They went down very deep, to where the light of the sun and then the light of the sea stopped, and things were only visible in their own light. They passed a submerged village, with men and women on horseback turning about a musical carousel. It was a splendid day, and there were brightly colored flowers on the terraces. “Here a Sunday sank at about eleven o'clock in the morning,” Mr. Herbert said. “It must have been some cataclysm.”
— Gabriel García Márquez
Inspired by a passage from Gabriel García Márquez's novella Sea of Lost Time—a town drowns on a Sunday afternoon but persists, submerged, in its daily life, as if the deluge had never occurred—Sea of Common Catastrophe follows the journey of four companions as they wade through a continually changing landscape built upon the fragments of their own displaced communities.
With deep consideration of the profound transformations that swept through New Orleans in the decade after Hurricane Katrina, and of our own roles and responsibilities as artists in the realities of gentrification and displacement, Sea was developed with a devised ensemble process in which visual design elements drive the dramaturgy of the piece: Jeff Becker's sculptural innovation, Courtney Egan's magical video projections, Jeffrey Gunshol's liquid choreography and ArtSpot's physical performance-making style and original music create a dream-world imagining of a community inundated by a flood of change and upheaval.
Irondale
Brooklyn, NY
June 15-30, 2018
7 Stages Theatre
Atlanta, GA
February 2-12, 2017
University of New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
January 19-28, 2017
Catapult (Prelude)
New Orleans, LA
May 4-8 and 26, 2016
Conceived, directed and designed by Jeff Becker
with
Kathy Randels
Lisa Moraschi Shattuck
Mahalia Abéo Tibbs
and Jeffrey Gunshol
Choreography by
Jeffrey Gunshol
Lighting Design by
Evan Spigelman
Video Design by
Courtney Egan
Costume Design by
Laura Sirkin-Brown
Music and Sound by
Sean LaRocca
Additional Sound Design by
Technical Director
Jo Nazro
Stage Manager
Becka McLaughlin
Additional Performers
Kehinde Ishangi
Chris Lane
Rebecca Mwase
Andrew Vaught
Video Operation by
Lucien Levi
Additional Tech by
Nathan Lemoine
Rio Shattuck
"Evoke[s] a uniquely original form of theatrical transcendence."
—Jack Wernick, The Theatre Times (2018)
"This is immersion theater at its best."
—Susan Hall, Berkshire Fine Arts (2018)
"Evocative of a certain sort of wistfulness, of peering into memory...a riveting, elegiac modern dance performance."
—TK Hadman, Edge Media (2017)
"A beautiful performance piece that moves the mind and heart."
—Travis Swann Taylor, Wanderlust Atlanta (2017)
"A magically realized vision of New Orleans."
—Will Coviello, The Advocate (2017)
"Water, water everywhere."
—Jim O’Quinn, American Theater (2016)
"The narrative is primarily conveyed through movement."
—Brad Rhines, The Advocate (2016)