w/ Bethany Alwa.

Floodplain, a performance for small audiences (of up to 4 people from the same household) was created and shared as part of the Home Stretch Festival, Curated by Spatula & Barcode.

August-September, 2021, Madison, Wisconsin.

As we slipped into the pandemic back in spring of 2020, a great and satisfying dream came just in time:

Feet pierce the surface of the water. Floating….No, descending. There was a presence larger than my own, soft and grey. My eyes met it’s eyes-no, Her eyes. Just briefly. She was turning, revolving. Hippo! Hippopotamus. Dark water turned to green and we were in a hazy strip of light. She opened her soft pink feet to mine and I lay mine on hers and…and…

We collected audience members at their home, walked them a short distance to a nearby location where movement and story mixed.

Bethany shared a story of slipping into feeling “okay”.

She was ten years old. What is that? 5th grade? In perfect cursive handwriting, with little curlycues on top of the “I’s” The assignment: Describe a great American. Her sister; My Mother. She got a job in New York City, putting small things into tubes. She travelled to Greece and fed skinny cats under tables., learned Greek so that she could talk to her neighbors. Dug things up to give to museums. Now, she’s writing a book. She asked me, “Do you think I will ever be able to garden and write?” I tell her, “Maybe I garden, you write” .

We returned our small audience to the original location and, after a brief boogie inspired by the Laurel & Hardy’s dance routine to Way Out West, we departed.

We crafted the piece during July and August, sharing it with 10 small groups before the fall equinox on September 22, 2021.