THE PLAY ABOUT THE BRIDGE
Performance, Script by Celine Song
15:00
2017
Set installation in the Works on Water 2017 Triennial. The public is invited to sit in the set and read the play
Members of the public read the play to one another.
Theatrical performance, Charlotte Arnoux, left, Allison Minick, right.
Allison Minick as Nan delivers the final lines of the play
Arnoux and Minick performing in Zucotti Park at lunchtime for neighorhood workers and tourist groups
Inspired by the research, development and pursuit of The Bridge, The Play About the Bridge (Walking on Water) was a collaborative project between artist Nancy Nowacek and playwright Celine Song.Written by Celine Song, the script portrays the struggle between the artist’s utopian vision and the pragmatics of governmental policy and regulation.
The one-act work portrays an office meeting between Nan and No—the artist and the bureaucrat—about the possibility and impossibility of walking on water. What begins as a conversation becomes a battle between ideology and reality.
The set design symbolized the The Bridge’s modular platform design, as well as nautical map of the New York City Harbor, and offered the public the opportunity to sit and read—or perform—the one-act play during daytime gallery hours. The work was performed by actresses Charlotte Arnoux and Allison Minik as a theatrical piece at night and during a daytime performance at Zuccotti Park as part of the Brookfield 2017 Summer series.
PROJECT CREDITS
Concept & Set Design: Nancy Nowacek
Written by: Celine Song
Performed by: Charlotte Arnoux & Allison Minik