Mirror Me Mirrored You

Charlotte Street Foundation is excited to host Mirror Me Mirrored You, on Friday, July 19, 2019 at Capsule (located 1664 Broadway Blvd).

Mirror Me Mirrored You is an event featuring a duo of solo multimedia performances, The Understudy by Kansas City artist Julia Vering (Unicorns in the Snow), and For Retired Gymnast by Pittsburgh artist, Anna Azizzy. Vering will also screen a video featuring the green screen comedy videos she makes with the participants of Jeanne’s Place Dementia Activity Program, all of which have early stage dementia. Azizzy and Vering met each other when sharing a bill in Pittsburgh one year ago, and were struck by similarities in their approach to the use of video projections, personal narrative and the absurd.

Two performances will be held that day, with the first showing taking place 1:30 PM and will feature content that is specifically all ages friendly. Later that evening, the second showing starts at 8:30 PM and will feature more mature content not suitable for all ages. The show is free and open to to the public.

Julia Vering‘s (aka Unicorns in the Snow) understudy is an evolving experimental multimedia performance piece by  that follows a narrator on a tour of different spaces through magical rocks, interactive projections of animated plastic canvas, and immersive video of corn fields and abandoned industrial structures of Kansas City. The piece features collaborations with adults with early stage dementia as narrators, dancers, and actors via duo video projections on two screens.

Vering, who currently facilitates bi-monthly video-based drama therapy sessions for Jeanne’s Place dementia activity program, will engage these participants in creating The Understudy Part III through improvisation, choreography, cue cards with fill-in-the-blanks, and life review techniques. The meta story that is created through this process is hoped to be a celebration of strengths of the participants, stretching Vering technically and participants cognitively. Vering hopes to engage both the audience and collaborators in meaning-making and to inspire further collaborations with individuals with disabilities.

For their performance, Anna Azizzy will be sharing two scenes from For Retired Gymnast, an absurd and hilarious multi-media performance depicting a fictional gymnastics team, their coach, and moms. The characters’ experiences exaggerate their own as a former gymnast and queer person. Anna reimagines their team’s stories, giving them secrets and exposing their most shameful (queer and unusual) desires. Set against a backdrop of gymnastics physician Larry Nassar’s abuse trial, the piece reveals the sublime and grotesque layers – only visible in hindsight – of their world.