created by Sheila Callaghan, William Cusick,
Katie Down, and Daniella Topol

"Stylish, lyrical, fascinating... the kind of work that is thoroughly invigorating." – Back Stage, on the creator's previous work, Dead City

It purifies.  It cleanses.  It nourishes.  And like all other essential resources, it betrays. What do people do when the thing they most need is the thing they cannot trust? Through the textures and tones of this fragmented, epic journey to the “source" – part installation, part narrative –Susan Smith Blackburn Award-winning playwright Sheila Callaghan, multimedia artist William Cusick, and director Daniella Topol (creators of the acclaimed New Georges’ production of Dead City) explore what it means to survive—or to not survive—or to exist in the space between. 

Our piece begins with an installation piece on the theme of water, in the lobby of the venue. It will be part art-show, part science experiment, part media-bomb, but all with the theme of water as a powerful and beguiling element. When the patrons enter the theatre, they will be guided to a bottle of water beneath their seats, and encouraged to drink, appreciating the purity and cleansing quality. Directly after, a storm will be created on stage, epic and horrendous in scope. Through fragmented scenes, monologues, videos, sounds, narration, and audience interaction, we discover there has been a flood of mythic proportions, on a global scale. We may learn that 30 perfect of the human population has been destroyed; however, we are left to piece this information together. Stories are told from the near future and 100 years into the past. We hear the stories of the surviving objects, having outlived their owners—a mop sings a song of loss, a timepiece tells the tale of its history. The piece covers the globe, transpiring in Peru, China, Europe, the United States, Africa, Norway, and all points between. It investigates the epic and the minute.
 
Our work on WATER is contemporary, existing in response to our time and media. The material is influenced by disaster footage, pop culture, the discussion of global warming by scientists and politicians, etc. We have been compiling an extensive catalogue of impressions and documenting them on a blog, found here: http://harpwater.blogspot.com/. From this we have extracted the visuals and inspiration for the bulk of our piece. Our palate is global, and our piece exists as a commentary on the colorful, often naive, and increasingly dire conversation the world has with itself about our ever-narrowing natural resources. Visually, the work references William Forsyth’s dance theatre with its use of video and movement and the Teatro de los Andes theater company from Bolivia with its theatricalization of earthquake tales. Linguistically, the work takes its cues from the realistic and lyrical plays of our modern stages.
 

For more info:  www.waterepic.com

Join in the process!  Visit WATERBLOGGED.

The germ of the idea for WATER began as a short ten-minute piece dealing with the events in New Orleans after Katrina, which roused curiosity about the epic nature of such a catastrophic occurance.  This eventually lead us in two directions: the macroscopic and the microscopic.  On a larger canvas, we will be exploring flood mythology taken from ancient and modern societies, and the purification and destruction that results.   On a smaller scale, WATER will be an exploration of the life of objects, in which the remaining debris from natural disasters will spin tales of its own histories.  

To facilitate the creation of this project, the artists have begun blogging -- http://harpwater.blogspot.com/.  We plan to bring in text and actors during the process,  along with storyboards and images.  We will research and travel and study to uncover material.  We will watch videos, we will create songs, we will read the Bible. 

We want to create a piece of theater where the audience is actively involved in a visceral experience – whether it be drinking water together or typing on laptops simultaneously – a piece of theater where the audience does not stand on the shore watching the tide, but rather becomes intellectually and emotionally immersed. How do we create  an experience where we open the doors and the water pours in? Where an audience drowns – treads water – sputters for air?

We have a multitude of ideas – all of which have yet to be fully explored as of this moment  - but include: first memories of water; discovery of underwater cities; musical numbers sung by objects; fake newscasts; audience in swivel chairs; a shirt that wraps around a person and suffocates her…

Everything is possible as we begin this journey.

