Melanie Jones

IN YOU. (AND YOU?) (2014)

IN YOU. (AND YOU?) (2014)

Commissioned by BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange's 2014/15 Artist In Residence program

IN YOU. (AND YOU?) dives into the lived experience of anxiety and depression, and the transformative potential of discord. Immersing audiences in the central character’s competing thoughts and the gravitational pull of mounting tension, a 360-degree surround sound experience blurs the line between performer and observer.

Avoiding work at the height of her career, a radio host battles conflicting thoughts and a stalled morning routine while under self-imposed exile in her bathroom. Failed bathtub masturbation, dubious mold and rhythmic rumination spiral her down into sudden cacophonous terror, pushing and pulling between a stubborn avoidance to face past wounds and the inevitability of change. IN YOU (AND YOU?) frames anxiety and depression, not as medical or genetic conditions, but as catalysts for transformation—the dark night of the soul described by mystics, recovering addicts and spiritual seekers.

Written and performed by Melanie Jones
Directed by Stefanie Abel Horowitz
Music and sound by Pietro Amato

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IN YOU. (AND YOU?) was created with generous support by The Alberta Foundation for the Arts. The work was created in residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, the Harkness Foundation for Dance, and the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation.