TURNERS FALLS — For the sixth iteration of Cloudbelly Productions’ immersive theater experience, “A Happening VI: SALVAGE” explores the universal human experience of grief and the resilience of the human spirit after loss, according to co-producer and creative director K Adler.
Other changes to this year’s installation of “A Happening” at the Shea Theater Arts Center include a tonal shift to honor the loss of a cast member, while still blending the “raucous” and “joyful experiences” the performances aim to bring.
“This year [is] ‘Salvage,’ and part of that is reckoning with a community that has experienced loss and how we move through that,” Adler explained.
Theme and new show options
In this year’s production, attendees will be dropped into Restoretown, described as a “community shaped by loss, and move through memories that lead to joyful celebration.” The show takes inspiration from William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” as well as from “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.”
Adler explained that the interest in “The Tempest” came from what a storm does and the resiliency that comes from such a catastrophe. They said there’s “quite a bit of fun magic” in the story that lends itself to “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask,” for how this version of the video game deals with time, along with “dualities and masks” of what people show about themselves to others and what they keep to themselves.
The show plays into the characters of Restoretown, a dream town conceptualized by Hypnos, the god of dreams, where the characters are shipwrecked and find themselves coping with the past while looking to the future with a new community and purpose.
“We were really working with material that is working with time, with dreams, and with the sense of rebuilding, or salvaging, from wreckage into something valuable,” Adler explained.
The production will begin on Friday, Oct. 30, and run through Saturday, Oct. 31. The show is broken into two performances each day, with the first starting at 6:30 p.m. and the second show at 9 p.m. Adler says having two 90-minute performances each night gives some “breathing room” for audience members, rather than a full three-hour show all at once.
Additionally, Adler says there will be some pulling back by the characters of the show, who in years past make an effort to engage with audiences throughout the performance, though this year, these interactions will be fewer.
For the space itself, this year’s show includes a massive tree in the main theater that will be part of the production, when all the characters come in for a “closing ritual.” This includes cast members and some of the tiered ticket holders, the “Devotees,” who learned the ritual dance as part of their experience.
One part of the show Adler says they’re particularly excited about is the “Dream Track,” which features the green room, not typically used during these shows, but serving a special purpose this time.
“We’re using the whites in the room, and accentuating them, and turning that space into an Arctic, and that type of expanse I think will be such a different experience for folks who even have been to the Shea before, have been to ‘A Happening’ before,” Adler said.
The show has a tiered system for advance tickets that give a limited pool of guests early entry for exclusive experiences in the “Devotees” and “Alchemist” tiers, with prices between $40 and $50. General entry for both shows on each day is under the “Visitor” tier, with an advance ticket price of $25 and early access to the bar. Day-of tickets are a suggested cost of $30, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Finding a reprieve from grief
Adler noted the show’s themes of loss and grief stem from the production crew of 64 still mourning the death of Natalie Graves. Graves was an Eastampton-based dancer and trustee of the Northampton Community Arts Trust who was part of multiple performances of “A Happening” as a dancer, participating alongside their spouse, Taylor Graves, who helped with sound design.
Natalie Graves and her aunt, Linda Dewey, were both killed in March while hiking together in Torrey, Utah. A third woman, Margaret Oldroyd, was also killed in her home by the same Iowa man accused of murdering Graves and Dewey.
Taylor and Natalie Graves lived together in Eastampton for five years, moving out of Boston after living in a few different cities, and after graduating from the University of Utah, where they earned masters degrees.
The couple was married for 13 years, meeting as first-year students at the university while working together in a theater production where they “fell for each other” shortly after, said Taylor. Adler studied at the University of Utah at the same time as Taylor and Natalie, reconnecting in western Massachusetts and becoming close friends.
In coming to western Massachusetts, Taylor Graves said that Natalie was deeply invested in the local arts scene, that they would “throw everything they had” at the projects they were involved in, while also “loving so deeply” the people and spaces they’d be part of.
“They were always finding opportunities to hang out with friends and community members to be there and be part of as much as they could,” Taylor Graves said, “and there’s a deep beauty in just giving everything you could to a space you were in.”
At the time of Natalie Graves’ death, the planning for this year’s performance of “A Happening” was underway, both Adler and Taylor Graves explained, but after working through the loss of Natalie, there was time spent thinking about what the show can be to “bring her spirit into the story with us,” Taylor explained.
Taylor Graves said they’ll be working on the production end of the show, but also taking on a performing role. Although they said it’s been hard to be at the theater that meant so much to themself and Natalie over the last five years, it’s been an “outlet” for their grief while being surrounded by the creativity and community that meant so much to Natalie.
“Grief is a universal language that we can all speak, and being able to bring that out and bring that on full display has been cathartic in many ways,” Graves said.
For Adler, something they hope people come away with from their experience inside the Resterworld is a reprieve from grief, loss, or the feeling of “deflation” they see as impacting Franklin County and beyond.
“I would love everyone just to feel… closeness to each other, a little sense of reprieve from the weight of grief, and being able to step into that transformational space of hope and of progress,” Adler said. “If we can transform our grief through art, maybe that inspires someone else to make something as well.”
Tickets and information for “A Happening VI: SALVAGE” are available on the Shea Theater Arts Center website at https://sheatheater.org/.
