Distance Duet: a de-creation myth and dance opera
March 8, 2025 at the Los Angeles Central Library
Presented by LA Phil Insight
Distance Duet is a selection of Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs’s work-in-process operatic epic. Non-human narrators - stones, a river, wind, desert grasses, fire - operate in vastly different timescales while acting out a rock-paper-scissors-inspired circle of longing. Their stories unfold over eons, simultaneously, in cycles that repeat, permutate and evolve over the course of the performance. Stones recall their shifts and splits, water floods and recedes, the desert grasses evolve, the wind wants to touch everything.
Originally conceived at High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree, these “duets” are expansive interactions across space and time, not limited to a single moment, melody, nor confined to a single location. Every act is a duet, every action is interrelated, in spite of our perceived separation.
Composed/directed by Carolyn Pennypacker
Adapted movement by Ryan Heffington and Caroline Partamian
Additional Sound Design by Michael Hilger
Costumes by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Bonita Knight, Ryan Heffington, 69 us, Meals, 323
Performers: Janai Amey, Rachel Beetz, Jess Basta
Arlene Deradoorian, Lucia Joyce, Sharon Chohi Kim, OBSIDIENNE OBSURB, Taylor Plenn, Kathryn Shuman, Yiwen Tang, Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs, Community Chorus and High Desert Choir
