The Gopher Plan

In affiliation with the Creative Time Summit, The Gopher Plan was a twenty-five minute-long puppet show musical for all ages about ending veteran homelessness. A formerly homeless veteran performed the show from a VW van—his residence—while he prepared to travel to Washington D.C. to present a solution to veteran homelessness to the President. Like an old style traveling marionette show, this musical production unfolded in Times Square for all audiences and concluded with a Q&A with the performers. This production brought a challenging subject packaged as engaging artwork to international audiences.

Performed shortly before Veterans Day, The Gopher Plan asserted that we must uphold the promises made to our veterans. The project's coast-to-coast hosts and partners included: Combat Paper, Warrior Writers, The Telling Project, The Soldiers Project, Veterans for Peace, Dryhootch, Vietnam Veterans of American and Disabled American Veterans. All performances concluded with a dialogue about veteran homelessness with local members of our partner groups, moderated by a licensed mental health professional from The Soldiers Project.