Third Rail Projects presents RETURN THE MOON

August 11 – September 30, 2021

Third Rail Projects (Then She Fell, Ghostlight, The Grand Paradise)will present the World Premiere of RETURN THE MOON, conceived and directed by Zach Morris and created by Alberto Denis, Kristin Dwyer, Joshua Gonzales, Sean Hagerty, Justin Lynch, Zach Morris, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Tara O’Con, and Edward Rice. Previews begin August 11,live via Zoom. Opening is set for September 8.

RETURN THE MOON is a live performance created specifically for the Zoom platform which invites audience members to collectively construct a shared experience that is one part toast, one part ritual, and one part retelling of a very old story of how the Moon was lost and found again.  Matching decidedly analog tools of performance with the unique opportunities that the Zoom platform affords, RETURN THE MOON combines text, movement, cinematic visuals, and music. It also enfolds offerings from audience members to create a rumination on remembrance and recurrence, the interplay of shadow and light, and how a shared experience might linger and reverberate over the passage of time. The work also features an epistolary component; after the performance, every audience member is mailed a package that contains content and interactive artifacts from their shared event.

RETURN THE MOON runs one hour fifteen minutes for 60 audience members per performance. During the show, audience members are invited, but not obligated, to contribute guided input that shapes how the work unfolds. This experience is designed with audience comfort in mind and affords a range of opportunities where guests can choose if and when they wish to contribute.

RETURN THE MOON is performed by Alberto Denis, Joshua Gonzales, Justin Lynch, and Tara O’Con. The production features assistant direction by Marissa Nielsen-Pincus; choreography by Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Alberto Denis, Joshua Gonzales, Justin Lynch, Zach Morris, and Tara O’Con; sound design and original music by Sean Hagerty; visual design by Zach Morris in collaboration with Alberto Denis, Kristin Dwyer, Joshua Gonzales, Justin Lynch, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Tara O’Con, and Edward Rice; stage management by Kristin Dwyer; and production management by Kristin Dwyer, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus and Edward Rice. It is produced by Zach Morris & Edward Rice.

From the onset of this project, director Zach Morris and collaborators were interested in exploring how to center audience experience on a digital platform. Morris reflected on some of the initial points of inquiry that prompted this project, saying “I was curious how we might create a ‘remote’ project that felt inviting and intuitive, communal, and personal. I wondered what inspiration might be found in this now ubiquitous platform that has become kind of an artifact and metaphor for the dissonance of distanced connection. I was interested in what it meant to craft a work specifically for this medium that would acknowledge and engage with its strengths, its all-too-familiar challenges, and also capitalize on the opportunities that it could afford that would be otherwise impossible in a traditional theater setting.”

The creators were also interested in the increased accessibility that a Zoom-based experience might afford both the creative team and audience members. By creating a work that exists in digital space, this project afforded the opportunity for artists who were in geographically disparate locations to work together and to simultaneously reduce the overhead costs associated with mounting an in-person production. Likewise, the digital/epistolary nature of this project allows audience members from around the world to attend the work while allowing the production to offer tickets at a much lower price point than might otherwise be possible.