last days/first field is a full evening work that uses movement to explore the feeling of this time, as we find ourselves facing climate change, extreme weather, economic collapse, environmentally related health problems, and social polarization. I am working with themes of apocalypse, explosion, and repair. My inquiry is influenced by issues around global warming, waste, food justice, and the kinds of small mindful steps taken by many remarkable people to change our unsustainable practices. The field is at the nexus of a myriad of issues pressing on this country. What is planted, how it is planted, and by whom raise critical questions around climate change, energy, food security, health, labor, and immigration.
The first half of last days/first field is a movement section that uses the physical languages of explosion, fatalism, and mending. These physical languages address movement alternately as ritual, task, and eruption.
The second half is a planting ritual in which a field of seedlings is planted and tea is served to the audience, the goal of which is to transform the performance space into a mini-field. Through the creation of this mini-field, the audience is able to witness a durational process of tarps being laid out, rows of soil being created, and seedlings being planted. As the process unfolds, the audience is served cups of herbal tea, and invited to sit on the field or on the floor around the stage space, creating a kind of post-apocalyptic lounge/tea party/occupy encampment. At the end of the evening, audience members are offered seedlings to take home (in their cups) as a way to give them a lasting piece of the process of the evening.
