Lucada Mélange To Present LES BERCEAUX & THE LIGHTHOUSE: NO. 2 FOREST JUNCTIONS At The Naumburg Bandshell

Lucada Mélange will present Les Berceaux & The Lighthouse: No. 2 Forest Junctions this Saturday, November 22, at 2 p.m. at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. The interdisciplinary, site-specific Butoh Opera will continue the collective’s multi-movement project examining social and environmental tensions. Audience members are advised to bring a chair and dress for cold weather.

This second movement of the larger work includes seven “junctions,” with this performance featuring three: A Safehouse in Tenderloin, The Uprooteds, and Creatures of Light. The piece is devised and performed by co-directors Donna Ahmadi and Dianna Cortez, joined by performers Jaimee Lee Gaston, Sancho Alcina, Hayley Trapp, Sofía Espinosa, and Yun Gao. Costumes are created in collaboration with designer Lauren M. Lowell, and the music is arranged and composed by Derek J. Weagle and Katie Semre.

The first movement of Les Berceaux & The Lighthouse, No. 1 A Mental Health Crisis, premiered at the UNFIX NYC Butoh Festival in 2023, exploring themes of isolation and psychological strain during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The new movement resumes the narrative with an ensemble-driven structure linking previously staged sections. A Safehouse in Tenderloin was previously performed at the Beyond Fashion Festival with support from the Garment District Alliance; The Uprooteds has been performed at Cedar Hill in Central Park; and Creatures of Light depicts the fallout of a contaminated forest overtaken by electronic waste.

Lucada Mélange—founded in 2021 by Ahmadi and Cortez—is a New York City-based interdisciplinary collective working across vocal performance, Butoh, and musical composition, with a focus on ecological themes and social-environmental inquiry.