drown'd in mine own tears

drown'd in mine own tears
Philadelphia Fringe Festival — Philadelphia, PA
September 6-11, 2005

Directed by Greg Giovanni, video by Nadia Hironaka, design by Jonathan Berger

with Elizabeth Boggs (harpsichord), Helena Espvall (cello), and Michael Simmons (classical guitar)

drown’d used knitting to explore the pain of waiting and acceptance. The piece was built around the myth of Penelope, wife of Ulysses—champion of the Trojan War and hero of The Odyssey. Penelope endured 20 years of waiting for Ulysses to come home. When he didn’t return after the war, suitors demanded she remarry. She tricked the suitors by telling them she’d pick a new husband when she finished her weaving. For four years, she kept the suitors at bay, weaving by day and unraveling by night. In quiet protest, she spoke thru her handwork.

drown’d recreated Penelope’s action of creating and destroying through the knitting and unraveling of a giant afghan. At three intervals during the performance, I broke from Penelope’s story and conducted a knitting demonstration. I passed on purls of wisdom, using knitting as a metaphor for accepting your life, mistakes and all, while reflecting on how I used knitting to cope with the recent death of my mother, my first knitting teacher.

drown’d was commissioned by The Prince Music Theater’s Black Box project and premiered there in April 2004.

Photos by Aaron Igler and J. J. Tiziou
Video by Rodney Whittenberg