PicoBlog

It’s been a busy Q1 for Broadway DNA, licensing new work around the world, producing a world premiere new play opening soon, and writing a new publication for the International Theatre Institute out this summer. As I catch up on my to-do list, please excuse this belated review from the exquisite January world premiere of the music theatre piece “Terce: A Practical Breviary.” Thank you for supporting Broadway DNA’s vision to demystify cultural exchange through international producing, licensing, and criticism to empower theatrical discussion around the world.

Photo by Maria Baranova of Mel Hsu, Maya Sharpe, Mona Seyed-Boloforosh, Heather Christian, Viva DeConcini

Solidifying her place as the crown jewel of NYC downtown programming, Heather Christian transfixes audiences with her musical revelations once again. Playing and extending again and again as part of January’s Prototype Festival, “Terce: A Practical Breviary” takes you to church– not in the modern politically zealous distortion of the phrase and associations, but in the fundamental historical sense of the church’s humble and communal origins as a place and group of people rooted in spiritual guidance and community gathering.

I last encountered Christian’s penchant for spiritual song cycle composition in 2022’s Oratorio for Living Things. Some of the same commentary applies here again:

“To cram the evening into a ‘music-theater’ gloss is to rob it of the mysticism that gives it power; the ensemble is less performative-character and more performative-shaman or worship leader, leading the audience plummeting through their sermon guised in the bare sheen of non-descript everyman uniformity.”

“Terce” continues in this theological thread, utilizing an everywoman community ensemble of 30-plus caregivers and makers to rethink a monastic 9:00 AM mass and reimagine the face of the Holy Spirit through the lens of the Divine Feminine. Described as  a “wild meditation/celebration of the sacred mothers alive in all of us,” the non-narrative song cycle cites inspiration from three primary female mystics (Julian of Norwich, Hildegard von Bingen, and Robin Wall Kimmerer) and blends new music, neo-soul, and gospel with traditional medieval organum to create a sung-through processional of collective, choral feminine expression.

Christian’s reclamation of space through aural authority is bold, vital work. Despite classical and contemporary social contexts reinforcing the notion that the sound of the female voice disqualifies its owner from opening her mouth in public space (see: any comments on Margaret Thatcher or Hillary Clinton’s speaking voice, or just ask a woman in any company meeting), Christian’s work with the voice is aided with a viewing lens from Jorunn Økland’s repurposing of Edward Soya’s notion of a “third space,” or “Why gender studies in Particular Should Consider Sacred Space a Third Spatial Category.” Økland posits that historically, unlike in the separate and exclusionary private and public spheres, what women were thought to represent and say was considered vital in sacred space, whether these spaces were constructed as liminal or in direct continuation with other public spaces (later, in performance, one could argue) – or more conventionally, inside dedicated sanctuaries like the hall environmentally repurposed for Christian’s performance at The Space at Irondale. 

Her sacred, created third space, a room full of women’s voices and bodies of all ages, stands strong and celebratory. As the monastic melodies multiplied, I couldn’t help but get choked up as a young woman looking across all ages and experiences, seeing in these bodies a mirror of pasts, presents, and potential futures both personal and artistic, daring me to not just take up space but twirl and skip and dance alongside them. Unfortunately, this soaring calling remained relegated to my seat, as centuries of passive theater-going etiquette are hard to erase. While the work would benefit from a somatic invitation beyond a brief program note or open concessions in order for full communal catharsis to be reached (a warm coffee is up for grabs on stage pre-show, a universal symbol of welcoming hospitality at church- “It is 9 am after all”), I found my isolated somatic response nonetheless one of relaxation and revelation; at various points I became aware I was clutching a fist near my heart, uncrossing my legs, grounding my feet, and relaxing into my state of being.

At the performance attended, a projector malfunction left us without the libretto to follow along, transforming the oratorio into a focused, intuitive listening experience akin to the medieval times it reflects. While knowing the lyrics are helpful to follow the sonic layers of an unfamiliar choral piece, I can’t say that I particularly missed them, as reading lends itself to intellectualist viewing experience I was happy to shed, in addition to an association of projected lyrics with modern Christian congregations.

