RESIDENCIES

In June 2019, I was fortunate to join a cohort of approximately 12 resident artists at Indy Convergence, where I blissfully gorged myself on creative collaborations.

In addition to taking workshops led by the other artists, this residency gave me the opportunity to begin to imagine how to transform my tech-free 25-minute solo performance piece “Rearranging the Furniture” into a more fully theatricalized and realized production. The group of artists I had the pleasure of working with closely on my piece (Meghan Moe Beitiks, Gabrielle Cerberville, Fabian Cereijido, Abdul-Khaliq Murtadha, and Amanda Sieradziki) helped me imagine new ways to give the audience an embodied experience of the work that would push it firmly beyond individual disability simulation exercise. Because we were limited in the time we had to explore these ideas, we spent the bulk of our time trying to create mechanisms by which we could tether audience members to each other in a way that was empowering as well as a bit disorienting.

My performance schedule at PortFringe forced me to leave Indianapolis hours before the Open Lab, which resulted in the push to imagine this piece in a new format - one that involved actors beyond myself and new metaphors. What would be the appropriate venue for audience members to follow instructions that seem strange in the theatre? I found myself drawn to one of the expressions I question in my work: flying blind. As a result, the Open Lab version of this piece was titled “Flying Blind” and featured Amanda Sieradziki and Fagian Cereijido as flight attendants, with me appearing only as a pre-recorded pilot’s voice and video during the piece. I am curious to discover what, if any, of these elements might remain as I transition back to focusing on the work as a live solo performance piece.