Beyond Words: Laugh. Cry. Adapt. is a performance art piece under development; requiring proscenium stage, grand piano and projection screen.

Susy Serenade’s “Beautiful Earth” concert goes awry as the intrusion of Gabby Green: Internet Surfer and technical problems spotlight the imperiled earth as the focus of catharsis and hope in this Multimedia Performance Piece. A singer and accompanist perform live in front of projected material during their songs. Backstage interviews and dialogue are also projected on the screen.

Rhonda Schwartz-Garcia: Reporter                                                                                    Gabby Green: Internet Surfer

,                                                                                   Susy Serenade: Soprano

This performance piece is a playful acknowledgement of the grief process many are facing when confronted with an Internet onslaught of technical information and shocking news. If we don’t laugh and cry about changes in the Earth that could spell extinction for our species, then we aren’t dealing with it. Janice lives in South Florida, which is ground zero for climate change. She has had a front row seat in the regional real life drama of coming to terms with climate change and sea level rise. Communicating and processing the civilization-threatening consequences of climate change is beyond words, but is not beyond the arts.

Among the prototypes that have influenced this piece are: The many budding sopranos who I met in Texas and elsewhere during operatic training, Ruth Draper’s Italian Lesson Monologue, Augusto Boal’s Forum Theater, and Eugene Ionesco’s Theater of the Absurd play, “Rhinoceros”. The shows I created and performed for Young Audiences organizations for a decade required me to entertain an audience while communicating educational objectives, which is essential to this show.