Falling Asleep, and other feelings I forget (2022)
A participatory reading and performance.
How many ways are there to rest? How can we remember together?
excerpt - When she reads him this story——the one with the rainstorm——the words are islands of solid ground. He hears back to the wind, and his legs climb up and then down the path of her voice toward blue.
He has always had a hard time slowing down at night, but this read-aloud helps. With diligence, she cracks open the door at seven-thirty, where he jitters with the day’s roil. He is twelve. Is that too old? She has been asking around, among friends——including the child psychologist, who should know the answer with some scientific authority.
Back to the wind, the boy walked home in the rainstorm.
The routine has to begin early. Otherwise, the day reels itself unspooled, and he loops through the unsolved mysteries of the train conductor——barrelling fast in one direction all day——and the woman at the department store wrapping boxes——and the car wash attendant buffing mud splashes——
And she has closed the book.
May 6,7 2022 at Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury, VT
Writing & Choreography by Maia Sauer
Sound by Noa Sauer
Lighting by Michael Abbatiello
Performed by Maia Sauer, Graham Shelor, Celeste Levy, Cheryl Engmann, Olivia Pintair, Daphné Halley, Cooper Kelley, Haegan O’Rourke, Aria Bowden
Photos by Peter Sergay