Grief wrote me a letter
ABOUT THIS PIECE
“Grief Wrote Me a Letter” was the live performance portion of the PANELS Film Premiere Event.
11 intertwined solos, co-created between myself (Tracey) and each movement artist, where they expressed personal perspectives on what grief is.
This stage work was inspired by a writing exercise done in PANELS film rehearsals, where we stepped into our grief, and wrote letters to ourselves. Each person’s grief exhibited divergent personalities with yet universal qualities. The adjectives that described their grief personalities were often the starting point for each solo, with the piece’s structure influenced by support group gatherings.
CREW
Choreography - Tracey + The Dancers
Lighting & Sound - Garen Checkley
Marley Heroes - Ben Crabtree, Jamie Aquino, Tiffany Lew, AJ Aquino
Eric Mann - Videographer
The dancers
In Order of Appearance:
Leila Massoudi (she/her)
Grief Personality: Calculated, Consistent
Song: Esse Olhar Que Era Só Teu by Dead Combo
Kat Brault (they/them)
Grief Personality: Caring, Gentle & Unpredictable, like the smoke of an extinguished candle
Song: Magical Mountains by Chassol
Chisa Kobayashi (she/her)
Grief Personality: Once obscure & intangible, grief is now a partner, a layer of clothes woken up in every day
Song: Chisa Theme by Juhuhn Kim (an original composition created for this show)
Zoë-Elise Quon (she/her)
Grief Personality Apologetic, Clingy
Song: Judah’s Lullaby by REPULSIVE
Trask Reinhart (he/him)
Grief Personality: Patient, Cocky
Song: Lake Without Water by Lex Rukinov
Abigail Hinson (she/her)
Grief Personality: Once unforgiving, overwhelming, and intense, but no longer
Song: Break It to Me Gently by Brenda Lee
Anna Gichan (she/her)
Grief Personality: “Today I have to screw on the expression of a person / though I am at most an animal / and the animal I am spirals” - Excerpt from Deaf Republic: Poems by Ilya Kaminsky
Song: The Alien by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow
Alex Foy (she/her)
Grief Personality: Once coy and taunting, now embodied and aligned
Song: Birds, Pt. 1 by Chassol
Raychel Hatch (she/her)
Grief Personality: Sturdy, sneaky (and we went nostalgic and future-facing with her solo)
Song: Vienna by Billy Joel
Tajh Stallworth (they/them)
Grief Personality: Bittersweet, Jovial
Song: I Think of You by Rodriguez
Sarah Emmons (she/her)
Grief Personality: Opposing forces bending and cracking, a shroud on the soul: some days light like chiffon and others heavy like velvet, a small bruise on the heart
Song: Theme from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Jon Brion
