Invertigo is performing again with the Independent Shakespeare Company! Waiting at Home for the Witches is a dance prelude for their performance of Macbeth.
The husbands of Macbeth's Weird Sisters are stuck at home, waiting for their wives and getting into toil and trouble of their own.
A new dance by Invertigo Dance Theatre commissioned especially for the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival.
Choreographer's Notes:
This piece stems from an ongoing relationship between Invertigo Dance Theatre and the
Independent Shakespeare Co. I met Melissa and David when I founded Invertigo in 2007, and
I excitedly asked if we could perform a pre-show for them. They said yes and I created a prelude to their 2008 production of Twelfth Night called Revelries and Reveries. At 35 minutes, it was inappropriately long for a pre -show (I was young and really excited and I love Twelfth Night, OK?) but they have continued to allow us onto their stage every summer. We couldn't be more grateful. I am a huge fan of ISC.
We begin each project by picking one of the plays in ISC’s summer rotation. I'll find a theme or a moment or a line that inspires me, and under that, a piece is born. It may be the arrogance of a particular character, the mad confusion of lovers in the night, a particular turn of phrase - we use these as starting points to inspire highly kinetic and theatrical movement.
So we're not creating "Twelfth Night: The Ballet". Although come to think of it, I kind of want to do that too.
Thus far, Invertigo has been involved in ISC's productions of Twelfth Night, the Tempest, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. This year, we've chosen to create a prelude for Macbeth.
I've always been drawn to the Weird Sisters, who open the play and continue as a powerful,
influencing presence. I originally came up with the idea of a trio of women - strong, edgy, corporate women with a twisted sense of domesticity - a gender-bending Mad Men type vision. As I continued to develop the idea, I began to wonder . . . what are the husbands doing while their wives are out and about? What toil and trouble are they getting into? And so, Waiting at Home for the Witches came into being.
More than anything, this piece is an examination of the act of waiting. There are many ways
to wait.
Waiting can be about about missing someone, and that vulnerability which is often considered feminine.
Waiting can be a state of suspension in time combined with a fidgety, active state in space.
Waiting can be a quick pulse of adrenaline when you think you hear the keys in the door, and the drop in your belly when you realise there's no one there.
Waiting can mean freedom, because, well, she's not here and that pretty lady in the front row is. And it's awful nice to drink beer with the guys.
Waiting can be a tipping point, an angry edge between staying and going, a decision about when enough is enough and it's time to give up, to walk away. How long will you wait up? Because the kids are in bed, the dinner is cold, the beer buzz is wearing off and she's still not home.
But waiting is ultimately an act of hope. She'll be home soon.
She'll be home soon. . .