GESAMTKUNSTWERK

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This piece premiered in the Todd Studio Theater at Goucher College.  If I could design the exact space in which I would like to present "Paisley Mastodons," the Todd Theater would not fit my every specification, but after careful consideration, I found it to be the best space for me under the circumstances in which I was working.  When I first began considering different production elements of my piece and the space in which these might best work, I had ideas like covering the floor in sand and having my dancers spray colorfully dyed water around the room.  I loved the images that these elements would create, but was hesitant because of the limitations that they would pose on my movement potential.  Then I began thinking about finding a space in which I would be allowed to implement these elements, and realized how limited I was.  In order to make these things happen, I would have to work within a non-traditional dance space, which would cost me a lot of time and money.  I realized that if I wanted to focus my efforts on my own creative research, rather than on specific images that struck me, I would be wise to work in an on-campus space, and within the parameters that such a space required.  

          The positive aspects of the Todd Theater in regards to this project are that it is an intimate and versatile space.  My main objective was to create an immersive experience for the audience, and the studio theater allowed for that by cutting out outside distractions and seating the audience very close to the action.   In some ways, this was the closest space that I could obtain to Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival Theater, not because of any structural similarity, but because both are designed to bring the dramatic experience to the audience as fully and directly as possible.