“We are absolutely helping navigate the return to normalcy.”
Artists play a vital role amid pandemic, says Utah choreographer Graham Brown.
The product of more than a year of full-time work, “The Chocolatier” was slated to open March 13. It’s now scheduled for March 12, 2021—a full year late—and the delay devastated Graham Brown, artistic director of SONDERimmersive in Salt Lake City, initially. But after a week, Brown and his colleagues decided they had to adapt resourcefully and safely.
“We tossed around the idea of going digital, as so much of theatre, dance, and performance has, but ultimately felt strongly that live experience is what we do and what humanity needs, and that doing things in unexpected ways is intrinsic to our work,” he said in an interview. “We quickly went into creative mode, figuring out how to make live-performance experiences that are safe in this uncertain time.”
Brown and other artists he knows have grappled with constant and broad questions: Is performing socially responsible and safe? Will they be able to provide for their families? To make payroll?
“At the same time, there has also been an eagerness to move beyond: like weeds growing through cracks in cement,” he said. When Brown casted his first “COVID-compatible show,” the drive-in performance “Through Yonder Window,” he heard mostly eagerness and excitement from the artists on the other ends of the calls.
“This pandemic has revealed to me the intense need humans have for connection, and the intense level of creative problem solving we engage when we need to,” he said.
It’s not that Brown thinks digital tools aren’t essential amid pandemic; he just doesn’t believe Zoom, texting, and the like are enough, since people crave physical, interpersonal experiences. He doesn’t think he’s choosing art over safety, but instead is embracing health standards and making art within their jurisdiction.
SONDERimmersive Facebook page. “The Carousel.”
“We are absolutely helping navigate the return to normalcy,” he said. “Give us a creative parameter, and we’ll figure out how to use that as an impetus for art.”
In the latest pandemic-adapted, SONDERimmersive performance “The Carousel,” which opens July 27, each viewer receives a face shield and “cloak like shawl.” The getups add to the mystery and sense of the unexpected, “which makes it ideal for this moment,” Brown said.
“Carousel” presents a dream world set within the 14,000-square-foot Salt Lake gallery Dreamscapes, through which two of 10 characters guide groups, each no larger than three. (Each group goes through with a guide, and then again with a different guide). “Get to know their hopes, dreams, fears, and regrets through a series of vignettes,” per the announcement.
A performance (about 100 minutes) this focused on dreaming gives pause in the current moment. “Dreams are distorted projections of our reality,” Brown said. “Dreams are our projected connection with the outside world and with our imaginations, while we are literally disconnected from any of it.” Metaphors for the creative process and “inherently socially distant and safe,” dreams symbolize the present situation. But we need waking experiences for dream fodder.
“Live experiences fuel our humanity, creativity, human connection, and vitality,” Brown said, “and give us things to dream about.”
Brown hopes the show leaves viewers with a sense of wonder and of “having been swallowed up in a different world.” (The latter may be many’s current fantasy.) He also would like “Carousel” to make people think—as they navigate the space with different characters—about how we all see things differently and reflect upon them in unique ways, but still live interconnectedly.
“At a party, there are many conversations taking place, and we only engage in some of them. At a restaurant there are many menu items available, and we only order some of them,” Brown said. “SONDERimmersive is offering theatrical experiences of this nature. Part of what makes them special is that they are yours and different from someone else’s.”
Another message of this and other performances of Brown’s uplifts in an era starving for good news.
“I think discomfort is an evidence of moving in the right direction,” Brown said. “This is true for both audiences and performers. The unknown is something new, not necessarily something unsafe. We embrace discomfort within the parameter of safety.”