This Is Reading

This Is Reading is a site-specific multimedia installation blending live performance, film, and projection mapping. It occupies the historic Franklin Street Railroad Station in downtown Reading, Pennsylvania, reanimating the long-vacant building. Using as its foundation the hardships, challenges, and triumphs of people living in and around Reading, This Is Reading weaves their individual stories into one cohesive and compelling tale of the city. The stories are placed in dialogue with the station’s unique history and architecture in an attempt to express the voice of a city grappling with how to reclaim a narrative that has been fractured along racial and economic lines. This Is Reading was inspired by the relationship that playwright and MacArthur Fellow Lynn Nottage forged with the people of Reading while researching her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat.