Dance Listings > Performances & Events

Bessie winning Third Rail Projects premiere RETURN THE MOON, Aug. 11- Sept. 30

Company:
Third Rail Projects

Third Rail Projects presents
RETURN THE MOON
August 11 – September 30, 2021

Third Rail Projects (Then She Fell, Ghostlight, The Grand Paradise)
will present the World Premiere of RETURN THE MOON, conceived and
directed by Zach Morris and created by Alberto Denis, Kristin Dwyer,
Joshua Gonzales, Sean Hagerty, Justin Lynch, Zach Morris, Marissa
Nielsen-Pincus, Tara O’Con, and Edward Rice. Previews begin August 11,
live via Zoom. Opening is set for September 8.

RETURN THE MOON is a live performance created specifically for the
Zoom platform which invites audience members to collectively construct
a shared experience that is one part toast, one part ritual, and one
part retelling of a very old story of how the Moon was lost and found
again.  Matching decidedly analog tools of performance with the unique
opportunities that the Zoom platform affords, RETURN THE MOON combines
text, movement, cinematic visuals, and music. It also enfolds
offerings from audience members to create a rumination on remembrance
and recurrence, the interplay of shadow and light, and how a shared
experience might linger and reverberate over the passage of time. The
work also features an epistolary component; after the performance,
every audience member is mailed a package that contains content and
interactive artifacts from their shared event.

RETURN THE MOON runs one hour fifteen minutes for 60 audience members
per performance. During the show, audience members are invited, but
not obligated, to contribute guided input that shapes how the work
unfolds. This experience is designed with audience comfort in mind and
affords a range of opportunities where guests can choose if and when
they wish to contribute.

RETURN THE MOON is performed by Alberto Denis, Joshua Gonzales, Justin
Lynch, and Tara O’Con. The production features assistant direction by
Marissa Nielsen-Pincus; choreography by Marissa Nielsen-Pincus,
Alberto Denis, Joshua Gonzales, Justin Lynch, Zach Morris, and Tara
O’Con; sound design and original music by Sean Hagerty; visual design
by Zach Morris in collaboration with Alberto Denis, Kristin Dwyer,
Joshua Gonzales, Justin Lynch, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Tara O’Con, and
Edward Rice; stage management by Kristin Dwyer; and production
management by Kristin Dwyer, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus and Edward Rice.
It is produced by Zach Morris & Edward Rice.

From the onset of this project, director Zach Morris and collaborators
were interested in exploring how to center audience experience on a
digital platform. Morris reflected on some of the initial points of
inquiry that prompted this project, saying “I was curious how we might
create a ‘remote’ project that felt inviting and intuitive, communal,
and personal. I wondered what inspiration might be found in this now
ubiquitous platform that has become kind of an artifact and metaphor
for the dissonance of distanced connection. I was interested in what
it meant to craft a work specifically for this medium that would
acknowledge and engage with its strengths, its all-too-familiar
challenges, and also capitalize on the opportunities that it could
afford that would be otherwise impossible in a traditional theater
setting.”

The creators were also interested in the increased accessibility that
a Zoom-based experience might afford both the creative team and
audience members. By creating a work that exists in digital space,
this project afforded the opportunity for artists who were in
geographically disparate locations to work together and to
simultaneously reduce the overhead costs associated with mounting an
in-person production. Likewise, the digital/epistolary nature of this
project allows audience members from around the world to attend the
work while allowing the production to offer tickets at a much lower
price point than might otherwise be possible.

RETURN THE MOON runs August 11- September 30, performance dates vary.
Three ticket tiers are available: General admission at $42,
Pay-it-Forward at $67, Subsidized at $15. The Pay-it-Forward tickets
support Subsidized tickets. Preview tickets go on sale July 15th, 2021
and the full run goes on sale August 6th, 2021. For tickets and info
visit, www.thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon
_________________

About Third Rail Projects: Third Rail Projects has been hailed as one
of the foremost groups creating site-specific, immersive, and
experiential performance. The partnership is dedicated to the work of
Zach Morris, Tom Pearson, and Jennine Willett and their projects that
re-envision the ways in which audiences engage with contemporary
performance. They have made work in New York, nationally, and abroad
since 2000. Their long-running, award-winning immersive hit Then She
Fell, was named as one of the “Top Ten Shows of 2012” by Ben Brantley
of The New York Times and acclaimed as one of the best theater
experiences of 2013 by Vogue.

Fundamental to the director’s work is the notion of re-imagining
contexts for presenting contemporary performance, as exemplified by a
history of creating projects sought after by avid theater goers as
well as those seeking unique experiences. Collaboration is integral to
the work, in the creative process as well as in partnerships with each
new site, community, and cultural landscape. This manifests in
numerous points of inquiry and programmatic objectives that foster
artistic exchange and shared practice across unique communities.

In recent years, Third Rail has launched several major works, all of
which were met with massive critical and audience recognition: As Time
Goes By in St. Petersburg, Russia; Sweet & Lucky with the Denver
Center for the Performing Arts;Learning Curve with Albany Park Theater
Project in Chicago; Ghost Light with Lincoln Center Theater’s LTC3 at
the Clare Tow Theater; Behind The City with The Macallan; and The
Grand Paradise, which ran for 11 months and garnered rave reviews and
Critic’s Picks from The New York Times and Time Out New York, among
others.

The directors and their collaborators work nationally on new immersive
and site-specific projects, and internationally through the Global
Performance Studio (GPS), which combines the Third Rail’s creative and
educational offerings through a program of cultural listening and
exchange. The directors have been the recipients of several
prestigious awards, including: two New York Dance and Performance
(Bessie) Awards; a Chita Rivera Award for Choreography; a Drama Desk
Awards Nomination for Unique Theatrical Experience; several fellowship
awards including two CEC Artslink Back Apartment Residencies (Russia);
a Theater Fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy); an
IllumiNation Award from the Ford Foundation and National Museum of the
American Indian; and more. Third Rail Projects has also been
recognized as part of the creative team of the Emmy Award-winning
virtual reality adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Wolves in the Walls. In
2016, Zach, Tom, and Jennine were named among the 100 most influential
people in Brooklyn Culture by Brooklyn Magazine.