Repertory

RECLUSE (2005)

Recluse, created on commission by a Ragdale Foundation board member, developed out of a two-week artist residency at Ragdale that Carrie Hanson and Doug Stapleton took in February 2005. Ragdale, an artists' community, provides a quiet haven for artists to immerse themselves in their work.

Inspired by their mission, Recluse was an inquiry into that psychic space of seclusion where inspiration and obsession intermix. Sources for movement and text were drawn from the work and lives of Henry David Thoreau, Pontormo, and other artists and writers who contemplated the inspiration of solitude.

Doug Stapleton wrote additional text for the performance based on his journal writings during the Ragdale residency and Virginia Woolf and Doris Grumbach's writings on solitude. Recluse premiered at the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse Theater in Chicago and was remounted on the grounds of Ragdale in Lake Forest.

For the Ragdale performance, Recluse was staged around the property and the audience moved through the lush gardens and lawns surrounding the house. Art Institute of Chicago's Curator of European paintings, Larry Feinberg, presented pre-show talks about the 15th C. Italian artist Pontormo, whose work was the inspiration for one of the dance sections.

Credits

• Choreography and direction by Carrie Hanson
• Costume by Lara Miller and Carrie Hanson
• Text by Doug Stapleton
• Set Design by Doug Stapleton and Kevin Newhall
• Performed by Melissa Bartz, Charlie Cutler, Christina Gonzalez-Gillett, Jen Grisham, Carrie Hanson, Susan Hoffman, Banu Ogan, and Doug Stapleton

Music (in order of program):

• Rothko Chapel by Morton Feldman
• Allegro and Canons ' Choruses by Lou Harrison
• Continuum fur Cembalo by Ligeti
• Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet by Ligeti
• Quasi una Fantasia by Gorecki