At the start of the global pandemic, En Garde Arts invited twelve women playwrights to share their pandemic dreams. Now, these dreams will be brought to powerful life with A Dozen Dreams, an immersive installation of sets, lights, video, and sound. Their stories are a timestamp of a historic once-in-a-generation event that will resound for years to come.
A Dozen Dreams premieres at the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place (230 Vesey Street, NYC) on Thursday, May 13 for a limited engagement through Sunday, May 30. Presented by Arts Brookfield at Brookfield Place New York, the performance schedule is Wednesday - Saturday from 2:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. (last booking at 7:30 p.m.); Sunday from 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (last booking at 4:30 p.m.), with audiences reserving timed tickets throughout those hours. Tickets will be available beginning April 19 by visiting engardearts.org.
Conceived by En Garde Arts Founder and Artistic Director
Anne Hamburger, with visual and environment designer Irina Kruzhilina and former Lark Artistic Director
John Clinton Eisner, the playwrights featured in A DOZEN DREAMS are Sam Chanse,
Erika Dickerson-Despenza,
Emily Mann,
Martyna Majok,
Mona Mansour, Rehana Mirza,
Ellen McLaughlin,
Liza Jessie Peterson,
Ren Dara Santiago,
Caridad Svich,
Lucy Thurber, and Andrea Thome. Singer
Kecia Lewis will also be featured in the dream of
Emily Mann.
Led by Irina Kruzhilina (visual and environment design), the design team includes Brittany Bland (projection and video design);
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (lighting design); and Rena Anakwe (sound design).
Audiences - single or in pod-pairs - wind through a series of twelve rooms built in a labyrinth structure. Through sets, lights, video, and sound, each room brings each individual dream to life, sharing intimate moments that are vital to the human connection that we lost in isolation. Each room and experience is completely unique, with the playwrights' sharing their dreams through audio and/or video, melding the language of their dreams with a stunning multi-dimensional visual representation.
A DOZEN DREAMS concludes with Room 13, a space for community engagement that lives at the site as well as on Instagram (#Room13), where audiences can share their own dreams as the world emerges from our yearlong fever dream.
A DOZEN DREAMS sprang from the imagination of En Garde Arts Founder and Artistic Director
Anne Hamburger within weeks of New York City's theaters closing down and as the Black Lives Matter protests surrounding George Floyd's murder were escalating.
"When the shutdown happened I began to wonder how this dramatic change to all our lives and the ensuing isolation was affecting us psychologically," Hamburger says. "If you look at the trajectory of my entire artistic career, I've always been intrigued about how social issues impact our mental health. This is a theme running through BASETRACK Live, Wilderness, Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) and now A Dozen Dreams. To ask playwrights 'what are you dreaming about right now' delves into the psychological impact of the pandemic on our subconscious, as well as our hopes and dreams for our future. These playwrights shared their stories of resilience and imagining a better future, dreams of flying, traveling to far away places, and grappling with what it means to be an artist now."
At a time when we are all so isolated, A Dozen Dreams provides an opportunity for an audience to venture out for the first time since the shutdown to re-engage with one another and an art form that they love.
"We're thrilled to welcome back En Garde Arts to Brookfield Place for this immersive event. We're honored to be able to present New York-based artists and bring back theatre to our community," says
Elysa Marden, Senior Vice President, Arts Brookfield for Brookfield Properties.
Brookfield Place - a premier shopping and culture destination - is known for its support of the arts. Recent spring activations include Tatiana Arocha's monochromatic art depicting the exploitation of natural ecosystems, which is on view close to the entrance to A Dozen Dreams, and { float } by Brooklyn-based artist Anne Vieux, a luminous hyperreal work of art that will challenge your perspective of digital art, which is on display along with the experience.
