A Mixed Playlist Inspired By: Michael Love

Artwork: Michael Love, Theatre: Fort St. Louis from the series The Long Wait, 2009 (40X50” inkjet print)

The theatre in Michael Love’s photograph, titled Theatre: Fort St. Louis, has been left to its own devices. I could say ‘abandoned,’ but that would imply its dependency on whoever built it, and it doesn’t seem so reliant to me. In the time since its last intended use, this theatre has liberated its many ghosts and let them take hold of the structure however they’ve seen fit. It has become a palimpsest; a many-layered scene of past use and decay.

When I first looked at this photograph, I could immediately hear the space. I’ve sung in choirs almost all my life, and an empty room with tall ceilings and cushioned walls asks deliberately to be filled with sound. The songs chosen for this playlist are what I imagine one would hear coming from the recesses of the theatre’s stage, as layers of the past unfurled. You might call them ghosts.

Love,
Sarah B.