Requiem for a Stranger
Photo by Julie Verlinden
"grief is the growing up of the heart
that bursts boundaries like an old skin or a finished life"
adrienne maree brown
Requiem for a Stranger
Requiem for a Stranger is an expansive work of music, movement-theater, and sacred spaces created by physical theater company Vagabond Inventions in collaboration with Singer-Composer Renee Benson. This episodic, ensemble-devised project explores the wild heartspace of grief - an emotion that mainstream American culture habitually avoids, but which has overwhelmed our daily life since the word "Coronavirus" entered our lexicon.
Conceived in 2019, this project was devised from inside the pandemic’s tide of loss. Drawing inspiration from the poetry of adrienne maree brown, Nikki Giovanni, Rainer Maria Rilke, the healer Martín Prechtel, and the intimate experiences of the creators, Requiem presents a journey of dynamic movement, original sound, live music, and an interactive design by Jeff Becker. In an absurd domestic netherworld, figures flow through overlapping crises, contradictory memories, the paradise of each mundane moment, and the language of the ancestral body: an epic love song for the stage.
Creators
Vagabond Inventions & Renee Benson
Vagabond Inventions, directed by Jennifer Sargent, is an award-winning association of physical theater artists who share a language of ensemble-devised performance. The company’s productions explore worlds in disequilibrium: unmoored feminine identity at midlife; migrants waiting in an immigration office; social biases that survive even the apocalypse. VI co-produced the Definitive Figures FemFest (named a 2018 "highlight" by the Gambit) where the company's co-creation with dance artist Donna Costello, Jitterbug and the Aftermath, received a Classical Arts Award nomination for "Outstanding Dance Presentation (Short)". The company has created seven shows and over a dozen short works that have performed in seven countries and in nationally respected venues including Detroit’s Sidewalk Festival; NACL Theatre in NY state; NYC’s Bushwick Starr and Chocolate Factory; and NPN’s 2019 "Live&Onstage" conference Showcase.
Renee Benson is a New Orleans based singer, songwriter, poet and composer. On the stage, her dynamic and rhythmically challenging phrasing calls her listeners to break away from the world of the overstimulated to the world of the living. As a singer (jazz, hip hop, soul, funk, gospel, reggae and more), she has been featured on TV, Radio and film. She has performed at the Glastonbury Music Festival, as part of the Austrian entry for Eurovision, and at Vienna’s LifeBall. Renee is the lead voice for the experimental jazz and hip hop collective, "No Home For Johnny," labeled Vienna’s 2015 Popfest “highlight”. Off stage, Renee teaches at Banff Centre of the Arts on Faculty for the Indigenous Arts and freelances as the hip hop educational consultant for the Hamilton Education Program. With Austria’s Vogelberg Jazz Orchestra, Renee is the performing vocalist for a commissioned original experimental opera she co-created with composer Vincent Pongracz.
Ensemble
Co-Conception: Renee Benson and Jennifer Sargent
Performers: Renee Benson, Jessica Donley, Melanie Greene, and Jennifer Sargent
Directed by: Jennifer Sargent
Music/ Sound Composed by: Renee Benson
Design by: Jeff Becker
Devising Dramaturg: Madison Krekel
Costume Design by: AYA Designs Global
Anti-Colonial Dramaturg: Alaina Comeaux
Physical Dramaturg: Penelope McCourty
Social Justice & Producing Consultant: Renellta Arluk
Production Manager: India Mack
Devised collaboratively by: Tricia Anderson, Jeff Becker, Renee Benson,
Grace Booth, Jessica Donley, Melanie Greene, Jalisa Roberts, Jennifer Sargent, Shannon Stewart,
and Mahalia Abéo Tibbs - with early trainings by Donna Costello
Media
Video sample: 2019 Southern Crossings Showcase
Video sample: 2020 Workshop Performance
