This summer I will serve as a creative consultant for new devised piece Unchilding, facilitated by Joshua Kaufman. Performances will take place on August 8th at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. See more info here.
"Unchilding is an experimental theater performance conceived and facilitated by visual artist Joshua Kaufman with his team of creative collaborators.
In a traditional theater space, seated in near-darkness, audiences become sonically immersed in two consecutive short stories that combine ambient soundscape and character dialogue.
The vignettes unravel as the stage is lit to reveal a sequence of visually rich, life-sized dioramas embodied by a sprawling ensemble of 27 performers.
Like sentient Caravaggios, the tableaus are suspended in time, full with potential energy. Not quite mannequins, not quite wax figures, Kaufman’s tableaux vivants beg to occupy an uncanny space between stillness and suspension, displacement and embodiment.
Set to be performed in Norman S. Benzaquen Hall at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Unchilding juxtaposes the vastness and austerity of the performance space with the intimacy of a radio play and the power of live performance.
By elevating subtext and expressing character through fragmentation, this performance approaches the genre of tragedy as a realm of the unknowable and the withheld."