St. Ann’s Warehouse will reopen its doors this spring with a pair of concerts from The Bengsons, performing their new work-in-progress The Broken Ear Setlist: Songs from Ohio. Performances are set for April 15 and 16 with indoor and virtual audiences.
Over the past few weeks, the folk-rock/theatre-making duo and a team of collaborators have been experimenting at the Brooklyn venue on the development of their new work. Now, they invite the public to participate in a hybrid “congregation.”
“In our new work, the idea is that loss is the mechanism by which God comes close,” says Abigail Bengson. “We’re interested in this great loss that we’ve all been moving through that has many names and is communal, but is also specific and particular to each person. We’re interested in seeing if we can look at that loss as an opportunity to see the divinity in one another.”
The Broken Ear Setlist: Songs from Ohio features performances by artists including Barrie Lobo McLain, Vuyo Sotashe, and Allan K. Washington. Anne Kauffman and Caitlin Sullivan direct. Sonya Tayeh, currently Tony-nominated for Moulin Rouge!, serves as movement director,
Relaunching live, in-person performance with concerts by The Bengsons, St. Ann’s joins New York’s flexible cultural spaces like The Park Avenue Armory, BRIC, Harlem Stage, National Black Theater, and The Shed in reopening. Audiences will be limited to 50 people, socially-distanced, in-person, with more attending virtually on Zoom. In-person audience members will be health-screened, temperature-checked, and registered for tracking and tracing prior to entry. The Warehouse has also incorporated MERV13 filters into its ventilation system.Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Ann’s created the Urban Canvas public art platform on their facade, presented a series of pop-up concerts, and streamed a number of international works.
The concert's creative team also includes assistant director Keenan Tyler Oliphant, lighting designer Alejandro Fajardo, projection designer Jeff Sugg, scenic and costume designer DOTS, associate projection designer Simon Harding, producer Wendy vanden Heuvel, and executive producers Kendra Bator and Tom Casserly. The stage managers are Amanda Spooner and Christopher Kee Anaya-Gorman.
