Corning Works returns to City Theatre’s Lillie Theatre with a multidisciplinary dance theater work strategically created for an intimately sized theater—for intimately sized audiences of 50—up close and very personal, allowing audiences to feel part of the “conversation” rather than just “witnessing” it. 

With this newest production, what did you think you just heard me say?! choreographer Beth Corning addresses our ever-growing challenge of communication. Corning offered her perspective on the upcoming work:

“Are the words we hear just interpretations sifted through our personal sieves of experience, culture, gender, and language? Would that person really say something hurtful to you? Had they done so on purpose in the past? Is it possible to get beyond our immediate knee-jerk reactions and really listen to what is being said? Is that even possible?”

In a world that is continually becoming more saturated with communication methods—texts, IMs, zooms, chats, Instagram, and TikTok—we have stopped listening and hearing. 

Corning, known for her mature, nuanced, and socially aware approach to tackling provocative subject matter, promises not to disappoint. Employing theatrical visuals (imagine 7′ rolling mirrors and airborne text), with humor and poignancy, Corning and her seasoned group of collaborators and performers will cruise, crash, and glide through the psychological and emotional nooks and crannies of human (mis)communication. 

“Wait, that’s not what I said!” 

“Well… that’s what I heard!”  

Corning is joined by her collaborative design team (lighting designer Iain Court and set designer Stephanie Mayer Staley) and a stellar group of critically-acclaimed, seasoned, award-winning performers (Evan Fisk, dancer /actor known for his portrayal of Macbeth in PunchDrunk’s long-running Sleep No More, member of Brian Brooks Moving Company NYC & recent performer in CW’s production of “the fisherman, the butterfly eve & her lover”; Alberto del Saz, dancer & co-director of the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance, who has performed with major artists and is a renowned teacher; and Claire Porter, award-winning choreographer/performer/writer, acclaimed for her comedic text-movement solo dances). 

Corning has also invited a special guest choreographer, Victoria Marks (Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, Guggenheim and Rauschenberg Fellow, Fulbright Distinguished Scholar), who has been making dances for stage and films for 40+ years. Marks is lending one of her short signature quartets that Corning will weave into her full-evening work. Dancing to Music was created in 1988, a work Corning performed when, as Artistic Director, she brought it to the now-defunct Dance Alloy Theater.

On adding Mark’s work into her own, Corning says, “This particular quartet has always spoken to me – it incapsulates a form of human interaction/communication so succinctly, yet provokes varied individual interpretations. It’s a small gem, and captures an essence I felt would truly add to this full-evening work. Originally created for four women, and has always been performed as such by varied companies, Victoria is allowing me to “impose” a mix-gendered group of performers. This means a great deal to me on many levels. I am deeply grateful for her trust and belief in my work.” 

“I just want to get people thinking. I never pose any direct answers or solutions – I rarely have any myself, I too am searching. Mostly, I aim to creatively bring a particular issue to the table, to make the uncomfortable a bit more tangible, a bit more relatable, a bit more personal, and maybe make it not so easily pushed aside. I don’t want to tell people WHAT to think… I just want them TO think, to leave the theater, and want to talk about it. 

With her signature insights and dry humor, Corning bares our human pathos via lush movement and surprising theatrical inventions. 

TICKETS AND DETAILS

Corning Work’s what did you think you just heard me say?! has performances
March 15 – 24, 2024 at 8 pm and the 17th at 2 pm (Pay-what-you-cantickets ) and the 24th at 2pm at the Lillie Theatre in City Theatre’s complex on the South Side.
Sun 17 2pm. Tickets at, the box office, by calling (412)-31-CITY (2489) https://citytheatrecompany.org/rentals-and-residencies

Categories: Arts and Ideas, Show Previews

Tags: Alberto del Saz, Beth Corning, Claire Porter, Corning Works, Evan Fisk, Lillie Theatre, Victoria Marks, what did you think you just heard me say?!