Take This House (and Float It Away)
Created by Change of State, 2007
Physical Theatre
56 minutes
In this original, tightly choreographed work of theatre, Sacramento waits for the next big flood. Situated at the meeting point of California’s two major river systems, it sits protected by an intricate triangle of levees that dilapidates more every year. This time, it won’t be poor, black people whose lives are ruined- the wealthy, white suburbs of Sacramento are first in line when the floodgates on Folsom Dam smash open.
From Stu and Marlene’s floodplain living room, the aging couple scurries through their routines, unable to comprehend nature’s effect on their safe, bounded suburban sphere. As Stu staves off ruin by expounding about his “groundbreaking research into bird gestures,” Marlene extrapolates caffeinated flood solutions from newspaper headlines conflating staying informed with staying afloat.
Opening Acts:
“Hoprock” explores possible virtuosities in playing the “udderbot,” an invented slide woodwind instrument composed of glass, rubber, and water. “Hoprock” arranges an original poem among extended vocal techniques, microtonality, and their relationship to this new instrument.
A collage of visual and audio imagery, “Water Finds its Way” uses storytelling, extended vocal techniques, and gesture to wind a path through personal and cultural narratives of water as a metaphor for experience.
Photo by Anora Winter Johnson
