Photo: Julia Barstow
During the winter, Amy and I began working with eight dancers to develop scene ideas. Leslie started assembling costumes and set elements. A band of five musicians came together to work on musical ideas. A crew of carpenters fabricated four stages of various sizes and floated them on the water in time for the ensemble to bring the creative material to the site. From that time of experimenting and planning, the aspects we liked were brought into further development off site with a larger cast.
To support the creative work, extensive fundraising, media, infrastructure, and audience preparations were underway. Community volunteers hosted house parties to raise the necessary funds to pay the ensemble and took on aspects of the production work.