Words on "Words For A Resonant Space"

I haven’t been on the production side of a fully realized theatrical performance in a long time. Partially, it’s that my job hasn’t required or allowed it; but also, partially, no situation had presented itself in which there were co-creators ready to make Something. And, honestly, I thought I was okay with that state of things.

There’s a line in Words For A Resonant Space, the collaboration between The Writer's Garret (aka me, in this context) and Pegasus Contemporary Ballet, the script of which I am responsible for, in which one character declares that she must be dancing (in some professional context) to call herself a dancer. I wrote that line but I disagree with it; or perhaps, on closer reflection, it’s doesn’t explicate my personal feelings. I haven’t been an Actor in a long time, and that title I have given up- with no sadness or bitterness. It sits on my shelf, gathering dust in a quiet, cherished way. Not quite so dustily, I will always claim MT, but… MT is, sort of at its heart, a club. That’s why so many of us joined in the first place. Musicals (high school and otherwise) are places where reality is more vivid and musical than not. This is not in any way to say that practicing MT performers are somehow anything less than dynamos, but also, there is room as a part of the proverbial production of Music Man for some of us to remain curious townsfolk observing the dazzle of Harold Hill. We’re still here, just offstage most of the time, but the work needs us just as we need it.

I will, until my very end, always claim allegiance to Theatre. It’s… a sensibility? An awareness? I haven’t been, until this project, a “theatre maker” in a literal sense in some years, and yet, I have never stopped thinking of myself as such. I’d gone dormant, I was on sabbatical, possibly even I was simply lying fallow; but if you’d asked me the day before this project was proposed, theatre was still in me. Variously, I’ve half-heartedly spoken of projects I’d like to work on; half heartedly, but with the half a heart that wouldn’t surrender to a timeline in which I only ever entered a theatre space as an audience member. And of course, the instant Diana Crowder reached out about possibly partnering, I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

A production must have a cast, so in the principal roles of What Has Produced Words For A Resonant Space:

Lisa Huffaker- poet and performer, friend, an artist with a superbly incisive sense of discovery and an asker of cosmic questions

Diana Crowder- choreographer and Executive Director of Pegasus Contemporary Ballet, a leader of remarkable patience, diplomacy and collaborative spirit

Aia, Elena, Emma, Kiera, Natalie, and Rachel- to call them simply “dancers”—which they are, and of superlative caliber—does not capture the extraordinary emotional flexibility and trust they have shown through the creation of this work

Allison Schuster- rehearsal director, whose work is across the production, even as she remains largely unseen

myself- tasked with a script and staging of non-choreographic passages of the production

I’ve never been particularly adept with brevity (why say it in a few words when a paragraph will do?) (says the poet), but for everyone’s sake, I will grapple with it here. The project, over the last 4 months, has evolved dramatically (with only slightly masked nervous laughter, we’ve said it’s not just jumped tracks but changed stations, become a submarine and then a rocket ship). Poetry was almost immediately introduced, but the conceit of the show was first two poets in dialogue, then one poet being interviewed, then a poet dreaming poems into dance, and then to what will happen on the stage tomorrow night: seven women in conversation about, among other things, beauty, the nature of art, and what it takes to be an artist.

I will leave those topics for the stage, as they are well covered in dialogue, dance and poetry, but here I want to return to idea that has compelled me to write this reflexion in the first place: I have been changed irrevocably by participating in this process. Metaphors abound—a sleeping thing has stirred; a bud appears on a tree after the quiet stillness of winter; when a child gets, really understands, a tendu for the first time. In the performance, Lisa asks one of the dancers “why does the word ‘dancer’ ring in you like nothing else?” and that’s the question, right there, that keeps circling in my mind about the theatre. The answer to that question, in the show, is my answer. You’ll have to see it to find out.

I hope you see this show.

I hope you see the incredible (IN! CRED! IBLE!) work of these professional dancers who, in addition to expertly executing Diana’s (stunning, thoughtful, evocative, I could go on…) choreography, essentially undertake a one-act play (!!!).

I hope you come see and hear the feat of Lisa Huffaker grappling with some enormous philosophical questions in a performance that somehow straddles the line of Acting and living, and oh yeah, also she performs 5 poems in which the stakes are so real and so enormous, we wondered if this whole thing could even really work.

I hope you come and sit in a darkened space and see the diamond that has emerged from enormous amounts of energy, time, thought, emotions, sweat, a few tears, rehearsal migrations, schedule negotiations, late night deadlines, at least one existential crisis, and so much desire to make something of value, however intangible that value may be. It's there, and I hope you can witness it.

Creating new, interdisciplinary performance can be transformative, but/and it is challenging to accomplish. There are so many things that have (and continue to) demand my time and attention (even as I write, one eye is on the clock, pressing me to wrap these thoughts up ten minutes ago). I would not, for one instant, give back any of the time, energy or thought I have devoted to this project. It has been deeply rewarding, life (and joy) affirming, and an undertaking in which I will remain proud to have participated. Come see our show.

This Friday & Saturday, April 12 & 13 | 8pm at Kalita Humphreys Theatre | for tickets, visit https://www.paperlesspost.com/go/G26oX5JhnXVbvLUQrp6nB and use "WRITERS" for 20% off