TLRH artist in residence Dan Hoyle performs his ‘Real Americans’ show

Posted on: 26 April 2018

Award-winning American actor and writer Dan Hoyle, who is currently artist in residence at Trinity Long Room Hub, performed his solo show The Real Americans, at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College Dublin earlier this week.

Inspired by his journey through small towns and rural areas of the United States, The Real Americans premiered in 2010 and has been performed over 400 times to acclaim across the United States and internationally. The show is based on a 100-day solo excursion Dan took into the American heartland to listen to ‘the real Americans’ and get away from what he has described as his ‘latte liberal bubble’. He created a cast of characters based on the people he met. Since the 2016 US election, Hoyle has revisited some of the people who inspired the original characters to get their take on Trump and, if they voted for him, find out why.

He performed the latest version of Real Americans as part of his April-May residency at Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute. During his residency, Dan will be doing field research for a new piece of journalistic theatre on the literal and metaphorical borders we cross and don’t cross in our lives. He will be spending time in Belfast, Derry and along the border talking to people and listening to stories of lived experience from varied perspectives.

“I create what I call ‘journalistic theatre’. This involves going out into the world asking big questions about the vital and timely issues of the day, finding field sites where I practice the ‘journalism of hanging out’ gaining trust in diverse communities and sub-cultures, listening to their stories, and creating a play that honours and amplifies these often under-heard voices.”

“I have been working on a new piece of journalistic theatre, a research-based solo show tentatively titled ‘Borders/No Borders’. In this piece, I am exploring the significance of borders in our current cultural, geo-political and artistic landscapes. Where does the impulse to draw distinct lines around culture and place come from? And how do we negotiate the many border crossings we all take in our everyday lives?”

About Dan Hoyle:
Dan Hoyle is an award winning actor and writer based in Oakland, California. His brand of journalistic theatre has been hailed as “riveting, funny and poignant” (New York Times) and “hilarious, moving and very necessary” (Salon). His solo shows – Each and Every Thing; Tings dey Happen; Florida 2004: the Big Bummer and Circumnavigator – have toured the US and overseas. His multi-actor plays include Game On (2014), co-written with Tony Taccone, which won the TBA award for Outstanding New Play and The Block (2016 – Working Theater) which had a critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway premiere.

Dan has been recognized with many awards, including the Will Glickman, Prize of Hope, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, TBA, and Lucille Lortel (Nomination), been supported by grants from the Edgerton Foundation, the Pew Theatre Initiative, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the Zellerbach Foundation, and been commissioned by Aurora Theatre, First Person Arts, and San Francisco Playhouse and The Working Theatre. Dan holds a double degree in Performance Studies and History from Northwestern University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Nigeria in 2005-2006. He has performed and led workshops at many universities including Columbia, Stanford, and NYU.