‘We can talk about sex and we can talk about money in very mixed company,” says Tandy Beal, the nationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer. “But we can’t talk about death without everybody getting the creepy crawlies.”
In hopes of administering final rites to what she calls “the last taboo,” Beal, who lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains, opened a conversation about death and the afterlife last September with a three-day run of her multimedia production HereAfterHere. Combining dance, humor, music by composer Jon Scoville and video from an on-site mobile studio recording audience members’ musings about what happens after we kick le bucket, the show sold out the Cabrillo Crocker Theater within days. “We turned hundreds of people away, which blew our minds,” says Beal.
Hence the show’s return this year, with a few cast changes (including the addition of magician Calvin Ku, “who can really conjure things”) and a repeat of Saturday’s free 3pm symposium with writers and thinkers, Pondering the Imponderables.
“This is kind of an amazing group meditation in a way,” says Beal, “so that we can think about all the possibilities and rest in the question.”
HEREAFTERHERE: A SELF-GUIDED TOUR OF ETERNITY runs Fri-Sun, Sept. 9-11, 7:30pm (Fri-Sat) and 3pm (Sun) at Cabrillo Crocker Theater, 6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos. Tickets $13-35 at santacruztickets.com or 831.420.5260.
