Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – MEANDER & THE VISITATION: Two immersive sound-walks that implore us to shift how we perceive and experience the world

• By drediman
• April 25, 2021
• No Comments

For more than a year now, theater-makers have had to adapt to survive. One of the more interesting sub-genres to evolve as a result is the outdoor “sound-walk”. During the pandemic, these immersive audio experiences have been welcome alternatives to streaming content at home, allowing audiences to safely engage in the world outside in a way that feels uniquely theatrical. Here are my thoughts on two recent specimens of the sound-walk – both nurtured by HERE Arts Center – which remains a terrific stand-in (especially now that spring is finally in the air!) not only for those tired of online streaming, but also those still not quite ready to take on indoor, in-person theater.

MEANDER
HERE Arts Center / Brooklyn Botanic Garden
On-demand / In-person

First up is HERE Arts Center and Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s co-production of Meander, the brainchild of Gelsey Bell and Joseph White. Ms. Bell disarmed me last fall with Cairns, her personally curated audio tour of the Green-Wood Cemetery, which brought the rich history and natural beauty of the gorgeously landscaped cemetery into intoxicatingly sharp focus. Meander (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) is a similarly perspective-altering experience that performs the same kind of hat trick on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, with a particular focus on the area’s geological history. Although the walk itself lasts just over 20 minutes, it’s packed with nuggets of wisdom, which Ms. Bell and Mr. White soulfully impart as you leisurely stroll along a bespoke path (notably following the route of a winding creek) through the garden’s less manicured areas. Particularly, Meander encourages participants to open their eyes to the majesty of the natural world and connect with it on an existential level. The experience concludes with the recommendation to continue to explore the garden’s carefully-planned grounds; it would be foolish not to do so.

THE VISITATION
HERE Arts Center / Jackie Robinson Park
On-demand / In-person

Those of you looking for a more mystical kind of site-specific experience should check out The Visitation (RECOMMENDED), which invites walkers/listeners to explore Jackie Robinson Park, a relatively unknown, cliff-hugging park in Harlem. The sound-walk, which takes about an hour to complete, is packed with historical details about the Native Americans who originally lived on and nurtured the the lands of northern Manhattan, as well the area’s subsequent colonization by Europeans and eventual urban development. What’s fascinating, and admittedly bizarre, about the work is how it then juxtaposes this history with the 2016 appearance of a one-antlered deer in the park. The occurrence clearly captured the imagination of The Visitation‘s creators (Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella, and Mallory Catlett), who in response have created an episodic fantasia in which the very fabric of time is haunted by this singular creature’s spectral “visitation”. Dispersed throughout are moody art songs, some of which perhaps outlast their welcome. Nevertheless, the experience overall demands that listeners bask in their immediate surroundings, as well as thoughtfully contemplate the shrouded crevices of our collective history and the current bruised state of the natural world.