I am a Welder | CENTRE OUTSIDE THE CENTRE | BROWN UNIVERSITY

Conceptualised by Rhode Island-based designer and scenographer Sara Ossana, I Am a Welder is a short, immersive performance that centres the process of world-building inside the mechanism of the Pepper’s Ghost.
Accompanied by fellow scenographer, Nthabiseng Malaka, Ossana steps into an open space and begins to craft a future that’s yet to exist. The two of them slowly introduce their tools and materials, laying them on the floor and watching them appear in the realm above them. In the mirror, a room - another world - emerges, inhabited by Athena Mazarakis who sits silently and moves slowly, observing the process and the world being built around her, like a quiet critic.
Offstage, Bronwyn Lace reads a poem by Cherrie Moraga:
I am a welder.
Not an alchemist.
I am interested in the blend
of common elements to make
a common thing.
No magic here.
Only the heat of my desire to fuse
what I already know
exists. Is possible.
Here, process is performance, and we witness the act of taking a finite tool or material to its limits. It is a process of analogue and digital techniques, conveyed with a speculative and dreamlike design.
CONCEPTUALISER | Sara Ossana
PERFORMERS | Sara Ossana, Nthabiseng Malaka, Athena Mazarakis & Bronwyn Lace
TEXT | The Welder by Cherríe Moraga
FOUNDER OF THE CENTRE | William Kentridge
CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR | Bronwyn Lace
MOMENTEUR-THE SO ACADEMY | Athena Mazarakis
HOLDER & ASSOC. PRODUCER | Dimakatso Motholo
DIRECTOR CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDITOR | Noah Cohen
EDITOR & COMPOSITOR | Octavia Sonyane
SOUND DESIGNER & ENGINEER | Zain Vally
ASSISTANT SOUND ENGINEER | Jack Garrett
WRITER & COMMUNICATIONS | David Mann
PROP & COSTUME DESIGNER | Nthabiseng Malaka
COSTUME DESIGNER ASSISTANT | Iris Courchaine
PRODUCTION MANAGER | Brendon Boyd
STAGE MANAGER | Meghan Williams
LIGHTING TECHNICIANS | Audrey Visscher,
Fred Young, Gabriel Goldman, Chris Griffin &
Alexander Foley
ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE | Bukhosibakhe Khoza
PRODUCED BY | THE OFFICE performing arts + film
Rachel Chanoff, Laurie Cearley, Bruna d’Avila, Elly Obeney
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Brown Arts Institute at Brown University
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