A telephone hotline, a vinyl record, a performance.

Is anyone out there? Is anyone listening? Are we alone? In 1977, NASA launched the twin Voyager spacecrafts to try and answer these questions. Aboard both is the Golden Record, an artifact intended to communicate who and what we are. After 43 years and over 13 billion miles, this proverbial message in a bottle is the farthest human-made object from earth. If we were to send another message into the distant future, what message would we send?

To answer this, Theater Mitu created a public telephone hotline (646-694-8050) prompting people to leave messages to the future. These voicemails, along with messages from astronauts, astronomers, futurists, spiritual communities, and middle school students make up the source material for Utopian Hotline.

The Utopian Hotline is still open and receiving messages. Join us for an immersive audiovisual installation to reflect on the source material that makes up this work, and take a moment to dial the hotline and leave us a message. As this work tours the country, new voicemails will be continuously integrated into the fabric of the installation to bridge together the voices of all the communities we visit. 

The installation is FREE and for ALL AGES. It will be open to the public the following dates/times:

Performed inside the installation space - small, limited audiences will gather, not in the darkness of a traditional theater, but underneath a 30ft projection screen, on a pink carpet, around a communal table, to re-imagine our shared future. Four performers tethered to audience members by headphones will musicalize and trismit these collected messages. Together, they will acknowledge coming into community as a radical action. An action that has consistently shaped this planet’s future. An action that reaffirms that someone is listening, that we are, in fact, not alone. 

Tickets are required for all performances. Performances are for AGES 14+ and will be held on Thursday, October 13th at 7pm and 8:30pm; Friday, October 14th at 7pm and 8:30pm; Saturday, October 15th at 12noon, 1:30pm, 5pm, and 6:30pm.