Heliantha was Performed at PS 122 in February 2005. A movement-theater fable, Heliantha is the story of spinster who sits tatting. On her fortieth "un-anniversary", she visits her wedding gown, bridal bouquet and the groom's suit in her closet. A magical transformation creates a sunflower creature who guides the woman towards redemption. Heliantha is a four-character, multi-genre story told through dance, puppetry, corporeal mime, dialogue, original rap and songs.

The lighting design for this piece was based at once on the realism of a hanging lamp and the fantastical imaginative world of the main character Madamoiselle Aggie. For much of the piece, the lighting follows the feel of realistic sources, a lamp or a window. Yet the piece falls almost seamlessly into more fantastical monents of memory and song. For these, the light pushes its way into a more heightened world of color and playfulness.

The piece as a whole took on the feel of a poem. A poem told through movement and image as much as through words. This poetic quality was reflected in the light through the manner in which the form of the characters and the space was revealed.

The character of Heliantha, a walking and talking sunflower creature lived in a world of sunlight and magic. She flowed through the space, pulling light to her as she moved about.

Johnny, Madamoiselle's former lover who left her at the altar, lives in a cabaret somewhere in Aggie's memory. Here, the light transformed the space into a 1950's lounge singing nightclub.

At times the narrative was aided by the use of projections, a blooming flower becomeing a wilting one.

Heliantha transforms into a variety of characters, all aspects of Aggie's consciousness. The lighting, which provided the majority of the environmental trasnformations in the space had to, at once contain this multiplicity of character, and at the same time, be an expression of a single mind. As the piece follows Aggie's mind and memory on a journey of healing so too does the lighting follow that same journey, continually evolving and changing as the piece progresses.

We are left at the end with Aggie, now transformed into a whole and strong woman, leaving us amidst a field of Sunflowers projected on to her and the whole stage. We the audience are reminded that we come from the Earth and must live a finite existence in the midst of that flower field.

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