W A T E R P L A Y
P R O C E S S
Water Play served as Spann’s Senior Thesis for her Concentration in Music and her Certificate in Theater at Princeton University. The work was produced through the Lewis Center for the Arts, and culminated in a weekend of performances in The Wallace Theater in November of 2019. Spann intended this project to further the idea of anti-disciplinary creation as explored in Masquerade, with design elements fused with the narrative. To explore the theme of healing through vulnerability and creation, Spann pushed creators to expand on their expected roles–with designers thrust into the dramatic action, actors composing and choreographing, and everyone forced to re-conceptualize their relationships to art-making. This allowed the piece a fluidity to match its themes, and an electric vulnerability rife with potential. This recent grant application further outlines motivations for the project and intentions for further development.
P L O T
Water Play is an autobiographical piece in abstraction, centering the journey of a voice ripped from their body in a point of trauma. In the immediate wake of the separation, the voice, “I,” wakes up lost, alone, and thirsty. They must fight their way back across deserts and through memories to reconnect with themselves, connecting in the process with other characters including Mom, represented by sound, and Dad, represented by light. In their growth, I learns that reuniting with You is only their first step of many to heal.
M A K E R S
DIRECTION/SET DESIGN: NICO KRELL
STAGE MANAGEMENT: JACQUELINE POTHIER
COSTUMES: WILLIAM GRIFFITH
LIGHTING DESIGN/DAD: JENNY KIM
SOUND DESIGN/MOM: KATHARINE MATTHIAS
COMPOSITION/I: ALLISON SPANN
CHOREOGRAPY/YOU: JHOR VAN DER HORST
AND: JULIEN ALAM
G A L L E R Y
Photos by Larry Levanti, video and script available on request
