INTERVIEW: Crossing borders is focus of new show ‘Peregrinations’
Photo: From left, Duane Cooper, Angela Parra and Julia Cavagna are part of the Devising Ensemble of Peregrinations, now playing at The Tank. Photo courtesy of the artists / Provided by Print Shop PR with permission.
As the official website for the new play Peregrinations explains, the title of the piece is based on a word that means a long journey or period of wandering. That definition perfectly describes this dynamic, collaborative work, which is continues at New York City’s The Tank through Sunday, Jan. 26. The co-production between Dutch Kills Theater and Long Story Short is centered on people and borders, drawing its inspiration from interviews with displaced individuals and their personal stories, according to press notes.
The play, which has no words but features original music and original masks, is particularly powerful during this week of the second inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. Almost every headline in the news is focused on changes to immigration policies and the families who will be impacted by the new administration.
Peregrinations was created by a group of performers known as a Devising Ensemble. Among their ranks were Julia Cavagna, Angela Parra and Duane Cooper, among others.
“Around the summer of 2023, our beloved Megan Campisi came up with the idea of doing a play about refugees and migrants,” Cavagna said in a recent phone interview with her fellow cast mates.
They performed an early version of Peregrinations during that summer, and then it was further developed for another run in summer 2024. This past fall, the Devising Ensemble, with Blake Habermann billed as the outside eye director, selected the final elements for the play that would run at The Tank. The music was written, the masks were created and the performers were ready for an audience.
“I am the last person that came into this project, and that’s something that really amused me,” Parra said. “Because even though there were people that had been working on this project for all these years … all of us were involved in the creation of the pieces by doing exercises of exploration that Blake was always leading us toward. He was always asking for us what ideas we could bring to [the play, and] what do we want to say with the piece, so from my point of view, I always felt heard. And I really loved the way that we all had an opinion. There was no specific way, but it was always organized somehow. I never felt lost.”
Cooper, another member of the team, agreed with Parra’s sentiments. “I felt the room was very democratic,” Cooper said. “Every idea was at least given a chance, so even if it didn’t work, I think everyone was allowed … to say how they feel and say what they think could work for a piece or for a particular scene. So, yeah, it was a really fun room to be in. I felt like it belongs to all of us.”
Peregrinations is a wordless play that still has a lot to say, and the devisers of the piece fully understand that what they are performing at The Tank offers a commentary on the real world. In fact, Cooper said that’s all the play can do: offer commentary on these issues and debates.
“I don’t think there are any solutions to any problems in the piece itself,” Cooper said. “We just want to hopefully raise awareness, hopefully deepen people’s understanding and empathy toward the subject versus saying, ‘This is bad, and here’s what you can do to make it better.’ We’re definitely aware, especially with next week coming around [with the inauguration], that this topic is immediate. There’s urgency, and it’s on people’s minds.”
The masks that are used throughout the play are quite unique and add another theatrical layer to the proceedings. Cooper remembers thinking how the masks help with the individual performances.
“My discovery through the process is I remember as a young actor thinking what do I do with my hands,” Cooper said. “When I put the mask on, it allows me to use my hands in a way that is less self-conscious than if people were seeing my face. It kind of allows me to hide, and then my hands and my head become the exclamation point. So I actually need them to relay what I’m trying to say versus being worried about them moving too much.”
Cavagna concurred, adding that the masks help connect the performer with the shifting and liminal identities that are being constructed on stage.
“It’s a very complicated subject,” Cavagna said about the journey that migrants take around the world. “So what happens to anyone when they open the door of the house and they leave to the unknown, when they need to explain several times who they are and why they need to go to another place. They are about to leave a homeland and try to build a home in another place where you are different because of language and cultural expression, so I think the masks signifies these in-between places.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Peregrinations, co-produced by Dutch Kills Theater and Long Story Short, continues through Sunday, Jan. 26, at The Tank in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
