Faith Healing is an original dance/theater piece that takes the story line of Tennessee Williams' play The Glass Menagerie as its point of departure. The company’s approach to the play is a distillation of elements, focusing on the musicality and rhythm of language, the telling psychology of movement and the visualization of fantasy.
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Restaging: Joyce SoHo, New York City, 2010
Direction: Jane Comfort
Choreography: Jane Comfort and Company
Text: Tennessee Williams, Jane Comfort and members of the Company
Music: Richard Landry, Brooks Williams
Sets and Costumes: Liz Prince
Lighting Design: David Ferri
Original Cast:
Laura: Heather Christian
Amanda: Mark Dendy
Tom: Sean Donovan
Gentleman Caller: Matthew Hardy
Funding: This restaging of Faith Healing is a National Performance Network (NPN) Re-Creation Project sponsored by the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in partnership with the Florida Dance Association, NCSU Center Stage and NPN. This project and its production by The Joyce Theater Foundation have been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. Additional support has been provided, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
"Comfort’s whole production floats beautifully along, exposing the darkness beneath the play’s currents…I think that Comfort has given a new kind of motion to this beautiful lost-in-space-and-time play." (Read More) — The Village Voice
"First premiered in 1993, Faith Healing brings its own history full circle with Mark Dendy reprising his original role as the Southern matriarch Amanda…His masterful performance rides effortlessly from humorous and relatable, to long-suffering and pitiable. Sean Donovan and Heather Christian also shine as Tom and Laura. Both infuse their characters with a vibrancy and depth that go beyond Tennessee Williams' original script.." (Read More) — OffOffOff Dance Review
"Dendy originated the role, and is joined by the excellent Heather Christian as her daughter Laura, Sean Donovan as son Tom, and Matthew Hardy as the Gentleman Caller. (More ample evidence that Comfort’s performers are consistently accomplished at dance, acting, and singing.) … Another strength is Comfort’s ability to seamlessly shift into elegant, powerful dance phrases that underscore an emotion or narrative line." (Read More) — Thirteen WNET
"Jane Comfort conserves the brilliance of the play while using her own tools to draw out its key themes. In her translation from the script to dance, Comfort offers her audience a new portrayal of the characters as they struggle through their family dramas" (Read More) — The Dance Enthusiast
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