Hermitage artists fly high into 'Descent'

In Englewood, located on the southern border of Sarasota County, lies a sanctuary for artists. The Hermitage Artist Retreat is Florida’s premier artistic safe haven. Home to creatives of every discipline since 2003, the Hermitage awards some of the most promising visual artists, composers, authors, choreographers and playwrights a beautiful retreat from everyday life to collaborate and create their next great work.

The most recent artistic venture, a collaboriation with the Hermitage and Circus Arts Conservatory, is “Descent.” It’s an imaginative, adult-oriented, musical theater piece that dances with the effects of memory, romance and identity and inserts the form of gymnastics silk and circus acrobatics. Free workshops and audience feedback is being held for this musical hybrid at 7 p.m. Nov. 24 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 26, at the Circus Arts Conservatory Arena, 2075 Bahia Vista St.

With lyrics and music by Eve Beglarian (2009 Greenfield Prize winner) and Phil Kline, PJ Griffith (book author) and producer/actor/aerialst Ruthie Stephens, “Descent” is the epitome of the Hermitage touch: pure, unadulterated expression.

Taking place on the beach of a deserted island, “Descent” is a memory play focused on a young celebrity female pilot as she reflects on her life and relationships after crash landing on an uninhabited island. It’s a four-character piece with the famous pilot (loosely based on Amelia Earhart), her loyal manager husband, alcoholic co-pilot navigator and her burlesque dancer lover.

“Eve Beglarian wrote the music that’s being used for this work for a song cycle years before,” says Stephens, who plays the role of the pilot’s lover. “And we found a creative team to create this unique musical theater piece for Eve’s music.”

While the pilot protagonist becomes entrenched in her memories, Stephens will ascend into the sky. A trained aerialist, Stephens will dance through the memories of the stranded pilot while recreating the pilot’s mesmerized perspective of Beatrice, the dancer.

“This grounded pilot does all of these crazy aerial stunts,” says Stephens, “but she’s impressed by Beatrice’s show girl stunts. The things that seem fearless to one person is everyday to another.”

“Descent” is still in its early stages of creation. However, inserting aerial, circus conventions and performance into the standard conventions of musical theater is an exhilarating concept. Just like breaking into song when regular dialogue isn't enough, “Descent” hopes to dance in the very air and space above the stage when words can no longer express the emotions of the characters.

Beglarian, Stephens and their creative partners on “Descent” are a first for the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Mostly an oasis of solitude for artists to create work alone, “Descent” is hopefully a move forward for teams of artists of different concentrations to create the next innovative, artistic mash-up.

“When the stakes are high enough, you fly,” says Stephens. “And this workshop is about how we can tell a story through song, dialogue, aerial choreography and music.”