THE WILDS: Program Notes

The Wilds Created by Jesse Fleming, Laurel Jenkins, and Lewis Pesacov

Commissioned and Developed by Lied Center for Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in partnership with Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts The performance will be approximately 60 minutes long with no intermission.

PRELUDE ACT 1: SEVERANCE Scene 1: Afternoon Scene 2: Sunset Scene 3: Dusk ACT 2: THRESHOLD Scene 1: Evening Scene 2: Deep Night ACT 3: RETURN Scene 1: Dawn Scene 2: Sunrise Scene 3: Morning Laurel Jenkins, performer Devika v. Wickremesinghe, performer Miguel Alejandro Castillo, performer Lewis Pesacov, live electronics

Synopsis PRELUDE A midsummer day. D and L are in a field on the outskirts of a village. They trace their surroundings with their eyes shut, barely perceiving the subtle sounds of the unquantifiable data of space. You enter the theater.

MORNING A deep rumble slowly emerges from the calm. It swells and opens into an overwhelming sound that encompasses all the frequencies of the human hearing range. We hear the voice of Mother Earth singing a timeless song of being, spirit and boundless bliss. As quickly as it comes, it is gone. D and L do what they have always done in the village.

AFTERNOON A steady electronic kick drum enters with a beat that calls to mind the rational order of civilization and its opposition to the undulating edges of the phenomenal world. As the music develops and individuates, D feels out of step with L and the beat of the village. L, on the other hand, is lost in the march of civilization. D decides to leave. A journey calls them. It is a severance, the first stage of a rite of passage. L is oblivious… until it is too late.

SUNSET Devastated by D’s absence, L mourns their loss, accompanied by the lulling sound of crickets and a lonesome distant melody. L furiously draws up a map of the known world, rises, and sets off to find D. DUSK D enters the wilds. It is an explosive, arrhythmic, disordered, radical, and rebellious world.

Miraculously, an otherworldly choir calls them through an interdimensional portal into deeper states. D crosses over the threshold, opening a door to new worlds. Just as D slips through the portal, L tails in pursuit.

NIGHT A forest in darkness. Without sight, we are drawn into the first appearance of unamplified sound, things moving in space. We hear foot falls, grunts of strange animals, perhaps a scream. A deep rumble envelops us. It is deep earth growling, the grinding of 220-millionyear-old granite, out-of-range AM radio frequencies and heavy breathing. L wrestles with the darkness, with herself. A stranger appears: M. They belong to the darkness, to the forest. D appears. They discover the freedom and beauty of the animal. M’s hidden presence invites D and L to rediscover their primal selves. With M as their guide, D and L follow each other’s scent.

DEEPNIGHT The underworld. The sound of a heartbeat surfaces from chaos and morphs into an electronic kick drum to usher in a ceremony of healing, a trance induction. The beat is now an accompaniment for spiritual rites. D, L, and M finally meet in deep trance. D and L understand that M is the portal to DeepNight. The storm of healing rages on. M vanishes.

D and L finally see each other, as if for the first time. D and L move towards each other.

DAWN The storm has passed. Light rain falls on a nearby body of water. D and L, like a single primal cell, slowly hatch a double helix. They are separate in connectedness. They become the sound of bells, which, like ripples in water, resonate outward in all directions.

SUNRISE D and L are in the field again. The sun warms the earth. Basking in forgiveness, they witness each other and the world anew. They sing with the birds, laugh with the cosmic giggle, run like children. In their abandon, they suddenly realize that they are not alone. They see You. They know they have been led to this opportunity. It is an invitation to return.

MORNING D and L are in the village, which, like them, is not the same. The voice of Mother Earth morphs into a celebratory dance. Civilization welcomes deep, ancient knowledge. D, L, and You become one with the beat. D, L, and You are together in the here/now, the great cosmic gift.

THE CREATORS WOULD LIKE TO THANK: ​​ William Stephan, Natalie Stroud, Diana Brooks, Jeff Koch, Melanie Rudy, Jane Schiermeyer, Susan Ourada and the UNL Dance Program, Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, Annelie Persson, Jeff O’Brien, Sean Strough, Jeff Chen, Brian Cronin, Tristen Gilbert, Middlebury College Dance Department, French Institute, Cité Internationale des Arts, Matt Kent, Sonnie Jenkins-Kent, Desi Jenkins-Kent, Elizabeth Pesacov and Althea Pesacov.