Saturday, April 28, 2012, 8:00 pm
Hunter Center

Member tickets are not available via the internet.

After a weeklong residency, writer, director, and actor Ain Gordon will present his new contemporary theatre piece as part of our series of work-in-progress showings. Gordon’s work, which The New York Times calls “smart” and characterized by “genuine emotion”, investigates the notion of place as it relates to forgotten histories.

Photographer and historian Forrest Holzapfel, contributes images of rural landscapes that becomes intrinsically connected to Gordon’s theatrical exploration of early New England life.

Gordon is well-known for his works that attempt to reveal histories of lost people and places. For this project, he enlisted Holzapfel’s help to research Vermont’s pre-industrial farming history by visiting historic sites and studying the landscapes of hamlets such as Guilford and Marlboro. Together, Gordon and Holzapfel expose traces of colonial history and imagine previous incarnations of both the land and the people who occupied it.

Not What Happened is a theatrical duet for two people who can never meet: a historical re-enactor in period costume and the figure from history she re-enacts. The audience members become tourists visiting a deteriorating historic site where they are led on a guided tour by the historical re-enactor.

Not What Happened is a project of the Pick Up Performance Co(s) supported by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Creative Exploration Fund at MAP and the New York State Council for the Arts and made possible with co-production support by Vermont Performance Lab in association with Marlboro College and the Center for Creative Research. Additional residency time was provided by the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis.

Forrest Holzpafel, Trace, 2011