PSYCHIC SELF DEFENSE

Psychic Self Defense was presented at HERE Arts Center September 12-30 as a part of HERE’s HARP artist residency program. The show was called “The Most Imaginative Show in New York” by Theatermania.com and “Unlike anything I’ve experienced in the theater before” by Exeunt Magazine, the show played a sold out run and was nominated for 2023-204 Henry Hewes Design Awards in three categories— Costume Design, Scenic Design and Lighting Design.

More information available at psychic-self-defense.com

Psychic Self Defense is a show that invites audiences into the guts of the theater. Patrons enter the show through portals draped with fabrics and corridors dimly lit by chandeliers. Are they entering into a séance? After piercing many veils, the audience arrives at what is apparently a tiny, haunted proscenium theater. Anticipation mounts as a grand curtain opens with fanfare… and then another… and then a further curtain… and then the curtains keep opening and closing, revealing and concealing characters, objects and scenes in hypnotic patterns, transporting performers and audience to psychic realms. As this dance of curtains ascends to abstraction, creatures of knots and thread emerge from the shadows, protagonists are absorbed into set dressing and scenic ornaments run rampant. The theater digests and incorporates its prey.

PSYCHIC SELF DEFENSE was Commissioned, developed, and produced by HERE Artist Residency and Dream Music Puppetry Programs.

CREATED, WRITTEN, DESIGNED AND DIRECTED BY Normandy Sherwood

COMPOSITION AND SOUND DESIGN BY Craig Flanagin

SCENIC AND RIGGING DESIGN BY Daniel Allen Nelson

LIGHTING DESIGN BY Christina Tang

CURTAINS AND COSTUMES DESIGNED AND SEWN BY Normandy Sherwood

PERFORMED BY Daniel Allen Nelson, Kate Brehm, Nikki Calonge, Elyse Durand, Dorothy James (swing), Ean Sheehy, Adrienne Swan

MUSICIANS Criag Flanagin and Normandy Sherwood

CONCEPTUAL COLLABORATORS Daniel Allen Nelson, Nikki Calonge, Craig Flanagin, Ean Sheehy, Christina Tang

SOUND ENGINEERED BY Travis Wright

CREATIVE PRODUCED BY Kristin Marting

LINE PRODUCER Caitlin Adams