Director Keenan Tyler Oliphant stages “Terce” as a vocal and choreographic whirlpool of circular time, with bodies, music, and design sucking you in to stunningly personify telling time in feminist theory: time as redemption, time as regression, time as repetition, time as rupture. The theory venerates links between our own lifetime and the larger historical patterns that transcend us, in line with the work Oliphant and Christian encompass through a myriad of vignettes alternately staged to small and full ensemble scales, growing from an individual to a room full of people and patterns that repeat, rupture, and reflect. Christian herself is an extraordinarily propulsive performer, and we watch her rapt in meticulously leading the flow and pace of the work swirling around at her behest. Performers weave in and out of audience rows, going about their sacred vocal practice almost as if audience presence was merely spectral. One such highlight is a number of vacuuming, a comically, feminine-relegated activity here repurposed; as Martha once prepared the house, the work of the ensemble here to prepare their spiritual and physical space leaves no aisle untouched. 

The work’s thematic roundness prevails in design work. Christian’s skirt swishes with intention (costume design by Brenda Abbandondolo). She rallies the troops and leads vocal rounds that ricochet and reverberate both in the space and spirit (sound design by Nick Kourtides). Christian’s use of vocal canons is further in line with what scholar Ella Finer considers the intersection of feminism and sound through echo, making the case for the phenomenon of echoic sound as feminist method alongside considering Echo, the Greek mythological character whose reappearances through literature confer upon her a cumulative agency, evidenced in her sonic invention/intervention. In the case of “Terce,” the “echo” of feminine voices in musical canon and the sanctuary’s spatial sound design confers added meaning to the feminine agency Christian’s work assembles.

In the center of an also round audience, there is a disconnected, angular scenic environmental design by Nick Vaughan & Jake Margolin. The overbuilt design is perplexingly machinal, with makeshift instruments and a chandelier of assorted spoons and homegoods lowering from exposed rigging, and tarps that match the ensemble’s blue denim-esque attire unfurling and tenting above the playing space. There is a point in the program written that “a bad angle (caused by the immersive nature of the seating) encourages a new angle;” however, the imposing, linear rigging creates a cold skeleton in stark contrast to the warm intimacy of the decidedly circular, nonlinear performance.

Rather than constructing a work of singular artistry in isolated experience, Christian’s work attends to the formation of collectives in and of those who witness it. Engaging performers, designers, and audience members in a circular collective of being, “Terce” is organized around the vibrancy and complexity of difference, elucidating and meditating on the sacred joys of community. Should the work find future funding opportunities, it would be right at home presented at Brussels’ FAME (Festival where Arts Meets Empowerment) Festival– the world should hear Heather Christian.

Production credits

PROTOTYPE CO-PRESENTED WITH HERE AND THE SPACE AT IRONDALE

“TERCE: A PRACTICAL BREVIARY” 

CREATED BY Heather Christian

PRODUCED BY HERE Arts Center

“Terce: A Practical Breviary” features an ensemble of over 35 performers led by Heather Christian (piano, organ, vocals), Terry Dame (percussion, saxophone, vocals), Viva DeConcini (electric guitar, vocals), Mel Hsu (cello, bass, vocals), Mona Seyed-Boloforosh (piano, vocals), and Maya Sharpe (violin, acoustic guitar, vocals). They are joined by Rima Fand (violin, vocals), Jessica Lurie (wind, vocals), Divya Maus (vocals), and Kait Warner (vocals), along with a community chorus featuring Raquel Cion, Marisa Clementi, Ciera Cope, Nadine Daniels, Sandra Garner, Audrey Hayes, Mercedes Hesselroth, Frances Higgins, Davina Honeghan, Beau Kadir, Rachel Karp, Sarah Lefebvre, Aris Louis, Teri Madonna, Grenetta Mason, Mickaila Perry, Eleanor Philips, Avery Richards, Kayleigh Rozwat, Amy Santos, Kayla Sklar, Sharyn Thomas, Vanessa Truell, Grace Tyson, Madrid Vinarski, Jessie Winograd, and Allison Zhao.

The creative team for “Terce: A Practical Breviary” includes Heather Christian (composer, writer, movement), Keenan Tyler Oliphant (director, movement), Mona Seyed-Bolorforosh & Jacklyn Riha (music direction), Nick Vaughan & Jake Margolin (environmental design), Brenda Abbandondolo (costume design), Masha Tsimring (lighting design), Nick Kourtides (sound design), Terry Dame (instrument fabricator), Darlene Christian (movement), Alice Leora Briggs, Koomah, Lovie (projected libretto illustrations), Kristin Marting (creative producer), and Amanda Cooper (line producer).

Performances of “Terce: A Practical Breviary” took place January 10-February 4 , at The Space at Irondale, located at 85 S Oxford St in Brooklyn. The running time is approximately 60 minutes with no intermission. For more information, visit www.here.org or https://prototypefestival.org/shows/terce/. 

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