DNAWORKS is adapting Joseph Conrad’s 1909 novella THE SECRET SHARER (TSS) into a devised, ensemble, multimedia performance. Considered an early Queer text, TSS integrates text, visual elements, sound, and dance and will be performed in an open-concept space with audiences co-creating the environment and the narrative. In an extension of our community storycircle practice, audience members share their own stories during the performance, interspersed at critical moments in the narrative. TSS is an exploration of fragility, tenderness, and intimacy in times of personal danger and societal discrimination — the narrative of a silent, shared connection between two outsiders in the face of violence. In response to increases in bullying, murders, and suicides of LGBTQQ2SPIAA+ youth worldwide, with youth of the Global Majority at higher risk, TSS offers intergenerational, Queer-centered spaces for resiliency and healing.
Land Acknowledgement: DNAWORKS is located in the traditional lands stewarded by the Seneca Nation and refuge to members of the Hopewell, Monongahela, Shawnee, and Lenape peoples, now also known as Pittsburgh, PA.
