Burden

Written and Directed by Dan Shanahan and Melissa Meola | PART OF THE RESPONSE PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL (2016)

August 18-21
Silo City
20 Childs Street (now Silo City Way), Buffalo, NY
Performance slots will be scheduled between 6pm – 10pm

BURDEN is Torn Space’s fourth and newest performance installation for Silo City. The project is being designed for Marine A, a vast grain elevator with 120ft tall interconnecting concrete silos, as well as the SS Columbia – a National Historic Landmark – and the last surviving passenger ship of its kind. The project will draw upon the work of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, the fashion of chanteuse entertainers, the perceived luxury of Ralph Lauren, and reflections on sympathy and burden. The production will transform Marine A into an immersive experience of light, sound and cinema, while the SS Columbia* will provide a stunning opportunity to experience not only a historic vessel with its original ballroom but also the surrounding waterways. Audience members will experience an intimate and controlled tour highlighting Marine A, the surrounding landscape, and the first and second floors of the ship.

Critical Response to Torn Space Theater’s site-specific work:

“Storehouse… is an explosion of what “theater” means. More than perhaps any other production in the company’s storied history of pushing boundaries and defying definitions, it forces viewers to rethink and expand their own ideas of what theater or performance can be.” 
– Colin Dabkowski, The Buffalo News

“Conceived on a scale most theatre companies can only dream of.”  
– Jacob Gallagher-Ross, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art