Return

Andy wrote much of this piece, with the TGP ensemble contributing writing. Return is a homecoming story of returning to a farm after a life lived far away. The production is a shadowbox approach to theatre, staged entirely behind a transparent scrim and in front of a full stage projection surface, both of which hold imagery of shadow puppets, live video, found home videos, and projected text. Scenic design by Randy Ward, lighting design by John Ambrosone, shadow puppets by Stephen Kaplin, video imagery by C. Wiley Earnhart, and movement by Stephanie Skura.  Imagine looking a small window of a box holding a lifetime of constructed memories. Memories cast themselves forward and backward- fish and sky appear in the midst of a father’s glowing bed where he lays dying. . . are you fishing now?

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When you ice fish, you drill a hole, drop the line. . . and you wait . . . for hours. I put my ear on the ice and I listen for the fish. And sometimes I can feel them. …where they might be traveling… when the ice begins to crack in the spring – the cracking of the ice is very deep like the whole lake is resonating…

my father was impatient . . . after two hours he would announce “I am no longer fishing.” we were too far out on the lake for him to walk home alone. for hours, my brothers would say “pa, please tell us when you are fishing and when you are not fishing” . . .

” are you fishing now?”. . “pa, are you fishing now?”. . .

- Andy Belser Writing from RETURN