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BELATED AVOWAL
2023TEAM:
Director: Cat Ashley
One: Cat Ashley
Two: Daniel Sohn
Three: Sophia Nelson
Time: Vyette Tiya
Projection Design: Cat Ashley
Sound Design: Daniel Sohn, Cat Ashley
Graphic Design: Yangqi Deng
Associate Scenic Design: Prithi Khalique
Audio Engineer: Daniel Sohn
Media Engineer: Cat Ashley
The first iteration of Belated Avowal debuted at the As220 Black Box Theatre in Providence, RI on November 3, 2023.
Belated Avowal is an abstract, musically-infused short performance that delves into themes of time, communication, and self-reflection. Three characters engage in fragmented dialogue, struggling to understand one another as they grapple with unclear expressions and unfinished thoughts. The central figure, One, is working on a written piece, seemingly for the others, but consistently claiming to be “almost done.” This repeated phrase becomes a point of tension, representing the difficulty in articulating thoughts and the elusive nature of completing one’s emotional or intellectual journey.
The piece explores the fluidity of time, the fragility of memory, and the tension between what is said and what is heard. Live music and projections underscores the characters’ disorientation, enhancing the play’s introspective and surreal atmosphere. Ultimately, the characters reach tentative resolution, hinting at the possibility of true connection amidst the noise.
DIRECTORS NOTE: I’ve spent stretches of time asking the people, texts, and experiments around me to define time in a way that I can understand, and stand with. I’ve yet to fall into a rapport with mechanical time that feels stable, but I am infatuated with the possibilities that come from centralizing biological timekeeping over standard metrics of timekeeping. Society has come to prioritize man-made constructs, but this biotic neglect leads to disrupting the organic pacing we once relied on. This produces quite a mess. Time is woven into how everything works. It’s led us to conceive life in terms of progress - one thing to the next, tasks to be completed over and over and over and over again. Further marrying us to gestures most efficient to complete these tasks. Time knows no stasis, and tracing the passage of time is our most naturalistic posture. So, in this shared space, I encourage you to settle into how time moves through you. Belated Avowal, a far too late cry. A promise.