THE SAINTS TOUR

“This was the best, most moving night of theatre in my lifetime.”

Audience member

there are saints among us

The SAINTS TOUR is a site-specific play in the form of a walking or bus tour. It moves through an unsung neighborhood, transforming as it travels, excavating the area’s secrets and sub-rosa magic. It can happen in any neighborhood, city or country; for each location, the text is rewritten in response to the place’s unique cultural, environmental, historical, and artistic identity, as shared by those who live there.

The SAINTS TOUR is led by a "Tour Guide" character who tells stories of “saints” that have inhabited the location, layering real and invented local history as they traverse their own personal journey. Along the way, audiences encounter local musicians and artists embedded in the landscape. The theme of the TOUR is that Saints lurk quietly in every corner of the world, performing acts of good whether we notice or not; and the play encourages its participants to do the same.

past performances

2009: Louisville, Kentucky. Motherlodge Festival. Dir. Marc Bovino. Tour Guide: Emily Kicklighter. Organizational partner: Salvation Army Culinary Program and Meal Kitchen.

2010: NYC’s West Village. Dir. Rachel Chavkin (Tony Award, Hadestown), Assistant Director Knud Adams (Tony nominee). Tour Guide: Taylor Mac (Macarthur “Genius” Grant 2017). Talent included Heather Christian (Macarthur “Genius” Grant 2025), Dave Molloy (Tony nominee), Rizo, Rick Burkhardt, and many others. Organizational partners: Judson Church, Jefferson Market Community Garden, Cherry Lane Theater.

2012: NYC’s Lower Manhattan. Produced by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, River to River Festival. Dir. Maureen Towey (filmmaker, New York Times; Creative Director, Arcade Fire). Tour Guide: Crystal Finn.

2015: Greater Braddock, PA. Co-production with Bricolage Production Company. Tour Guide: Bria Walker. Talent included Vanessa German, Lenka Clayton, James Simon, Lindsey Scherloum, Cheryl, Capezzuti, David Pohl, Zena Ruiz, New Guild Studios, TaeAjah Cannon, Sanford-Mark Barnes and his three sons Seth, Isaiah, and Nathan. Partner organizations: Braddock Youth Project, Braddock Carnegie Library, Gardweeno, Braddock Farms, Monongahela Cemetery and Grounds, Unsmoke Systems.

The Saints Tour model

THE SAINTS TOUR is a tested, scaleable model for local artists, organizations and community members to co-create a theatrical production based on a place’s unique, authentic magic. It helps participants form deeper connections to each other and to the neighborhood, celebrating unsung heroes and fostering a sense of place and belonging.

THE SAINTS TOUR Model for theaters and organizations includes:

A powerful but flexible script, customizable to your community’s local talent, stories and history
A production model for developing the show with your chosen community partners
Optional consultation to navigate the process. This can include adaptation of the script, dramaturgy, and directorial consultation.

Click below to learn more.

bring THe SAINTS TOUR to your community.

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“Mysterious, magical, and intriguing. The Saints Tour transported me into a Louisville I didn't previously know existed which was filled with spirits, imagination, hunger and anger. It was imaginative and moving. And with the meal at the end, it was a feast for both my body and soul.”

— Kristin Marting, HERE arts center, Saints Tour: Louisville

“THE SAINTS TOUR is the future of theatre. In a time when inactive disengagement and superficial connection substitute for genuine, mindful communication, this deceptively simple and unique event offers new ways of viewing ourselves, our environments, and one another, leading to surprising revelations about how we shape narratives and how narratives shape us. Judson Memorial Church, with its commitment to groundbreaking, experimental, and community-building artistic work was overjoyed to act as a hub for the piece's initial New York City incarnation."

—Micah Bucey, Judson Church, NYC, Saints Tour: West Village

The Saints Tour’s layering of fictional narratives on real spaces… invites audiences to participate in reimagining the city. Rice’s model for developing and implementing THE SAINTS TOUR serves as a template for bridging professional artistic expression with community engagement.

— Andy Horwitz, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Saints Tour: Lower Manhattan

RealTime has imagined and made real a dimension that dwells just beneath the surface of things, places, ourselves that the mundane beats back day after day, year after year, generation up generation. I particularly loved your insistence…in incorporating the notion of "negative capability," that a thing, emotion, action and its opposite is able to exist simultaneously in a single artistic experience or expression. This alone made the play so real, so poignant.

— Celeste Gainey, City of Asylum Poet Laureate of Allegheny County, Saints Tour: Greater Braddock

the saints tour in american theatre magazine