Time held me green and dying
Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.
I’m not the only performer who has struggled with identity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Entire weeks of creative paralysis have gone by. I didn’t feel like singing or writing and couldn’t begin to figure out how to move forward. Then an idea would hit, and I absolutely had to record it and share it – right now. I’ve stabbed at projects that I couldn’t complete, collaborated on virtual choirs that just didn’t cut it, blamed outside circumstances, railed against our collective dependence on technology, felt sorry for myself, and felt extremely guilty for feeling sorry for myself, since in the scheme of things, the novel coronavirus has not wreaked its worst on me or my close ones.
I’ve had days when time absolutely crept by, when the clock said 9:30 a.m. but I genuinely felt like it was late afternoon. Other days, I lay down at night to go to sleep when it felt like I had just had breakfast, and literally tried to account for the hours in the day, to no avail. It turns out that a lot of these feelings are universal to all of us whose routines have been so disrupted, and especially to performers. (Pent-up creativity is one reason I started this blog.)
“My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.”
Igor Stravinsky, Poetics of Music
As I’ve started taking a hard look at my own constraints during the pandemic – the ones I can’t control and the ones I can – I’ve wanted to explore how other artists have responded to limitations.
What came to mind first was a particularly harsh example, one that has resonated with me ever since I encountered it. It was in an exhibition at the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, called She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World. Photographer Newsha Tavakolian’s work was highlighted, particularly her 2010 photo and video series is called Listen. You can see it here: https://www.newshatavakolian.com/listen Female singers in Iran are forbidden to produce recordings or to perform in public, with a few exceptions such as censored lyrics and all-female audiences.
Some of Tavakolian’s photos are imaginary album covers for albums that these women might produce if they were allowed to. Others are stills from the haunting videos that played on loop in the museum. They feature a sequined background in various colors, and each shows a different singer, singing her heart out. But there is no sound. I don’t have to tell you how heartbreaking it is to watch.
When I set out to find Tavakolian’s work for you, I came across this article in Deutsche Welle https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-irans-female-singers-familiar-with-restrictive-measures/a-53272796. It highlights some of the ways that Iranian women have lived and created within the confines of the laws, noting that pandemic restrictions are not new to them. We can all learn from their examples.
Because it’s time sensitive, I wanted to share another pandemic creation so that you have a chance to enjoy it. Synetic Theater is a movement-based theater company based in Crystal City, Virginia. Founded by Georgian artists Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili, the company is famous for its silent Shakespeare performances and other theatrical adaptations, which feature dance, acting, and music, but no dialogue. (Many of their productions do contain dialogue, but some are completely visual.)
I’ve loved Synetic productions for years. My personal highlights include their haunting The Island of Doctor Moreau, a beautiful adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, and their death-defying production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in which the stage floor was covered with several inches of water. You can only imagine how innovative they must be to get across all those characters and intricate plot points without words.
At the beginning of pandemic closures, Synetic offered streams of some of their past shows, but then they came up with a great idea. They asked company members to do adaptations of a story of their choice from Boccacio’s Decameron, the most well known piece of plague-related literature. Each day for ten consecutive days, they’ve released three short videos (most are four to twenty minutes long) which audiences can watch via streaming links on a pay-what-you-can model. The links will be available through August 15.
The artists’ responses have been something special to encounter. Not all of Synetic’s Decameron films include dance or movement, but we can see how much the pandemic closures have affected dancers: without their usual venues, some are making do in a small apartment or a yard or a public park. Working independently, several artists explored the same themes of time seeming to have no meaning, speeding up and slowing down. Creativity block is an important theme, with people unable to finish or even start a project, and several of the artists show their reactions to seeing the news of the spreading virus and the lack of a cohesive response from authorities.
Some of the interpretations are literal, others not at all. They were encouraged to use whatever recording equipment, props, and costumes they had. Some are funny, some heartbreaking, some weird. It’s art. The artists had Synetic’s vast store of original music at their disposal, or whatever else they wished to use.
It’s so hard to choose highlights! But I do have some favorites. Joshua Cole Lucas plays every role in a story – based on the Decameron Day 6, Story 4 – of a cook who is preparing a meal for his master and gets tricked into giving one of the poultry legs to the housecleaner. (I say poultry because it’s a chicken in his production, but a crane in the original story. Eeew.) His master is angry at the missing leg, and the cook then tries to convince him that all birds only have only one leg. It’s pretty faithful to the original and includes clown makeup!
I think Synetic’s Day 6 was overall my favorite. Valentina Palladino (Day 5, Story 9) gorgeously portrays a man, a woman he’s flirting with, and a graceful falcon, using classical dance techniques and the backdrop of a wooded area. The video uses music from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to great effect, fast cutting as the music stops and starts. In her adaptation of Day 4, Story 5, Janine Baumgardner shows not only her dance moves but her serious acting chops in her physical manifestation of grief, which had me weeping. The nightcap is Dan Istrate’s Day 1, Story 10, a wild and contemporary take on a story in which a man’s routines are interrupted by two younger women (Francesca Jandasek, Stephanie Yezek Jolivet). The cinematography and the music are top notch, and there’s a star appearance by Chloe the cat.
Great news! Synetic has just extended the date through which you can watch these excellent videos, though you have to GET YOUR TICKETS BY AUGUST 2, which is Sunday! Then you can watch any time through August 15. Get your pay-what-you-can links today, and if you’re in a position to be generous, please take into account how much work went into these videos. You don’t want to miss it!
