Immersive ‘A Happening IV: Leviathan’ arts festival coming to Shea Theater
Published: 10-23-2024 3:55 PM |
TURNERS FALLS — For the fourth installment of Cloudgaze Productions and Eggtooth Productions’ “A Happening” series, people are invited to explore a world bigger than themselves during the immersive “A Happening IV: Leviathan” arts festival.
The Shea Theater Arts Center will be transformed into the belly of a whale as more than 30 performance artists bring attendees through an immersive set based on nautical history and mythology. The set will incorporate music, art pieces and performances.
K Adler, co-founder of Cloudgaze Productions and director of this year’s festival, said people can expect to see characters like Father Mapple from “Moby-Dick,” Davy Jones and a host of other characters tied to nautical lore.
Each character has a story that weaves into the wider narrative of “A Happening IV: Leviathan,” although guests won’t be able to get the entire story, which Adler said is done on purpose.
“There are over 30 artists involved, and there’s about 20 to 30 characters [who] you could follow each of their individual journeys and have a different part of the puzzle,” Adler said. “So we’ve built it in a way that you are specifically unable to get the full story.”
Between the number of characters involved in the different theater settings, the stories that these characters each take on, and the immersive set and props used, audience members are encouraged to approach the festival how they’d like. Following a character or sitting passively in parts of the theater to watch the stories unfold are audience options for interacting.
People are encouraged to attend both days of the festival to try to be as involved as they’d like in the stories and to get the most comprehensive understanding of the themes.
The idea behind “A Happening IV: Leviathan” is multi-faceted. One side is the real environment of the Shea Theater that artists, sculptors and production teams have spent months molding to mimic the inside of a whale. The other side is the metaphor for a leviathan — finding meaning within an emotion or situation that feels bigger and all-encompassing outside of oneself. Adler explained that this side of the event can mean different things for different people.
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“The Leviathan theme, it has a lot to do with the fun mythology and romanticization of the high seas and pirates,” Adler said. “It also deals with grief. It deals with a reckoning of loss and things that are beyond our control, that are bigger than us, as well as our own human impact on these environments and how we’ve come to this dependency on resources that we’ve been abusing.”
Performance artists, musicians, sculptors and other types of artists are represented across the festival’s two days. Six months went into creating set pieces, costumes and props, which Adler said was done as a “labor of love.”
Themes of grief, loss, environmental degradation and feeling out of control contribute to the broader aspect of the festival, and the term “leviathan” — a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology — was chosen for this year’s festival to further evoke these large feelings. However, the term was also chosen to mark the size and scope of this year’s event as it is the largest festival Cloudgaze Productions and Eggtooth Productions have put on to date, according to Adler.
“[Leviathan is] also just a way to explain how large this endeavor is, with over 30 artists involved from the valley, and the times that we’re living in feel big, feel heavy, and how do we come to that with humility and acknowledging these big moments,” Adler explained. “The hope is people can come away with an experience that can be a conversation starter not only about the festival, but the themes within the festival.”
To make this festival accessible to the public, Adler said there is a pay-what-you-can ticketing system. The Shea Theater website states admission prices for each night include a full contribution of $25, a moderate contribution of $15 and reduced contribution of $10. However, people will not be turned away if they cannot pay — an element Adler said is important so people can view theater arts without barriers.
“A Happening IV: Leviathan” will start at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 25, and Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Shea Theater at 71 Avenue A. On Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., free admission to the theater to see the sets without characters and performances will be allowed, and a 3 to 3:30 p.m. performance by the band The Leafies You Gave Me will be free, too. Doors for the ticketed festival open at 6:45 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Co-directors with Cloudgaze Productions include Sam Perry, Joshua Ruder and Ashley Kramer, and an ensemble from Eggtooth Productions is assisting. For more information, visit sheatheater.org.
Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.