GESAMTKUNSTWERK

INNER(ACT) - PRODUCTION PREPARATION

 

In my second semester of the project, I was introduced to the thesis work of my classmate Hannah Fenster.  Hannah was researching the poet Seamus Heaney and the connection between the body and post-conflict social healing, and found that her research could be best interpreted through dance.  Hannah’s interdisciplinary approach and development of a textual theme into movement related closely with my own work, and we decided to partner in staging our productions.  Our joint show would include presentations of both of our choreographic pieces, as well as discussions of our individual research, a brief discussion of the commonalities between our works, and the opportunity for audience reflection and questions.  As each of our pieces were physicalizations of thematic ideas, we titled our production Inner(act) to reflect the interplay between inner reflection and outward action. 

 

The major challenge of producing a show in partnership with my classmate was remaining very thoughtful and specific in my production of my own work while allowing Hannah to do the same.  Our pieces enhanced one another by allowing for reflection and comparison of multiple representations of interdisciplinary art.  We decided to be clear and direct in educating the audience about our research and performance intentions so that we could elicit educated feedback and specific questions about our pieces as individual works.  Thus, we broke up the show so that each work was introduced by the choreographer prior to being performed, with a discussion of the parallels between the works serving as a sort of “Intermission” between the two.  We chose to present Hannah’s piece, While Hannah did not necessarily require feedback on her piece, I wanted a wide range of commentary from the audience regarding my success (or lack thereof) in portraying the thematic material and utilizing Gesamtkunstwerk in the piece.  To achieve this, I inserted a commentary page into each program so that those who wished to keep their comments to themselves in the oral feedback phase of the evening could still share their thoughts anonymously