Decompositions

Farm Arts Collective founding artistic director Tannis Kowalchuk is developing a new solo performance entitled Decompositions. There will be a workshop presentation of the play for a public audience on Saturday, November 12 at 7 PM at the Delaware Valley Opera Center in Lake Huntington, NY. Theater-maker, Tannis Kowalchuk has written a series of monologues and essays currently in theatrical development. Uniting personal stories with her devised theatre practice, original song, and projected animations, Kowalchuk and the Farm Arts Collective creative team are developing a multi-media stage performance that presents the composting process as a metaphor for the process of living one’s life. The set features a compost pile at center stage, and Kowalchuk, performer/writer begins her existential monodrama with excerpts of a Gertrude Stein essay entitled, "Composition as Explanation" as an entry point into the performance's texts and thematic structure. Decompositions is structured as a series of titled scenes or (de)compositions-- mostly personal stories and questions that grip her as a woman in the middle of her life, analogous to a “finished” sunflower that gets tossed onto the compost pile. The performance is directed by Mimi McGurl, with original songs by Rima Fand, video animation by Phyllis Lehrer, soundscapes by DJ Tikka Masala, technical support by Ace Thomas, production management and operation by Jess Beveridge, produced by Farm Arts Collective. Farm Arts Collective invites members of the community to be a first audience for this new work and to participate in the development of this piece as the company hones the material into a strong new work of contemporary performance. Ticket revenue will help cover the costs of heating and production costs.