Treasure maps

Introduction

Not long after the performance of Shelter & Place, the project I conducted with teens and young adults who were building their way out of being unhoused, a colleague from the GCDD Storytelling Project called me up to say that she’d been watching and paying attention to Shelter & Place. Given the challenges of working with people who have intellectual & developmental disabilities during the pandemic, she wondered if the pop-up, drive-in, outdoor theater style we’d created might be a great new template we could use for another project.

Hence, Treasure Maps: The Georgia Storytelling Roadshow was born! The project was called “Treasure Maps” because of the life maps process I use to help people discover and cultivate their stories, but also because we were on a journey both, physical and metaphysical, to uncover some of the best, most “hidden treasure” stories in Georgia.

Partnership

This was the third iteration of GCDD’s Storytelling Project on which we partnered. I had previously traveled the state of Georgia and written over 100 stories for them, as well as hosted/co-wrote a podcast for them in 2019. With this version of our partnership, I offered the heart of StoryMuse’s vision for helping people tell their stories in real-time spaces, with the COVID twist of outdoor, interactive pop-up theatre in order to stay pandemic-safe.

Other entities involved in the partnership included Resurgens Impact Consulting (project management) and Xerophile (filmmaking).

Together, we made a feature length film comprised of 10 short films featuring individual storytellers across the state of Georgia, as well as one audio story “bonus track” intended to be played in the car on the way to. the show.

In 2021, we made a six-city tour, showing our film in Athens, Savannah, Dahlonega, Columbus, Macon, and Atlanta. The model worked so well that we returned to Macon in 2022 for a deep dive, cultivating and filming ten more stories.

Treasure Maps is a rare masterpiece conceptualized by StoryMuse in collaboration with GCDD. The project centers the lives and artistry of people with developmental disabilities while weaving live performance with sharply filmed vignettes filmed onsite.  The advocacy impact of this work was and remains powerful, and we are grateful to have had the opportunity to work with StoryMuse’s Shannon Turner.

Kate Brady

Deputy Director, Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities

Photos by local photographers in each of the six cities where Treasure Maps performed.

The Shows

Along with the long-term partners, L’arche Atlanta and Resurgens Impact Consulting, we had countless partners along the way. Thanks to indomitable local teams, each show was like its own mini-festival, featuring some combination of food trucks, local bands, and art vendors. Summer 2021, we hit the road to host six pop-up shows in Columbus, Savannah, Macon, Athens, Dahlonega, and Atlanta. In the summer of 2022, we stayed in Macon the whole time with the explicit purpose of showing a range of experiences within just one community.

Coaching & Process

After a statewide call for storytellers who had intellectual or developmental disabilities, I hosted a sample storytelling workshop for any and all interested participants.

There 70 participants with intellectual & developmental disabilities and their family members or caregivers on that first call!

From there, more than 30 people applied to be storytellers. We narrowed down the application pool based on geographic distribution, race, gender, disability, and other considerations.

In the end, we selected 10 paid storytellers. (I always advocate for storytellers to be paid in these types of opportunities, both because these are their stories that are being shared, and because it is very much a professional experience requiring labor that should be honored.)

Throughout the process, I provided several group workshops and individual coaching sessions before we arrived for filming.