We spent two weeks at Cornish College of the Arts in October with 12 Students from the college as well as 9 students from the inspiring organization Path With Art (an incredible Seattle organization providing art experiences for people transitioning out of homelessness) in the fifty foot by fifty foot rehearsal room of the Cornish Playhouse.
Working in the space from 9am to 3am hammering out choreographic details, testing architectural ideas, brainstorming, composing music as well as running workshops with the students, the time was extremely productive and equally exhausting. Residency time is magical. More work can get done in a residency week than in an average two months. Get in the zone and stay there! Our Path With Art Students blew our minds with their willingness to dive into unknown territory, studying the art of interrogation with us and the mining of truth. We are trying to find ways that interrogation can be used to discover important human truths. This group of people ranging in ages from 17 to 75 carry with them such a wealth of wisdom and experience, and their questions and stories and explorations were very moving. Eventually the Path With Art students became the interrogators in the performance to interview the audience. During the training process, the Cornish College students were their guinea pigs - and it is difficult to express how moving these conversations were. Between generations, between people with such vast life experiences, but with the common struggle to discover self, to find their voice and to find their place in a world that often has different plans for them.