Sofa Stories is a participatory theatre experience that aims to amplify the stories of young Detroiters who have experienced homelessness or housing insecurity and have resorted to couch-surfing as a means to survive. On sofas placed in public spaces throughout the city, one audience member at a time will take a seat next to a performer to witness a brief monologue or vignette created with and by young people, and ultimately experience a unique theatrical event that creatively explores an often-invisible crisis.

A collaboration with the Detroit Phoenix Center, this project will engage young people who have direct experience of homelessness or housing insecurity and result in a participatory, site-specific performance consisting of solo performances performed by a combination of youth participants and professional actors that will raise awareness on this issue. Audiences will be invited to experience this performance on sofas places in a variety of indoor and outdoor public spaces across the city. The image of a sofa placed in a public space will serve as a visual reminder of how often young people resort to couch-surfing for temporary shelter. As the performer and audience member occupy the sofa together, the result will be an intimate performative experience. At each location audience members will be able to experience as many different individual performances as they like, meaning that everyone will have a slightly different experience as they witness separate monologues/vignettes in no particular order.

Performances will take place in multiple sites across the city that may include libraries, cultural sites, parks and outdoor public spaces beginning in summer 2020, culminating in a larger festival of performances in 2021.