A Heartbeat in the Darkness
Director's Note
The Arts have taken such a huge hit with COVID. It’s devastating. We are all scrambling to figure out how to keep the arts alive. When August arrived, to be honest, I had no idea what this year would look like. I was sad, angry, and scared to return to work. I wasn’t thinking about theater or shows but just basically how to survive this madness. A simple conversation with Ms. McCarty and a seed of an idea was planted.
DP are my actors. Day 1 I started class with prompts and they wrote responses. I was curious about their feelings of COVID, the pandemic, school…I didn’t even know if they were as scared as I was or angry or happy to be back. I just had them brainstorm. It was an exercise for the first day of school. Because sitting and looking at them at desks with partitions made me sad, I gave them each a 6 foot pole and took them outside to play. I gave them about 30 minutes to put together a story through movement (because I love creative movement) and one without dialogue. I let them create. To them, they were “pole dancing” and they thought it was the funniest thing ever but to me an idea was forming.
About a week later, I started reading their material. I started to highlight passages and sentences. It was some of the most vulnerable material I had read. The words were real, authentic, and emotional. That night, at 3AM, I had a vision of an opening scene. I saw the moment the actors looked at the audience in masks through haze, darkness, and special lights. And I knew. I had a piece. And Heartbeat started to form.
Together as a class we devised this piece. They trusted that I wasn’t too crazy and all agreed to go through the process. I guided and directed it, but the majority of the words and dances came from them. It’s their story.
And this piece is really beautiful and cool because my partner in crime, Gene Kish, is as crazy as I am. He can see in my brain and creates the magic only some can visualize.
I hope you enjoy it. I’m very proud of it. My DP kids gave me purpose here. I wish you could have seen it live (I’m a theater girl) but this is a good runner up. But have no fear, live theater will be back one day stronger than ever.
Thanks,
Colleen McEvoy