Performance
Water, climate anxiety, moment, future, voice, embodied, ephemeral, text
November 2022

What can I discover if I explore in front of an audience in the dark?

In November 2022, I performed an experiment in front of an audience at the Bus Stop Theatre as part of Probably Theatre’s Probably Poetry event. I recorded an audio piece of myself singing the phrase “the water remembers but it will not miss us.” In the theatre I performed in the dark with a single blue flashlight hanging from my neck pointed at a bowl of water, and I harmonized with myself for this two minute piece, singing the phrase over and over as a meditative reflection. The piece was not documented.

As a part of the process, I also had to wrestle with how to best introduce the piece with an ASL interpreter, considering that I wanted to do it in the dark and it contained text. I ended up describing what would happen while the lights were still on and the interpreter next to me, though I had proposed a version where the interpreter signed text in advance as sneak peek for those who understand the language, but that suggestion was rejected because of lack of time – but I am interested in exploring such possibilities in the future.