1 Play 3 Ways is part performance, part creative experiment, and part community celebration. Picture a packed room buzzing with anticipation as three creative teams present radically different versions of the same short play.

The Arkansas playwright gives them a mystery—a missing scene—and each team brings it to life in their own theatrical language. One version might be raw and stripped down, another lush and expressionistic. You might hear a haunting folk melody or a burst of laughter. With simple costumes, light, sound, and movement, each team builds an immersive world that reveals something new about the same story. But the night doesn’t end when the curtain falls. We stay to talk. The artists, the audience, the playwright—we gather in conversation, unpacking what we saw, felt, and imagined. This isn’t just theater; it’s a shared act of co-creation.

This project matters now more than ever. In a time when our communities feel more divided and fragmented, 1 Play 3 Ways offers space for connection, curiosity, and creative risk. It reminds us that art can be a meeting ground—a place to hold multiple viewpoints, share lived experiences, and imagine new ways of being together without needing a single “right” answer.