Moving images, live wonderful piano accompaniment (Noah Turner), dance, poetical words, and a story that is itself musical, are all part of James Manuel Meneses‘ new play Healing Mined.Photo By Bronwen SharpThis is a play about loss and grief. Loss of a wife, a mother, a friend. What the play does is teach us to mine our pain. Going down into the labyrinth of grief, where it is dark, deep, and so all-encompassing that life no longer feels manageable. Sleep is the only way to hide from it. But even in sleep, there are haunting images of a tsunami approaching, crashing over you, and washing you away from existence. The tsunami is the dark deep pain, because like a tsunami, pain looms in the distance and then with little warning, suddenly there it is crashing over you, drowning you, carrying you away, tumbling you in all directions. Meneses’ beautiful, heart-endearing poetic prose is the story of this tsunami pain, the deepest pain humans experience, and how we manage it, or don’t. It is a poetic fable of human resilience and beauty, and the stories we tell ourselves, the realities we create to live by.Here's a peek: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Healing Mined (@healingminedplay)Photo By Bronwen SharpJacob ( Jeremiah Garcia ), the son who lost his mother, is our narrator. He is telling the story not only of his mother but of his father. His father, Gonzalo (the magnificent Luis Carlos De La Lombana), has checked himself into the mental hospital where his wife worked. Dad owns his business, and he has many employees who need his attention and care. What Dad needs is a “Slow Zone” spot to escape the world of doing and reside in a world of being, sitting, and holding the urn that contains all that is left of his wife. Jacob has taken over for his dad at the job, but it is not his passion. He wants to be an artist creating stories that embrace music and words, art, and movement. Amilia Shaw, with grace and truth, plays characters in the “real” world and those in Gonzalo’s alternative world. There is a princess with a talking Teddy Bear and an Animal Boy who has been lost for far too long. There is Nurse Abby at the hospital, doing what she can to get Gonzalo to step back into our world and spend some time with his son. And there is a giant Gonzalo knows he must fight.The play is a 75-minute intoxicating fable. The actors, all outstanding, flow, crash, dance, and find stillness and life within the tragedy. Noah Turner’s presence on stage playing the lovely compositions by composer Natalie Brice moves the piece along as a film is moved by music. Director and choreographer Rosie Corr creates within the space, efficiency, and flow between all the worlds. This is an alluring tale of love, loss, and the struggles that come with the emptiness and the road to quiet recovery.Healing Mined by Theater LabWritten by James Manuel Meneses, Director/Choreographer Rosie CorrWith: Luis Carlos De La Lombana, Jeremiah Garcia, Amilia Shaw, Noah Turner.Creative Team: Playwright James Manuel Meneses, Director/Choreographer Rosie Corr, Pianist and Music Supervisor Noah Turner, Composer Natalie Brice, Stage Manager Maria J. Payares, Lighting Designer Mabel McPhee, Scenic Artist & Graphic Designer Jessica BakerRunning Time: 75 minutes with no intermissionTheaterLab 357 W 36th St, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10018, 212.929.2545, [email protected] RELATED https://youtu.be/s-KAvPbO8JY?si=PiEixqZgr1se3WSf Read the full article
