Sarah Lockwood (Threshold)
we are carried. in bellies. in arms in love. in hope in caskets. in urns in grief. in memories. our whole lives. and into the next. we are carried. -Sara Rian
The opening scene of our immersive theatre experience ‘Rain: for babies and their carers’, begins well before people enter the performance space. In the foyer, the performers move from family to family, meeting the babies and families who are with them – sharing and learning names. This unassuming beginning is an invitation for authentic connection – a trust which grows over the 50 minute experience.
I was part of the team who created ‘Rain’ twelve years ago when my son was just eight months old. It grew from conversations around the need for spaces that can nourish and hold new parents. Parenting philosopher Robin Grille speaks of the calm that engulfs parent and child “when they are embedded in a larger parenting net.” We set out to create that net of connection.
Rain is a multi-sensory experience for pre-walking babies and their adults. Audiences are invited to slow down, notice and wonder. As Rain has toured the world in the subsequent years, we have noticed a calm that emerges during performances.
This calm is in part due to the quality of the invitation which is extended to participants from the moment they arrive. As humans, we need to feel safe and welcome to allow our vulnerability to emerge in public space. Our team does this by welcoming families at the door, learning names, acknowledging the distance they’ve travelled, finding space for their belongings, reassuring that toileting/feeding needs will be met. Babies and adults need to feel that this is their space so they can be open to the new experience. As a team we often reflect that this series of invitations is the biggest task of our work.
While touring Rain, our company Threshold became interested in finding a way of expanding that invitation – beyond those who had the privilege of living close to, or could afford the ticket price, for theatre. We wanted more people to experience these moments of intimacy and connection with their babies, wherever they were.
Ten years after we created Rain, we collaborated with the same team of artists to create a digital companion. The artists considered two aspects that have become the pillars of Threshold’s work: creative responses were to be embodied and to be connective. We wanted the work to leave space for families to tune in with each other and to act as a companion for their day. The result is GLOW, a digital series of audio and video moments. One plays while you are bathing your child, another invites you into a family dance party. Every moment is voiced by a different performer with original composition by Zoë Barry.
For this digital version it is the website, the emails, the text messages and the soundscape that gently invites and acknowledges the audience’s arrival. The first page reads:
Welcome.
We’re so glad you are here.
We know how challenging it can be to find a moment to pause with a small baby, and GLOW has been created especially for you and your little one. An invitation to slow down, notice and wonder.
As theatre makers we’re accustomed to shaping every element of the production, and as performers we are used to ‘holding the space’ – but in this instance we’re collaborating with families in a different way. We are providing invitations that allow audiences to bring their own creativity and imagination to their interactions.
We’re also used to the immediacy of audience responses, but the form of this work amplifies and celebrates intimate family dynamics. As theatre-makers we have to trust that our framework, which starts with a simple but potent invitation, can hold them safely, and create moments of magic that we will never see.
It is our hope that these small, magical moments of togetherness can strengthen relationships and shift the rhythm in households. This time in history teaches us that we need each other for survival and flourishing. Theatre-makers are well placed to create the environments that honour and connect people and leave space for transformation.
Sarah Lockwood, Co-Director of Threshold with Tahli Corin, creates experiences that invite people to connect more deeply with each other. Their work includes ‘Mountain Goat Mountain’, ‘Glow’, and ‘Rain’. RAIN and GLOW were created together with Nikita Hederics, Liz Francis, Zoë Barry, Carolyn Ramsey, Edwina Cordingley, Alicia Stafford and Mardi Thorpe. www.thethreshold.com.au
