New Theater Piece Explores Gun Violence and Community Healing; Commemorates 10 Years Since Virginia Tech Shootings

Load singers and rappers into a chamber of music. Squeeze young people into a conversation about guns. Trigger action. (Be)longing, a new theater piece (featuring more than 45 locally cast singers, beatboxers, and hip-hop artists) by the critically-acclaimed team of composer Byron Au Yong and librettist Aaron Jafferis, will have its world premiere at Virginia Tech's Moss Arts Center on Friday, March 17 and Saturday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m.

Growing out of research and creative residencies at Virginia Tech's Moss Arts Center, (Be)longing is a national initiative asking how we recover from violence and prevent its recurrence in the form of an immersive community experience. Citywide events created by and for the community culminate in the performance of a theatrical work about belonging and isolation prompted by and in recognition of the 10-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy, in which a Korean-American student shot 49 people, killing 32, then himself. The work includes songs and raps that tackle themes challenging America's collective understanding of youth-involved shootings to consider deeper ways to connect and build communities of safety and support.

Growing up in New Haven, Conn. Jafferis came of age in the 1980s when gun violence scarred his hometown. When Au Yong approached him to collaborate on a work prompted by the Virginia Tech tragedy, Jafferis declined. Then the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. occurred.

His mind buzzed, "What connects the young man who kills 32 people at Virginia Tech with the one who shoots children in Sandy Hook Elementary? What separates them? What connects me to these young men? What separates us? Why do these shootings simultaneously connect and distance us?"

College students, faculty, staff, and local leaders form the backbone of this theatrical work, where mental health, music, neuroscience, sociology, and theater intersect in an attempt to ask and answer the crucial questions that linger.

In the program notes, Au Yong and Jafferis write, "Voices both murmur and soar in a project about belonging and isolation. With listening and empathy as core experiences of this musical work, (Be)longing strives to encourage, rather than silence, numerous voices."

School shootings are among the most challenging subjects in our culture, involving a wellspring of deeply personal feelings from each of us. Debates ping-pong around gun control, mental health, security, the Second Amendment and civil liberties. Rather than trigger debate, (Be)longing attempts to trigger attempts to trigger connection by seeking an understanding as to why people commit violence against a community and how the community responds.

(Be)longing, which is scheduled across the U.S. over the next two years, including engagements in Miami, New Haven, and San Francisco, is the second in a trilogy of music theater works about what Americans fear. The trilogy includes Stuck Elevator (fear of being trapped) which premiered at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, (Be)longing (fear of being shot), and a third show yet to be determined.

(Be)longing is a commission of the Moss Arts Center and developed in partnership with International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven, CT. Residency development provided by The Flea Theater, New York City; Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ; Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA; TheatreWorks, Palo Alto, CA; and Weston Playhouse, Weston, VT.(Be)longing was developed, in part, at the 2014 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at Mass MoCa in North Adams, MA. (Be)longing is produced by ArKtype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann.

Tickets for the performance are $25 for general public and $10 for student and youth 18 and under. Tickets can bepurchased online at artscenter.vt.edu, by calling 540-231-5300, or in person at the Moss Arts Center located at 190 Alumni Mall, Blacksburg, VA.

BIOGRAPHIES

Byron Au Yong (Co-creator and Composer) composes songs of dislocation prompted by a broken lineage. The Seattle Weekly calls his musical events "as exquisite and imaginative as they are unclassifiable." Dedicated to intercultural, cross-disciplinary collaboration, Au Yong has created over 60 musical works that have been performed in concert halls, theaters, museums, and site-specific locations. He is an assistant professor in Performing Arts & Social Justice at the University of San Francisco.

Aaron Jafferis (Co-creator and librettist) is a hip-hop poet and playwright. His musicals Stuck Elevator, Kingdom, How to Break, Blood Magic, Shakespeare: The Remix, and No Lie have been produced by The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theatre, Public Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Theatre, and many others. A former Open Rap Slam champion at the National Poetry Slam Championships, Jafferis creates hip hop theater Variety calls "claustrophobic and expansive, intimate and existential, personal and political all at once." His numerous honors include A Creative Capital Award, Richard Rodgers Award, Sundance Institute/Time Warner Fellowship, Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award and The Dramatist's "50 To Watch."

Charlotte Brathwaite (Director) is known for her unique approach to staging classical and unconventional texts, dance, visual art, multi-media, site-specific installation, video productions, and performance art. Her work has been seen in the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia and ranges in subject matter from the historical past to the distant future illuminating issues of race, sex, power and the complexities of the human condition. She was recently named as one of the "up-and-coming women in theatre to watch" by Playbill.

Upcoming Performances:
April 21 MDC Live Arts/Miami Dade College
June 16 - 18 International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven, CT

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