Project:

Flip That Flock

Workshops: 2023-2027. Premieres 2027.

The Show: Flip That Flock A dilapidated church on a prime piece of real estate has a dwindling congregation. As the building crumbles around them, the audience has to help them choose: when a church can no longer remain a church, what should we do with it?

Engagement

Since 2023 we’ve hosted multiple workshops and done dozens of interviews. We’ve also written many drafts of scenes that will never see the light of day. Workshops have included:

  • LGBT Center Los Angeles. A dozen seniors shared their housing and roommate stories. They performed these stories for an intimate salon. This project was supported by the LA Dept of Cultural Affairs. sparks made coffee cake. Spring 2026

  • Flourish Placemaking Collective held an evening of stories from faith leaders about the challenges of affordable housing development. We workshopped the characters of the play with these participants. Winter 2026

  • Mixed Blood, with support from Springboard for the Arts, hosted a free community workshop for local affordable housing developers  to offer insights and feedback into the characters of The Pasture.  Winter 2026

  • At this point the plot was: an eclectic group of seniors squatting in an abandoned church fend off a nosy neighbor and the authorities to protect their home.  Yes, there was cheesecake. The reading was at the LA LGBT Senior Center.  February 2025

  • We watched episodes of the Golden Girls and shared roommate stories. sparks made cheesecake. 

    Triangle Square Senior Housing, Fall 2024

    Agnes Getty Senior Housing, Fall 2024

    Claire Housing. Fall 2024

  • In partnership with Fernando, a Housing Navigator, at the LGBT Senior Center, we co-created a more interactive curriculum to teach seniors about their housing options in Los Angeles.  This project was supported by the LA Dept of Cultural Affairs. Fall 2024-Winter 2025

  • 70+ faith leaders gathered to build relationships and discuss the future of the church. The regional planning commission share data about the future demographics of the Lehigh Valley. Faith leaders shared stories and challenges to putting their faith into action and addressing local housing challenges.  In collaboration with Touchstone Theater and the Lehigh Conference of Churches. May 2024

  • We hosted 16 delightful queers for an afternoon story soiree and daydreaming about our senior housing fantasies. It was a beautiful world with zen gardens, adult tricycle pathways, and bedrooms that adapt to your care needs. We’re ready to build this and move in if anyone wants to partner with us! 

    Prompt: Draw the campus map for your fantasy senior living situation.

  • An intergenerational group that included Elizabeth Glidden, Deputy Executive Director of the Minnesota Housing Partnership, and Sherrie Pugh, Chair of the Governor’s Council on an Age-Friendly Minnesota, joined us for a teach-in at Mixed Blood Theatre. The focus was on about housing for older adults. April 2023

  • Los Angeles, Bethlehem, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Arlington, Allentown, Virtually, IRL, the Astral Plane.

Research

We watched The Kipper and the Corpse episode of Fawlty Towers and The Two Mister Cranes (Season 4, Episode 1) of Frasier.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University just published a new study Housing America’s Older Adults. We’ve been thinking about how this report relates to the recent New York Times The Daily Podcast Should You Rent or Buy? The New Math. David Leonhardt, a senior writer for the New York Times, discusses the complex math of buying a home and how much homeownership can cost. The Times has a rent or buy calculator to help you assess what might be realistic for your particular circumstance.

“By 2030, the U.S. will have have 71 million seniors.”

7 Million will be Fabulous.

Carehaus in Baltimore is an innovative co-living model for caregivers and older adults.

And about the Peace Village Co-op. “at 70 units, Peace Village may well be one of the larger housing developments achieving under 60 percent AMI affordability levels without LIHTC.” This previous church is an interesting model for development. 

Shift: 3 Big Moves for the 21st Century Church, by Mark Tidsworth

The National Conference of Churches projected that roughly 100,000 U.S. churches may close by 2030.

The average age of a church building is 75 years, and the median church size is 75 people. Many of these churches have valuable community assets, including their buildings, land in central community locations, and energetic (if aging) parishioners.

We are learning about  AARP’s 8 Domains of Livability and thinking about which domain each character is most passionate about.