story & mission

Our Mission

The mission of Motus Theater is to create original theater to facilitate dialogue on critical issues of our time. We aim to use the power of art to build alliances across diverse segments of our community and country.

Artistic Director Statement

Storytelling is at the heart of what makes us human. We focus on bringing silenced histories and marginalized to the stage:

1. Multimedia performances exploring U.S. history through the lens of race and class that expose what has been pushed to the margins of historical narratives.

2. Autobiographical monologue performance projects with those whose voices have been marginalized and live on the frontlines of violence in our country. 

By creating performances that illuminate foundational patterns of exploitation in U.S. history, and sharing autobiographical stories that disrupt false and dehumanizing narratives used to justify inhumane and exploitive policies, Motus supports cultural and policy shifts that uplift our shared humanity.

We support inclusion by expanding our audiences’ experiences of the variety of stories that make up our country. By using theater to learn and listen across the gaps of difference we weave tighter, stronger and more connected communities. We hope you will gather around the fire with us: share your stories and learn new ones. 

"The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it... History is literally present in all we do."

- James Baldwin

“The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not… Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.” 

― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“The Ancestors say the problem with your Knees 

Began in your Feet. It could move up your Back.”  

― Robert Pinsky in “Poem of Disconnected Parts” quoting a sangoma (highly respected Zulu healer)

Motus Theater’s home office in Colorado is located on land that, by U.S. treaty, belongs to Indigenous peoples, and is the ancestral home of the Arapaho, Ute, Cheyenne and other nations.

These nations experience ongoing colonization and displacement– where land acknowledgements are offered in place of the land itself.

As part of meaningful amends, Motus Theater developed a multimedia history performance on colonial settler history in Colorado called Rocks Karma Arrows; centers the voices of indigenous leaders; and gives 10% of what we pay in theater rental costs to the Native American Rights Fund. 

Motus’ theatrical programming is developed in the United States, a country whose financial wealth was built on stolen land from the stolen labor of formerly enslaved Black people, as well as Indigenous, and other racialized people.

It was also built on the labor of many immigrant and migrant communities, including the current 11 million undocumented people who, despite their contributions to our country, continue to go through a punitive immigration system that intensifies racist disparities. 

The immigration and criminal legal system in the United States is infused with laws and policies created to enforce systemic racialized exploitation of labor, and justify the stealing of indigenous lands in the U.S. 

To interrupt these foundational patterns of exploitation maintained through racist mythology and law, Motus creates multimedia history plays through the lens of race and class, and develops autobiographical monologues with Black, Indigenous and racialized people living on the frontlines of violence in this country.  

We currently have two touring autobiographical monologue projects: UndocuAmerica where young people with DACA share personal stories about their lives; and JustUs where people who were formerly incarcerated share stories that expose the injustice of the criminal legal system. A new project, TRANSformational Stories, with leaders who are transgender, is currently in development.

Every individual and organization has an opportunity to engage in a meaningful process of truth, reconciliation, and strategic action to uplift our shared humanity and hopes for a future in which all children truly have opportunities for ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’

We currently contribute 10% of what we pay in theater rental costs to the work of the Native American Rights Fund whose mission is to “ protect Native American rights, resources, and lifeways through litigation, legal advocacy, and legal expertise.”

(For those living in Colorado, and specifically Boulder County, here is a FREE link to watch Part 1 of Motus Theater’s performance Rocks Karma Arrows that explores the colonial settler history of this area. Part 2 and Part 3 explores the racialized, and seminal, exploitation of labor in Colorado.)

(We are grateful to Canada’s 519 Project, and advisor and poet Norma Johnson that inspired Motus Theater’s approach to land acknowledgement).

Shocked by several hate crimes in the Boulder community in 2005 and 2006, Kirsten Wilson created Rocks Karma Arrows (RKA), a multimedia theater work exploring Boulder history through the lens of race and class. The critically acclaimed production premiered at the Boulder’s Sesquicentennial in 2009, and it explores the tragic relationship between the Chief Niwot and the settlers who flocked to this territory seeking gold. Her aim was to allow people to see the patterns of bias in our past, so that we might be better prepared to come together to work towards a more inclusive future.

A group of community leaders were inspired by the RKA performance and envisioned using the show to spark further community discussion about setting Boulder on a new, more equitable path. This led to the formation of Motus Theater in 2011, whose mission is to create original theater to facilitate dialogue on critical issues of our time.

Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts In 2012, Motus developed One Action: One Boulder collaborating with 50 arts and civic organizations to encourage people to learn about the history of immigration, talk about current immigration issues, and take an action to create a stronger community. Over 18,000 people participated in the project. This project solidified Motus as a leader in the community for bringing people together to take on critical issues in a thoughtful and impactful way.

Motus Theater’s work was initially focused on issues of race and class, but shifted primarily to issues concerning immigration as national and local policies began to have a daily and direct impact on members of our community. Motus Theater’s first step into this issue was with the award-winning production of Do You Know Who I Am? (DYKWIA?) (2013), where undocumented young people performed their experience of living without papers. In Salsa Loteria (2015), Latina immigrants perform stories about holding their families together across the divide of countries, cultures, and deportation injustice.

“I went to an AMAZING, sold out performance last night called Do You Know Who I Am? where five brave Latino immigrant youth tell their compelling stories. Equal parts cheering and crying. If you ever had doubts about the need for immediate immigration reform, you won’t anymore.”

—Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones

After the 2016 presidential election, community leaders called upon Motus to develop more programs that encouraged conversations about immigration. In response, Motus created the Creative Courage Initiative with 21 programs presented in universities, theaters, museums, churches, and synagogues. The most ambitious program within the Initiative was a performance that brought to the stage the Boulder County DA, Sheriff, Police Chiefs and the CU-Boulder Vice-Chancellor for Safety to stand in solidarity with DREAMeRs by reading their autobiographical monologues. The powerful performance influenced the national and local conversation about immigration and was featured on NPR’s Here & Now, USA TODAY, American Theater Magazine and in local newspapers.

In 2017 & 2018, Motus premiered the multimedia performance on immigration history, It’s Only A Paper Moon Hanging Over an Immigration History, which is the first of three parts of the project Let’s All Be Americans Now. They also developed the unprecedented UndocuAmerica Performance & Media Project. The pilot performance of this project, launched at E-Town with Colorado State House Representatives reading the stories of women in sanctuary in Colorado.

The platform of having allied leadership voices read aloud the stories of those whose voices often go unheard in the media has been a powerful model. Motus is preparing to take this model to a national level in 2019/2020 with Shoebox Stories, a national podcast. Season One: The UndocuAmerica Series is set to launch in June. This groundbreaking podcast series invites national leaders to “stand in the shoes” of a person who is marginalized or whose character is frequently attacked and read their autobiographical story aloud to see the world through their eyes.

Motus has a long history of social action theater and will continue to look to the critical issues of our time for inspiration in the future.