They Are Waiting for You, 2018–19
Performance in collaboration with Laure Prouvost and Pierre Droulers

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Work in progress, Walker Arts Centre 2017
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Photos: Mic Bello for EMPAC

In this performance, theatrical and cinematic technologies – projection, light, and haze – interact with performers, musicians, objects, and the audience in a surreal and perceptually disorientating theatrical production. Everyday items are used to investigate language itself, its origins and its distance from the world. Words, bodies, and images gain and lose meaning throughout the performance as language breaks down. In the piece's conclusion, that loss of language reveals a new space for sensory perception. 

Co-commissioned by EMPAC and the Walker Art Center, They Are Waiting For You is a collaboration with artist Laure Prouvost as well as renowned French/Belgian choreographer Pierre Droulers. The premiere performance at Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (February 2018) featured the percussionist Eli Keszler and the Artemis Ensemble (Tara Loeper, Lizz Windnagel, Alia Jeraj, Bethany Battafarano). Dancers: Terry Hempfling and Jack Magai.

In 2019 the work toured to Kaaitheater Brussels as part of Performatik. For this new performance Eli Keszler was joined by the singers Clemmie Franks, Catherine Carter and Josephine Stephenson.

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