Whittier: A Play in Portraits
Event Details
Tickets & Info
Part of: Free Thursday Nights
Whittier: A Play in Portraits, by playwright TyLie Shider, is a multimedia docudrama that chronicles 24 hours in Minneapolis’ Whittier neighborhood during the summer of 2020. The narrative unfolds in a series of portraits and vignettes, featuring a chorus of neighbors who communicate through a “Neighborhood Watch” group chat. The interdisciplinary work organically blends theater and film to reflect the resilience of community.
The presentation includes a brief screening of the documentary Sign O’ the Times, which was adapted into the script, produced by local community nonprofit Dark Muse Healing Arts. A talkback with the performers and producers of the show follows the program.
For many southside Minneapolis residents, the sounds of helicopters whirring overhead, sirens, and protest during Operation Metro Surge recalled George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Responding to the impact of such repeated traumas on our communities, this play centers how neighbors show up to organize and care for one another. Witness intimate and personal storytelling through this experimental production.
This event is part of Free Thursday Nights. Galleries are open late and free from 5 to 9 pm.
Coproduced with Dark Muse.
This event will have ASL interpretation.
Need another accommodation? Contact Visitor Services at access@walkerart.org or 612-375-7564 at least two weeks before the event to discuss your request. More information is available on our Accessibility page.
Dark Muse Healing Arts curates radical care experiences centering Black, Brown, Queer & Trans Healing through creative expression. In spring 2027, Dark Muse will bring to life a full-scale production of Whittier: A Play in Portraits as an experimental, site-specific work in South Minneapolis.
TyLie Shider is an American writer; a 2026 HEART grantee for History, Education, and Arts Reaching Thousands; a Pedantic Arts’ Writer in Residence; a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellow; and the inaugural playwright in residence at ArtYard. A core writer and a McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights’ Center (PWC), he is a recipient of Premiere Stages’ Liberty Live commission, two consecutive Jerome Fellowships (PWC), and an I Am Soul playwright in residence at the National Black Theatre. Recent projects include: Don’t Miss Doris Hines; LABOR; Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family at Premiere Stages; The Gospel Woman, Whittier; and his filmmaking debut Sign O’ the Times. Shider is a staff writer for Minnesota Playlist, where he writes a regular column.
Part of: Free Thursday Nights
Free Thursday Nights are sponsored by
Lead support for the Walker’s Learning and Public Programs is provided by the Pohlad Family Community Engagement Fund.
