A highly physical performance about life "in-between," in a place where hearts and minds wrestle with opposing gravitational forces. Arresting and unsettling, this piece is also meditatively calm in its exploration of a split realm many of us find ourselves. As humans, we have a compulsive desire to be connected to everyone at all times, but the tools of modern communication offer diminishing returns and time and memory may feel like a disappearing act, vanishing one half of one half of one half at a time. And the release? It is but in giving and sharing and curiously loving.
Featuring music by Linnea Mohn of Rogue Valley.
(rotating)
Torre Edahl* ......................... core dancer
Brian J. Evans ....................... core dancer
Stephanie Fellner* .............. core dancer
Deanna Gooding ................ core dancer
Jolie Meshbesher Hassler* .. core dancer
Christine Maginnis* ............. core dancer
Alarica Hassett ..................... core dancer
Jim Lieberthal ....................... core dancer
Christine Maginnis* ............. core dancer
Victoria Olender* ................ core dancer
Kerry Parker* ....................... core dancer
Jenn Pray* ............................ core dancer
Eve Schulte* ......................... core dancer
Katelyn Skelley* .................. core dancer
Elayna Waxse* .................... core dancer
*primary creative deviser
(rotating)
Kenzi Allen .............................. ensemble dancer
Emma Broderick .................... ensemble dancer
Rachel Chevremont ............... ensemble dancer
Elle Dendy ............................... ensemble dancer
Mackenzie Diggins ................. ensemble dancer
Rhiannon Fiskradatz .............. ensemble dancer
Andrew Hakomaki Granger .. ensemble dancer
Katherine Hesterberg ............. ensemble dancer
Nadia Honary ......................... ensemble dancer
Nicole Laurenne ...................... ensemble dancer
Vlad Messing ............................ ensemble dancer
Rachel Nielsen ......................... ensemble dancer
Wyatt Petersin ......................... ensemble dancer
Rachel Petrie ............................ ensemble dancer
Tony Sarnicki ........................... ensemble dancer
Molly Thiesenhusen ................ ensemble dancer
Shannon Thorson .................... ensemble dancer
Carly Wicks ............................... ensemble dancer
Joanna Harmon &
Noah Bremer ........................ original concept
Noah Bremer ........................ director
Joanna Harmon ................... assistant director
Eve Schulte ............................ assistant director
Linnea Mohn ......................... music designer/composer
William Harmon ................... lighting designer
Full performance schedule:
Thursday, April 30 - 7:30p, PWYC Preview performance
Friday, May 1 - 7:30p, Opening Night
Saturday, May 2 - 2p / 7:30p
Sunday, May 3 - 2p
Wednesday, May 20 - 7:30p *
Thursday, May 21 - 7:30p *
Friday, May 22 - 7:30p *
Saturday, May 30 - 2p * / 7:30p *
Sunday, May 31 - 2p *
* denotes post-show talk back with the creators
This project is a part of ARTshare, an all-access, all-you-can-see, performance membership program. For $18 a month, ARTshare members can see any performance by any of the 15 resident companies performing in annual rep, any time they want, as many times as they want. Please visit southerntheater.org to learn more about the program and to sign up as a member today.
My brother and I were sharing a cookie. We passed it back and forth, and without being consciously aware of it, we broke in half the piece received. By the end, we were breaking apart essentially crumbs. We laughed and shook our heads, “Oh, the half life of a cookie!” But, beyond the “niceness” of not wanting to be the one to have the last bite, this feeling of sharing into infinity is how the The Half Life first came to me.
The title has been a sort of ongoing receptacle for a kaleidoscope of ideas that somehow feel related. Since I met Noah and we started working together six years ago, this idea has been one we’d muse on. Perhaps we encounter a painting, an interaction, a shape, a situation, and we’d say to each other, “That feels like The Half Life.” I certainly never imagined the piece would look like this. But, in fact, I never knew what it would look like. In my life, I often hear the phrase “be in the moment.” In this moment, this is what this piece is. I invite you to be present with it.
The creation process for The Half Life was governed by feelings, not the mind. I am at a place in my life as a professional in the performing arts where I come to the theater not wanting intellectual stimulation. I want my brain to rest, and I want only my heart to feel. This state is new to me, for I am often an intellectual person. But, my brain is tired right now. My body craves to be viscerally engaged. I have gone to the theater all of my life, and the moments there that live within me still, are the ones that have engaged my heart. Those moments live within me like the knowledge of a scent (and of the senses, they say, it is the most powerful). They are swirling inside me, and although almost impossible to describe with words, their emotional effect is clear and consuming. I am hungry for these moments. They can certainly happen in life, outside of the theater walls. I hope they happen to you. I think artists attempt to craft these moments for the audience. I hope to craft them for you.
Although this piece emerges out of a state of sadness, is not about sadness. A recent emotional shake up left the world around seeming so big, so cacophonous, so overwhelming and lacking purpose. This piece slows down rhythms so that the subtle movements and small moments are given focus and appreciation.
The performers are each their own protagonist, and share focus throughout the piece. These protagonists are pulled and pushed along a cyclically evolving journey through quagmire and explosion. Along their same journey, they unyieldingly give, share, express, and they are always succeeding, living fully and presently in the state they are in on the continuum. The continuum makes it impossible to die, after all.
Thank you to the dancers for opening their souls the moment they step on stage, and who share themselves with remarkable trust.
I am especially grateful to Noah Bremer, my core artistic collaborator, for the expression of this piece. Our profound knowledge of each other has grown to give us an uncanny, subconscious sense of what the other is feeling and frequently in this rehearsal process, Noah will speak exactly what I am about to say. Our rhythms in life are sometimes wildly different... sometimes resembling two halves of a whole?… though, we are always, together ceaselessly working towards a common goal.
I am also particularly grateful for Eve Schulte, whose participation in this project has been so effortless it feels like she has been soaring beside our artistic intentions long before rehearsals began. Her grace and calm remind me the air is warm and the forecast pleasant.
Joanna Harmon, Co-producing Artistic and Managing Director - Live Action Set
A note on gender -
We did not intend for the piece to have a majority of female performers. It just happened. While the journey expressed in The Half Life is not solely female, I am inspired to contemplate the subject of female strength. With Live Action Set, I work in an un-repressive environment. But, many women elsewhere do not experience this freedom. Sometimes, I view this piece through the lens of female oppression, and if you are inspired to do the same, I am happy for it. Gender inequality is still current, and it should be a thing of the past.