Aaron Landsman: Night Keeper

When

March 27 & March 28–April 8, 2023

Where

The Chocolate Factory Theater
38-33 24th Street
Long Island City, NY 11101

Admission

$20

Tickets

A Black woman in a double image, in an orange/brown dress, in a state of expressiveness.

Night Keeper process photo. Photographer: Maria Baranova-Suzuki. Performer: Jehan O. Young.

Aaron Landsman’s new performance is staged environmentally throughout The Chocolate Factory Theater’s stark industrial space, juxtaposing spoken text with choreography, live music and projections.

Night Keeper unfolds as a series of short scenes and passages on the ways in which individual memories and experiences are collectively bound together by the passage of time – even if our view of one another is obscured; even if we occupy space differently.

Performed in dim light and, at times, total darkness, Night Keeper is a collection of moments which accumulate and interweave: a parent talks to a child who cannot sleep; a figure in darkness ruminates on the similar luminosity of lightning bugs and cell phones; another comments on the comings and goings in her building at night. Movement, lit by cell phones, activates the space, mirroring the text about lightning bugs and phone glows. Throughout, acclaimed guitarist and composer Norman Westberg (Swans) plays a live score of loops and samples, by turns delicate and intense.

Written and Directed by Aaron Landsman. Performed by Jehan Young and David Guzman. Music by Norman Westberg. Choreography by Hilary Clark. Drawings by Jess Barbagallo. Visual Design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew and Jon DeGaetano. Assistant Director: Janine Cunningham.