D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks

May 24, 2019 to May 25, 2019 7:30 pm

D-Generation: an Exaltation of Larks
Friday and Saturday May 24th & 25th
Final performance of this award winning production about dementia and caregiving
7:30 pm New England Youth Theatre
100 Flat Street Brattleboro, VT

A piece about play, joy, and communication. A piece about dementia.

From playful story circles to dark private terror…
From lyrical inner visions to demanding confrontations…
From the reflections of caregivers to the fragmented memories of residents of care facilities…
D-Generation evokes a complex world of people living with dementia.

D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks is a full-length theater piece that explores the rich creative potential and ability to communicate that exists in people with late-stage dementia. The work is based on stories written collaboratively by groups of people with cognitive disorders. Their words, their images, and their creative imaginations yield work that is poetic, humorous, and quite mysterious. From these stories, Sandglass Theater forms scenes of the inner lives of the characters creating a piece that reflects the stigma and the acceptance, the despair and the joy that is equally present and possible in both the person with dementia and in their caregivers and family members. The work is performed by three puppeteers (the caregivers) and five puppets (the residents of a care-facility) set to a compelling original score and striking animated video segments. D-Generation takes us into a world that is all too much a part of our lives.

The collected stories, which are associative and non-linear, were gathered by Sandglass Theater’s performers during 20 visits to care facilities, during which circles of people with dementia were guided through a collective story–making method called Timeslips. These stories reveal humor and playfulness as well as the dark reality of the disease. They stand on their own as dramatic material from a remarkable source. The stories, and the compelling process of writing them, form the inspiration for D-Generation.

Directed by Roberto Salomon
Performed by Eric Bass, Ines Zeller Bass, Kirk Murphy
Music by Paul Dedell
Video by Michel Moyse
Lighting by Sabrina Hamilton
Puppets by Coni Richards, Ines Zeller Bass, Jana Zeller

Stories created by The Residents of Pine Heights at Brattleboro Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation using Timeslips, (a collective creative story telling model developed by Anne Basting).

D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks is funded in part by:
The New England Foundation for the Arts National Theater Project with lead funding from
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Jim Henson Foundation, The Clowes Fund, Vermont Arts Council, Fresh Sound Foundation, The McKenzie Family Charitable Trust and donations from all those who generously contributed to our Kickstarter campaign

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