Shift Change: Porter Falls in Its Own Words

What this is

Shift Change is the program’s first devised production, a play with no playwright at the start. An ensemble of eleven students is spending the fall semester interviewing people who live and work in Porter Falls. In the spring they will build a script from those interviews, collectively, in rehearsal. The title comes from the town’s long run as a place of shifts: the old paper mill, the cannery on the Millrace, the hospital in Lake City, the Ironclad Fieldhouse concession stand.

The ensemble does not yet know exactly what the piece will be about. That is the point. Interviews so far include a retired switchman who worked the depot before it became the Welcome Center, the owner of the Main Street diner, three generations of a family that moved to Porter County from Laos, a dairy farmer, a nurse who has worked nights for 31 years, and a woman who remembers the spring the Porter River came over the Depot District sandbags.

How it is being made

1. September–November 2026: listening. Students trained in oral-history interviewing by staff from Halvorsen Library and Porter Falls Public Library record 60 to 80 interviews. Everyone interviewed signs a release and chooses whether to be named.
2. December–February: shaping. The ensemble transcribes, sorts and improvises from the interviews. Their words are kept verbatim wherever possible.
3. Wednesday, March 3, 2027: open workshop. A free 45-minute showing of material in progress in the Black Box, with a feedback session. Interviewees get first seats.
4. March–May: rehearsal toward the May premiere.

With each interviewee’s consent, recordings and transcripts go to the university archives (see museum & collections) and the public library’s local history room. The ensemble is clear that the archive will outlast the play.

Dates and tickets

The Black Box, Applied Arts Building Room 118, about 100 seats in the round. Every performance is open-captioned, because some of the people whose words are on stage are hard of hearing. Tickets are pay what you can, $5–$15 (suggested $10), and free for Porter students. Every interviewee gets two free tickets. Reserve through the box office.

Running time and content advisory

Running time: expected to be 80–90 minutes with no intermission. The final running time and a full content advisory will be posted by April 15, 2027, once the script is settled. The stories gathered so far include loss of work, a flood, illness and death, alongside a great deal of humor about winter. Real local places are named. Expect occasional strong language, quoted as spoken. Recommended for ages 12 and up for now.

The company, and how to share a story

• Director: Isaac Haddad, professor of acting and directing and the theatre program’s artistic director
• Dramaturg: Sofia Escobar, theatre history
• Design: Peter Trombley (sound and scenic), with student designers
• Ensemble: eleven students from nine majors, among them nursing, mechanical engineering, apparel design, history education and cybersecurity. All were chosen in September. Two more performer spots open in January (see auditions).

Have a Porter Falls story? Interviews continue through November 20, 2026. Email the department or leave your name at the Porter Falls Public Library circulation desk. Interviews take about an hour at the library, the Welcome Center or your kitchen table, whichever you prefer. The work is part of the university’s community engagement, and the March workshop is open to all. The project was announced with the 2026–27 season.