Sleeping in trees, gently studying life * Oregon ArtsWatch

"For this performance, a chorus of dancers performed interstitially amidst the narrative drama of five actors: two sets of neighboring housemates and one mischievous cat that stirs up trouble and connection between them. The interpersonal lives of these characters served to link the nuances of grief with the ebb and flow of the climate crisis, while also rendering the inevitability of death and change through an optimistic lens on relationships."

"This performance, which opened March 6 and continues through March 14, married direction by Professor of Theatre Rebecca Lingafelter and movement direction by Director of Dance Tiffany Mills, but the program notes that both students and faculty members devised this work, creating it together in an emergent fashion."

"During this introductory scene, a character named Vincent, played by Gianvito Cassanelli, enters to ask Juniper if she is going to work today. The audience learns they are siblings, and Vincent is in town visiting to comfort Juniper as their father has just passed away."

When We Slept In Trees combines narrative drama with choreographed movement to examine quotidian life and interconnected themes. Five actors portray two sets of neighboring housemates while a chorus of dancers performs interstices between scenes. The story follows Juniper, grieving her father's death, and her visiting brother Vincent, alongside neighbors Jack and Maya searching for their cat Benito during extreme heat. A virtuosic dancer portrays the cat that catalyzes connection between the households. The production, directed by Professor Rebecca Lingafelter with movement direction by Tiffany Mills, was collaboratively devised by students and faculty. The narrative weaves together personal relationships, grief, climate crisis impacts, and mortality while maintaining an optimistic perspective on human connection and inevitable change.

Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News