ABOUT THE EVENT

How can we balance our need for community with our desire for autonomy? In I Resist This, performers interface with squishy, body-like soft sculptures to explore the inherent tension between independence and interdependence. Invoking the movement language of children's games through weightsharing and improvisation, I Resist This activates this human dilemma in a striking and colorful performance.

Charlotte Richardson-Deppe (she/her) is a queer feminist artist working between performance and soft sculpture. She received her M.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Maryland, where she currently teaches drawing, sculpture and photography as a lecturer in the Department of Art.

CAST

• Director — Charlotte Richardson-Deppe
• Assistant choreographer — Peter Pattengill
• Sound designer — Leo Grierson
• Original piano composition — Tony Cui
• Performers — Christina Collins, Charlene (Char) Cowan, Daniel Miramontes, Peter Pattengill, Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, Morgan Smiley

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

Children’s games are structured attempts at connection: the essence of learning how to be in community with one another. I’ve often had children’s games as my inspiration as I make and perform my works, but in the rehearsal process for this piece, the movement language of children’s games became even more thematically prominent. We were inspired by many games including hopscotch, jump rope, human knot, hand-clap games, tag, red rover, and that one day in gym class when the teacher would get out a huge multi-colored parachute and you would all lift it up together.

Many of my works are playful and a bit ridiculous—socks for two people or sculptures with squishy brightly-colored limbs flopping all over the place. It’s silly, but silly things are often profound: children’s games are playful, but they are no joke. Who gets included in hopscotch, and who is standing on the sidelines? Who feels comfortable playing dress-up and who is afraid to try on a princess dress? How can we make a world where we can all play together, a world where we are all held in safety and care?

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ABOUT NEXTNOW FEST

Started in 2014, Clarice Presents’ annual NextNOW Fest is an inspiring arts experience that celebrates imagination, creativity and community. In addition to the core festival nights at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, we’re thrilled to continue partnerships with student-led groups, academic departments and university-based arts venues to hold festival events throughout campus.

NextNOW Fest is a signature event in University of Maryland's Arts for All initiative, which leverages the combined power of the arts, technology and social justice to address the grand challenges of our time.

FUNDING

NextNOW Fest is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. Additional support is provided by Terps After Dark and the University of Maryland's Arts for All initiative. NextNOW Fest's Silent Disc-Glo event is supported by UMD's Student Entertainment Events; and the Vital Signs Mini-Grants Showcase is supported by the Venable Foundation and Pepsi.