FLOODESIGN

I s it true that entertainment is a social diversion while art nurtures the soul? This PEAK season aspires to do both. The underlying theme is borders and boundaries, real and imagined, public and personal. The current that flows throughout the season reflects the human yearning for freedom. The first show of the PEAK season, HATUEY: Memory of Fire, brings to mind the lyrics of that great American song, Me and Bobby McGee: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Nothin' ain't worth nothin' but its free." In HATUEY, a young man escapes the Ukrainian pogroms of the Soviet Union and lands in Havana. He falls in love with a Cuban cabaret chanteuse with a fierce anti-colonial temper. Written by Elise Thoron with music by Frank London, HATUEY is performed by Cuban, Honduran, Jewish, Greek, Guamanian, Haitian, and Dominican Americans to an Afro-Cuban-Yiddish beat. It is a vibrant celebration of freedom that has special resonance right now. Donald Nally has created our country's most forward-thinking choral ensemble, The Crossing. The choir will perform the national anthems, composed by Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang, with the incomparable International Contemporary Ensemble providing strings. Lang explores the relationships and meanings of 100 different anthems from around the world, while another Pulitzer Prize winner, composer Caroline Shaw, reflects on the displacement of refugees, and celebrated Los Angeles-based composer, Ted Hearne, seeks to understand gender inequality and sexual violence. This season, PEAK wishes a very happy birthday to the Shanghai Quartet, celebrating its 35th anniversary. We are lucky to have these brilliant musicians as our ensemble-in-residence, and I look forward with pleasure to their next 35 years. The theater experiences that I like provide unexpected moments that make me feel included. Faye Driscoll is a choreographer who creates unique dance theater works that are wildly inclusive. The heart of her trilogy, Thank You for Coming, beats with the physical joy each performer communicates. In October, for the first time ever, Faye will stage the first two parts, Attendance and Play, as a single event onstage at the Alexander Kasser Theater. Faye is our current PeARL artist-in- residence and is making the third part of the trilogy on the Montclair State University campus, integrating her creative experience with students matriculating in all academic endeavors. Supporting a singular artist over time yields exciting rewards for both producer and audience. Liz Gerring is making her third piece in the Kasser; Field will debut after an extended residency on our stage. Liz and her collaborators, Robert Wierzel and Michael J. Schumacher, pierce the boundaries of our imagination. No other choreographer today holds my attention with such delight of eye, ear, and mind. When I first learned about Marrugeku, I jumped at the possibility of offering the American debut of this remarkable Indigenous dance/theater company from Australia. And then I discovered that Cut the Sky is a provocative companion to other pieces in the PEAK season that address colonialism, freedom, and survival. A story about violation of sacred land in pursuit of oil, Cut the Sky echoes the recent outrage at Standing Rock where many people protested construction of a natural gas pipeline. J E D E D I A H W H E E L E R 2 | PEAKPERFS.ORG COVER IMAGE FROM ROMEO CASTELLUCCI'S DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, INSPIRED BY THE WORK OF ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE. PHOTO BY GUIDO MENCARI

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