600 HIGHWAYMEN
FIVE YEARS
A PS21 commission, FIVE YEARS by interdisciplinary theater company 600 HIGHWAYMEN, led by Guggenheim Fellows Michael Silverstone and Abigail Browde, is a multi-channel performance installation documenting five years of everyday life in rural New York. Composed of thousands of short video clips gathered since 2019, the work captures intimate moments of domestic life alongside broader social and political events, tracing the passage of time through changing seasons, routines, and communities.
During their residency at PS21, the artists developed the installation ahead of its world premiere, transforming five years of accumulated footage into an immersive visual portrait of the region. Moving between diary and observation, the work brings together fragments of local landscapes, neighbors, and everyday encounters, exploring how meaning emerges through their juxtaposition.
Following its world premiere at PS21, FIVE YEARS will travel to New York City’s Under the Radar Festival, extending this intimate portrait of rural life to new audiences.
600 HIGHWAYMEN (Abigail Browde & Michael Silverstone) have created original performances since 2009. Their work sits at the intersection of theater, dance, and civic encounter, often reducing performance to its most basic elements: people, space, and shared attention. They have been described as “quietly shaking up American theatre since 2009” by The Guardian and “one of New York’s best nontraditional theater companies” by The New Yorker.
Their work has toured widely across the U.S. and internationally, with presentations at Bristol Old Vic, Centre Pompidou, Dublin Theatre Festival, Onassis Cultural Centre, Salzburg Festival, Singapore International Festival of Arts, The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, Volkstheater Wien, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, American Repertory Theater, The Public Theater, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Walker Arts Center, and others.
Their work has been translated into seven languages and received an Obie Award, Switzerland’s ZKB Patronage Prize, and nominations for the Bessie Awards, Drama League Awards, and the Nestroy Prize. Browde and Silverstone are Guggenheim Fellows and alumni of the Rauschenberg Residency. They are Associate Artists with IN SITU and were named to Fast Company’s list of Most Creative People.
Outside of their collaboration, Browde is an Artistic Advisor at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Silverstone has led theater programs in New York State correctional facilities. Together and independently, they have taught at NYU Tisch, Stanford University, Colorado College, and other institutions.