JULIE BECKER
Thresholds
Thresholds was an interactive, physical, devised, ensemble performance drawing from Max Ernst's surreal collage-novel, Une Semaine De Bonte. The piece explored artistic process in itself, as well as themes of transformation, hidden nature bursting through societal roles, alchemy, trickster archetypes, and connections between women. When performed at the 2014 Boston FIGMENT festival, audience members and passersby were invited to choose which scene came next, allowing for an audience-created collage. Each scene was designed to be completely interchangeable and flow in any order. The piece was developed further to adapt to an indoor space and included shadow puppetry, an additional actor to play a (previously intangible) trickster alchemist character, music, and a set progression of scenes that parallelled the alchemical process. For this version of the performance, audience members were invited to light the action themselves with flashlights and thus choose the focus of the action - the audience's gaze became perceptible in this way, and they became additional authors of the performance.
I took on the role of director, dramaturg, designer of the set, sound, masks, props, and costumes, and performer in this piece. Other collaborators included Caitlin Reeves and Rose Fieshko. Together for this project we formed the ensemble The Nightjarmen.