent audiences howling in the final weekend of No Safety Net performances! The show juxtaposed raunchy, erotic, expertly crafted communications from historic figures — including James Joyce, Mozart, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Georgia O’Keefe — with vapid, grammarless, crass text messages of the modern dating app era.

Mars visited with University of Michigan’s undergraduate ‘Engaging Performance’ class in the weeks before and after the show, to share her creative process and hear their performance reactions.

Student Closing Party

The University Musical Society’s Student Committee was joined by nearly 50 U-M students to celebrate the success of the festival, with special performances from Cece June and the Calista Quartet at Now Studios. Overall, students accounted for more than 25% of all No Safety Net audience members!

Thank you to our supporters!

No Safety Net 3.0 was presented in partnership with the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Thank you to the many supporters who made No Safety Net 3.0 a memorable festival for all!

TITLE SPONSORS

Rachel Bendit and Mark Bernstein
U-M Arts Initiative

PRINCIPAL SPONSORS

Max Wicha and Sheila Crowley
An anonymous donor supporting programming about environmental sustainability
U-M College of Literature, Science & the Arts
University of Michigan Credit Union Arts Adventures program
Oxford Companies
Destination Ann Arbor

SUPPORTING SPONSOR

Ilene H. Forsyth Theater Endowment Fund

THE PLASTIC BAG STORE IS CO-PRESENTED WITH

University of Michigan Museum of Art
U-M Graham Sustainability Institute

MEDIA PARTNERS

WEMU 89.1 FM
Michigan Radio 91.7 FM
Ann Arbor’s 107one