When The Sky Separated From The Earth
Direction/Performance: Ani Javian and Benjamin Roach
Dramaturg: Amy Blumberg
Theatrical Advisor: Stephanie Lane
Queer Spaces Queer Faces Festival
Cornerstone Center for the Arts
Muncie, Indiana
March 17-18, 2024
Take Root at Green Space Studio (excerpts)
Queens, New York
May 10-11, 2024
Barnett Theater at The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio
May 31, 2024
"When The Sky Separated From The Earth dances in a contingent space where voices, bodies, and objects becoming organized and disorganized in ways both compelling and unruly. It unfolds between excursions roaming toward the limits of the reasonable, laughter erupting from bursts of the unexpected, and possibilities groaning at the edges of belief. The performers scramble to occupy the space where the mythical, the actual, and the confessional overlap, interrupt, and sometimes contradict one another." -Michael J. Morris READ THE FULL WRITING HERE
When The Sky Separated From The Earth, an evening-length duet, teases apart elements of our identities that have been learned or constructed from those that are genuine and authentic. What are our stories and how did they come to be? The work asks questions around duplicity and multiplicity, fantasy and reality, and hypocrisy and honesty. It considers art’s ability to fabricate, deceive, and reveal truth(s), at once. It is a playground, a gym, town plaza, church, bedroom, stage, and home. It is a mashup of movement, text, props, and song. It is loud and out-of-bounds. It is against the rules. It is not exactly true, but it isn’t exactly false, either. And it asks, “How can we trust - in ourselves, in others, and in our world?” It works to reveal our humanity – full of faults, but always with the capacity to listen to our own unique truths and the truths of those around us with compassion, goodwill, and heart.