Rita Mazza
The Voice
The ways we sound and the noises we make are often judged and regulated by society. Coming from the perspective of growing up with Italian sign language as their first language, choreographer Rita Mazza dissects the labels put on different uses of “The Voice” – including their own. In their new performance with the same title, Mazza explores the intimate relations between identity, sexuality, and vocal articulations, while investigating control, solidarity, and shame. Developed in an artistic process that took accessibility into account from the start, the piece is a powerful challenge to the predominant culture that considers hearing as the norm.
Access Infos:
CONTENT NOTES: Speech therapy for Deaf people, partial nudity
The performance isn’t fully Deaf friendly because the performer is producing sounds that are transmitted through a microphone. There will be written sound descriptions as subtitles (English & German) as well as a signed version of those in German Sign Language. The piece is about sounds, a topic that might address hearing people more than Deaf people. Sounds are described in written and signed form, but the additional layer that is accessible for the hearing audience won’t be perceived by the Deaf audience. The performer themself is Deaf, too. They explore human body sounds which everyone is able to produce. So while the piece isn’t fully Deaf friendly, the Deaf audience and the performer are on the same page.
SENSORY TRIGGERS
The show works with different light patterns, intensities and rhythms, without abrupt changes. The lighting choreography includes: darker and brighter scenes, intense colors, partial and total fadeouts, several soft projections onto fixed and moving objects, slowly pulsating lights and one reflective surface, pointing light directly at the audience.
The show is very quiet, no music or spoken language will be used throughout the performance. The audio landscape contains different elements, varying in intensity, pitch, quality and rhythm. These include: repetitive bubbling and breathing sounds, high pitch kissing sounds and one very loud abrupt funny sound. There will also be potential crackling sounds and a continuous background noise from the ventilation system.
In this show there’s the use of a smoke machine.
