God’s Ear has become an entirely different beast than what I had originally anticipated walking into. Through these last few weeks I have begun to see what an astonishing work of art Jenny Schwartz has created. When I first read it, I had an inkling it would be a great production for Biophiliac’s bonafide Austin debut, but little did I know how serendipitous this union would turn out to be.
This piece provides a simple, powerful, and poignant foundation for a network of artists to build upon. It is easy to want to jump in and immediately start throwing around elaborate ideas and interpretations, but what Jenny has done is far more universal and hard-hitting when kept simple and felt from the gut. That has been the biggest challenge thus far, keeping things simple. Joe Sanchez (the musical director), Jeremy Hayes (one of the musicians), and I were discussing how difficult "simple" can be. You are forced to make strong, justified, clean decisions, and when given the artistic liberty provided by Miss Schwartz, it is even more important to keep going back to the words and just listen to what she has provided. She hits home where it hurts with God’s Ear, and reveals universal human truths surrounding one of the most difficult aspects of life; grief.
Grief is a catalyst.
I have caught myself frequently explaining this show as an experiment in portraying the universality of the human grieving process, focusing all of my mental energy on the steps of the grieving process, working towards molding some glimpse into the human psyche and how we cope with the grieving process...grieving process, there’s an echo do you hear it? (ah, you’ll get it when you see the show…) when suddenly last night I was hit with an exhilarating and unnerving burst of gratitude. I realized how terribly happy I was to be alive at that very moment, and to have the life that I live. If anything, I hope that this production can show that grief takes time, and dammit it’s hard, but it can be an opportunity to look around and say "thank you" to those you love and who love you, and be grateful for all the blessings and beauty that is living and thriving around us. Laughing also helps.
Don’t worry, this show will be diving down into the plenty dark places of our reactionary little species, so for you shadowy morbid types, there’s something in it for you too!
So tell your friends, come exorcise some demons with the Biophiliacs! (I mean that in the most non-literal sense…sort of)
All my love to you loopy doopy fun loving silly face weirdo austinite love buckets!
-amelia t.
