Performance & Installation

Client: American Repertory Theater

Location: Cambridge/Boston, MA

Team: Jimmy Lasko, Deanna Van Buren

Status: In development, 2013 to present

The Field is a performance and installation that evokes the sacrifice and labor of the Civil War toward the ideal of freedom and the universal value of human life.

Youth are gathering leaves scattered throughout an open field. Colored leaves represents a person convicted of a crime and currently imprisoned. Grayscale leaves represent the soldiers from the area who lost their lives in the Civil War. They are gathered and carried to the carcasses of trees that lay lifeless on the ground. The leaves are carefully and ritualistically placed onto the trees. Simultaneous ghostly tableaus evocative of civil war battles are being reenacted through the conceit of Civil War documentary photography. As a final gesture of the performance, the trees are hefted to an upright position. As they crash into place, the music changes, and lights hidden within the trunk and branches of the trees illuminate the leaves. The audience finds themselves in the middle of a field of luminescent trees, among a group of youth who have worked to bring it to life.