Part of an ongoing body of work under the working title, “Song of the South,” exploring universal social issues related to abuse, addiction, poverty, racism, and other potentially traumatic themes from an East Tennessee perspective. These concepts served as a cohesive foundation for the physical pieces in the show.

There were three separate trios of performers. Each group rehearsed a general chart separately. On the night of the performance, we came together to play live for the first time.

This improvisational method was a way to present the idea of individuals from different walks of life coming together to hash out ideas, passions, and beliefs in a way that is sometimes confrontational, sometimes out of rhythm, sometimes out of sync. The hope within this being that by pushing on with great labor, the resultant material, although not necessarily a complete resolution, will present itself as something whole, acceptable and beautiful.

The visual elements were meant to emulate the Disneyfication of the disenfranchised and the duration of the humid, suffocating oppression of the South.