Indeterminacy was a part of the larger Theatre In Flux project undertaken by the UCI Dept. of Drama during our Spring quarter of 2021. Theatre In Flux was a DIY collaborative project where members from all design disciplines reached out to each other with ideas for various creative works. Some groups created physical installations, others created virtual ones, and some created media files or videos for playback.
In this project I paired up with alum of the Sound MFA, Ezra Anisman, to create Indeterminacy. Indeterminacy is a compositional approach which leaves some or all elements of the performance of a piece of music up the the performer. Every performance of an indeterminate composition may be wildly different despite receiving the exact same instructions. A play, as a parallel, may also be produced wildly differently depending on how directors, designers, and actors interpret the text. This project hones in on how with all other things being equal, the same script, the same film clip, the same concept from a director, the creative process still ends with unmistakably different results as an artist develops their ideas. As an exploration of this concept we pursued three forms of media, two scripts, one dance piece, as the subjects of the process
Cymbeline
Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s more ambiguous plays, not at home as a comedy, tragedy, or romance, but somewhere in between the three. This score follows a specific scene from the play in which the family of our protagonist, Posthumus Leonatus, appears in his cell as ghosts while he awaits his trial and likely execution. The ghosts languish in the cell lamenting the circumstances of Posthumus’ imprisonment, invoking the name of Jupiter in order to save the last living Leonatus from an undeserved fate. Jupiter finally descends from the heavens full of fury as the ghosts deride his worth, and though he initially admonishes the ghosts, assures them that Posthumus will receive justice at the resolution of the trial.
Eurydice
Eurydice is frequently produced in academic theatre due to the amount of creativity it demands from all areas of design. In this instance, I knew that there were going to be moments which I wouldn’t be able to tackle with music alone, so this piece turned out to be a combination of composition and sound design; an important note is that water is a recurring theme in this play so beaches, streams, and rain are prevalent throughout. Eurydice follows the brief life and abrupt death of the titular character and her adaptation to the Underworld while her husband searches frantically for a way to reach her through the power of his music and his love. Unlike Cymbeline where we tackled a specific scene, Eurydice is an exercise in the ability to capture the arc of the entire play in a single piece of music. This resulted in creating several ‘movements’ which I think capture the most essential elements of the plot while taking some liberties with the chronological order of events.
Dance Excerpt #1
This piece is an excerpt from a work by choreographer Charlotte Griffin. The composition was created without having heard the original score, and incorporates my responses to the movements, editing, color, and perceived themes. To me this piece is about memory and dementia, and how both distort perception of reality. A person with dementia may have gaps and lapses in memory, and memories they do produce and retain may be closer or further from the truth. They may be listless, confused, or even aggressive, but lapsing between these conditions are moments of clarity and lucidity, a respite before the inevitable return to their turbulent state of mind.