This week marks a first for Layar territory, as developer John Cleater, in collaboration with the Builder’s Association, integrated Layar into their latest project: a multimedia live theater production titled HOUSE / DIVIDED.

The production uses John Steinbeck’s classic novel The Grapes of Wrath as a narrative backbone, telling contemporary tales of foreclosure by following economic refugees and migrants from two different American eras. 

HOUSE / DIVIDED explores the changing meaning of home, homelessness, and place both in the present moment and in the broader context of the American mythos.

Cleater created two layers for this production (titled House/Divided 1 and House Divided 2), the first represents the dust storm in Grapes of Wrath and the second illustrates a “market flood’ during the Alan Greenspan testimony. In addition to developing these layers, he also spent the last couple of years designing the impressive-looking set!

If the name John Cleater sounds familiar, it may be due to some of his other great Layar projects, such as the recent “Peeling Layers of Space Out of Thin Air” architectural collaboration exhibition in New York, or one of his projects with international artists collective ManifestAR. This guy has some serious talent and we can’t wait to see what he gets into next!

HOUSE / DIVIDED runs October 6-8 at 8pm at the Thurber Theater in Columbus, Ohio. For more information please visit the Wexner Center for the Arts website. 

If you can’t make it to Columbus in time, you can still get a sneak peak of the show (and marvel at Cleater’s hipster Einstein aesthetic [2:29]) in this video.

The Builders Association HOUSE / DIVIDED from Wexner Center for the Arts on Vimeo.

Below are some more photos of the HOUSE / DIVIDED production: