ELKHANAH PULITZER: David has really distilled the story
tremendously down to a really compressed and vital,
essential form.
THE ASSISTANT: (SINGING) I was a woman once.
It was so long ago.
ELKHANAH PULITZER: And so in order
to celebrate and honor that, we really wanted to make sure
that we were approaching the design in a way that
supported that intention.
THE ASSISTANT: (SINGING) I barely remember it,
but I remember it.
ELKHANAH PULITZER: So we really went with things
that were psychological and iconic about the prison system
and what you imagine in your mind's eye
when you are thinking about prisons.
THE ASSISTANT: (SINGING) I was a woman once.
Objects and images related to prisons
have an iconography associated with them
and emotion connected to them.
So we were interested in looking at what those elements do
in a more symbolic installation kind of space
instead of in something that would be
more of a traditional theater.
THE JAILER: (SINGING) In this world,
without gold, you can't live.
You can't be happy.
ELKHANAH PULITZER: The fact that the orchestra is onstage,
and that the orchestra is cast into the piece,
and that the piece is being done in Geffen Hall,
there is an innate vacillation between different forms
that are occurring within the structure of the piece itself
and how it's being presented.
THE JAILER: (SINGING) Power and love.
ELKHANAH PULITZER: And so the desire
to do an installation was really in response
to the original question of, what
does it mean to have an orchestra cast
and be present and be visible onstage?
THE JAILER: (SINGING) The power and the love.
ELKHANAH PULITZER: In thinking about what
it might be like to be in a prison system
and to spend the rest of one's life there
or to miss the life and speed of things that go on outside,
be it a young child who you know you're not
going to see growing up, or whatnot,
we were looking at what it feels like,
what time might feel like inside of a prison,
and how to manifest that physically onstage in terms
of the performance style to explore being out of time.
THE JAILER: (SINGING) When I get enough, I'll be gone.