Sheila Callaghan (writer) is interested in language and context; she uses conventional narrative structure as a starting point, and then allows absurd tinges, adventurous language, or fragmented temporal logic to intrude upon and converse with traditional forms.  Daniella Topol (director) is drawn to theater that questions, provokes, and challenges the way we make theater; that courageously explores our cultural and political landscape; and that not only makes you think but that makes your heart ache.  William Cusick's (video/projections) theatrical concerns involve scale, movement, and meaningful physical interaction with video. His artistic work has been a continuous exploration of human/machine communications. He is particularly interested in finding and developing new vocabulary for multimedia performances with artists from varying disciplines.

Sheila Callaghan's plays have been produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwright's Horizons, South Coast Repertory, Clubbed Thumb, The LARK, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, New Georges, and Moving Arts, among others. Sheila is the recipient of a 2000 Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, a 2001 LA Weekly Award for Best One-act, a 2001-02 Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright's Center in Minneapolis, a 2002 Chesley Prize for Lesbian Playwriting, a 2003 Mac Dowell Residency, a 2004 NYFA grant, a 2005 Cherry Lane Mentorship Fellow, and a 2006 NYSCA grant. In 2007 she was a co-winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Her plays have been produced internationally in New Zealand, Norway, and the Czech Republic. She has been commissioned by Playwright's Horizons, South Coast Repertory, and EST/Sloan. Her full-length plays include SCAB, THE HUNGER WALTZ, CRAWL FADE TO WHITE, CRUMBLE (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), WE ARE NOT THESE HANDS, DEAD CITY, LASCIVIOUS SOMETHING, and KATE CRACKERNUTS. Several of her plays are published by Playscripts, Inc. She has taught playwriting at The University of Rochester, Spalding University, The College of New Jersey, and Florida State University. Sheila is a member of the Obie winning playwright's organization 13P and resident of New Dramatists.

Daniella Topol's directing is primarily focused on working with new writers and new plays.  New York productions include: Sheila Callaghan's DEAD CITY (New Georges; Public Theater – New Works Now;); Peter Gil-Sheridan's TOPSY-TURVY MOUSE (Cherry Lane Theatre); Zakiyyah Alexander's SICK (Summer Play Festival); Snow Queen (Urban Stages), Dreams This Way – Best of Raw Impressions (TADA); Unreal City (Epiphany Theatre/Chelsea Playhouse); David Simpatico's MARY (NYC Fringe), LIFE GAME EFFECT (Axis Theatre), among others.  She has directed readings and workshops at numerous theaters including: Lark Play Development Center, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, and Roundabout Theatre.  Regionally, she has directed at City Theatre, Connecticut Rep, Goodspeed Musicals, Mill Mountain Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, and Village Theatre. In the university sector, Daniella directs with NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program as well as NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing, and has taught at Carnegie Mellon University and Northwestern University. Formerly the New Works Program Director for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and Associate Producing Director of City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Daniella is currently the Artistic Program Director at the Lark Play Development Center.  She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon's Directing Program, a member of the Women's Project Director's Forum and an NYTW Usual Suspect.

William Cusick, Video Designs Off-Off Broadway: Welcome to Nowhere (Temporarydistortion/TCF), What Kind of Coffin Are You Building? (TCF Gallery/Fresh Meat), Thirst (Jil Gyon/TALR), Dead City (New Georges/3LD), Someone in the Ghost Box Told Me It Was You (Temporarydistortion/TCF), Illumination Rounds (InterArt), Last Year, The Universe... It Came to Me in a Dream (Temporarydistortion/OHT); Off-Broadway: Apostasy (Urban Stages), The Clean House (LCT), Big Shoot (TCP); Broadway: Coast of Utopia I, II, & III. 

Katie Down (sound designer) performs on multiple instruments, composes, sings, and creates sound installations. She likes sound. She has created original scores and sound designs for several downtown directors including David Herskovitz, Rachel Dickstein, Will Pomerantz, Elyse Singer, and others. Katie has traveled extensively throughout Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and most recently South Africa teaching workshops in voice, improvisation, and song writing.  This summer she is teaching a week-long workshop at the Ko Festival in theatrical sound design using non-traditional instruments and voice.