memory retrograde
The discovery of a pocket watch in a timeworn attic catapults a pair of old lovers through an epic expanse of generations and landscapes—the Venetian Renaissance, an Egyptian burial, a 1970s doctor’s office, and a virtual reality forest in the near future. In this dioramic triptych of realism, post-modern historic farce, and media performance, harunalee confronts the ways memory and trauma are racialized and gendered across time. Memory Retrograde negotiates the inextricable relationship between personal and cultural memory, and transforms the English language into an emotional territory, where heightened experience is synonymous with the irrationality of words and language.
Memory Retrograde is a trip inside one person’s intimate memory palace, where travel takes place on neurological impulses, and scenes arrive and dissolve as quickly as the fleeting thoughts in our brain; they have the distinct weight of life altering memories falling like sediment to the floor of our subconscious.
production history
Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist in Residence (New York) 2015 - 2017
Food For Thought, Danspace (New York) April 3, 2014
Little Theater, Dixon Place (New York) December 9, 2013
This work was created, in part, through the Artist in Residence Program at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Jerome Robbins Foundation and the Jerome Foundation.
Memory Retrograde One Sheet
genealogy
Originally conceived of by Andrew R. Butler and Haruna Lee in 2014.
Jessica Almasy as lead collaborator in 2015.
Ars Nova + UTR Dec 2017 - Jan 2018:
written by Haruna Lee
directed by Andrew J. Scoville
assistant directed by Charlie Murray
stage managed by Jhanaë Bonnick
assistant stage managed by Haylee Cartee
produced by Lauren Swan-Potras
set by You-Shin Chen
costumes by Karen Boyer
lighting by Sarah Lurie
media/video projections by Stivo Arnoczy
sound by Jen Goma
photography by Sasha Arutyunova
with: Jessica Almasy, Andrew R. Butler, Ben Holbrook, Bob Jaffe, Haruna Lee, Giovanni Naarendorp, and Dawn Akemi Saito
BAX April 2017:
written by Haruna Lee
directed by Haruna Lee
assistant directed by Lauren Swan-Potras
assistant directed by Lyndsey Bourne and Hayley Cartee
produced by harunalee
sets by Greg Laffey
costumes by Karen Boyer
lighting by Sarah Lurie and Emma Rivera
media/video projections by Stivo Arnoczy
sound by Jen Goma
photography by Sasha Arutyunova
with: Jessica Almasy, Andrew R. Butler, Keith McDermott, Madeline McCray, Joshua William Gelb, Shiree Adkins, and Imran Sheikh.
BAX April 2016:
written by Haruna Lee
directed by Andrew J. Scoville
assistant directed by Charlie Murray
assisted by Nikki Vega
produced by harunalee
set consultation by Greg Laffey
costumes by Karen Boyer
lighting by Sarah Lurie
sound by Haruna Lee
photography by Sasha Arutyunova
with: Jessica Almasy, Andrew R. Butler, Eliza Bent, Mike Mikos, Joshua William Gelb, and Anthony Michael Lopez.
Other Artists Who Collaborated Through 2014-2017:
William Burke
Ugo Chukwu
Jerry Goralnick
Stephanie Hsu
Cyndi Perczek
Corinne Donly
Matt Carr