The legend of Emily Dickinson appears again, this time to entertain audiences in "Lightning at Our Feet," an audio-visual show to be unveiled in its world premiere at 8 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 29 at the UH Mitchell Center for the Arts.
Additional presentations continue at 8 p.m. on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Created and produced by New York’s Ridge Theater and composer Michael Gordon, this show transforms Dickinson’s personal poems and letters into a multimedia production of theater, dance, and music.
"Lightning" is commissioned by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston and is the Mitchell Center’s largest and most anticipated commissioned event. Houston audiences will get a sneak peek until it moves to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival in December.
The presentation is carried by four women who channel Dickinson’s spirit through her poems and songs. In crafting an original score for the production, Gordon said, "the songs were written first, and the piece was cast afterward. We ended up with four very different stage personalities, and the performers basically cast themselves into the songs."
The plot transports viewers to the site where Dickinson founded much of her creative talents: the average setting of her Massachusetts home. Further speculation evolves on whether her home may have influenced her writing.
However, Ridge Theater’s Daniel Zippi, the production’s dramaturge, explains "you’ll find little biographical detail here. Accounts of her life are not included in this piece. Instead, here are presented her words, her expression and thought."
Ridge Theater’s complex visual production of "Lightning," consists of large video projections and an elaborate stage setting, giving more attention to Dickinson’s relatively private, reclusive life.
This theater is known for productions that take advantage of various media for the use of artistic expression. For this production, the theater’s filmmaker Bill Morrison and visual designer Laurie Olinder take projected graphics, lighting and film clips of the poet’s meditative experiences and create an onstage movie to be presented to a mass crowd.
According to the show’s creators, the fused images, sounds, and movements help convey the lyrical musings of Dicken’s life that have captivated people for decades.
For more information on "Lightning at Our Feet" or the Mitchell Center for the Arts, visit www.mitchellcenterforarts.org.
Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors, and can be purchased at the theater’s box office or by calling 713-743-2929.
