A Child Retires (2019)

Created by Tess Dworman

Performed by Tess Dworman, Doug LeCours, Tingying Ma and Alex Rodabaugh

Lighting Design by LD DeArmon

Photos by Brian Rogers

A Child Retires emboldens artifact and artifice to reference the collapse of Tess’s maturation as an artist.

The work includes her mother’s old t-shirt (costume), a tote bag (prop), and a soundtrack of the Beach Boys rehearsing Good Vibrations. Stand-up comedy, memoir, performance art and Irish Step dancing  abide by lines of faulty reasoning as the piece accumulates a world of fiction that becomes indistinguishable from reality. Real and imagined figures blend together upending thought patterns and expectations.The spontaneous yet determinant nature of the piece reflects the process of thinking something through, changing your mind and grappling with the consequences.