Our short three-show run of our devised theatre piece Decadal: The Descent from Glory closed on Saturday evening. Look at this fabulous photo:

What are we looking at here? First, look at the artwork in the middle. Ten rows of glass under varying degrees of stress. This work, in its entirety, is called Decadal by artist David Schnuckel. The man standing to the left of the artwork is the artist himself. Of course, I’m standing beside him. To the right of the artwork is the cast and crew of this crazy devised piece.

This was taken in the afterglow of the final performance. Yes, the artist was able to attend. I think it’s safe to say he was very pleased with the result, and he especially mentioned during our talkback with the audience that to have one piece of art translate into something different is truly something special. I had that happen to me about ten years back when one of my plays inspired an artist to create a work of art. That work of art eventually became the cover of one of my novels which was inspired by the original play. When artwork plants seeds and grows new artwork, what’s better than that?

We started on September 9 – knowing our show was going to be October 4-5. We had nothing but the piece of art and two songs from the band Proto-Kaw, which I got permission to use. From there, we used physical movement to create ideas which led to new ideas which led to the storyline. The 40 minute show didn’t have a lot of words, but we relied mainly on action, movement, and the physical and emotional expressions from the actors. Four of the five actors had never done anything like this before. The vast majority of the audience had never seen a play like this before, but the reviews were fantastic. Not from everyone. Not everyone is going to understand or appreciate a work of abstract theatre which could have many different interpretations. But some people were hooked, and came back for a second showing only to see things they didn’t see before.

What I’m most proud of is the growth of the actors. They acknowledged the difficulty of performing something like this. Every minute, every movement, every expression means something. One of the actors commented on the differences in being in a musical, for instance. You kind of just go through the motions. “Two hours and you’re done.” But for this experience, it demanded creativity and collaboration at every moment of the show or it would have fell apart. As one of the actors said, they had to give it their all or the audience wouldn’t have bought it. Indeed.

It was a wonderful weekend, and I do believe this will be the start of a devised series I’ll do each year. The value of it as a teaching and growing endeavor is truly excellent. If the audience enjoys it, well, that’s a tremendous bonus.

I’ll post the video of the final show when it’s available. But for now, I’ll leave you with a few photographs from the performance.