“The sounds of the city began to filter through and fuse with the ancient song. They make a new song. It grows like a beautiful hybrid bloom in the wilderness.” - Anon(y)mous by Naomi Iizuka
Sometimes, sharing our stories can seem as difficult to do, as it was to cut into this old book that hasn’t been opened in years. Though by doing it, it creates something new, and I think that’s pretty cool ☺️🚣🏻♀️
No matter the amount of time, organization, and care that I fuel into a project, there always comes a point where I look around and realize all aspects of it are in a tangled sprawl of creative chaos on the floor around me. I would love to be able to create with at least some hope of clean predictability, but so far, that's just not how it works. Whether it's words or images, I know that starting will be grueling, and the "getting going" stage will be an ongoing stage. For me, it takes consistent thinking that only moves forward in small bursts of actual progress. To see me through my own messes, I have to have a lot of patience for my own inconsistency. I have to remember that ushually, the components don't settle into a home in any way I could have expected. It was such a pleasure to find this process was applicable to the product as I worked through some designs for 5th Company Lane's production of Anon(y)mous (written by Naomi Iizuka and directed by Amanda Lin).
This is a play that uses words to paint pictures of people– displaced, who are fighting for their place. As someone who's often felt and seen remnants of life strewn around and disconnected, it was special to configure images for these words. Fittingly, I found the best way to do so was to re-discover the useless-looking discards found in my scrap bin (which is inhabited by bits of old fabric, parts of prints that "didn't work", the discarded ends of ribbon and tags...and then basically the entire attendance list for the Island of Misfit Toys 🙂). With all forms of glueing, threading and battening down, those tatters pulled together. They both made a home and found a home at the same time. Turns out misfits get along extremely well together.
If you're walking around campus and see the Anon(y)mous poster, know that about a week ago it was a pile of garbage on my bedroom floor! Also know that it's about to find a new life as the foundation for the Sweater Series print I'm carving for 5th Co– which is maybe the most concrete example of theatre's impermanence I can hold onto (before it turns over and becomes a new show) 😃🚀
