Lee Wanaselja
Creative / Composer / Musician / Author / Poet
Ascent of Souls - a 9/11 Lament
A Ballet-Operetta stage performance in pre-production.
Created and composed by Lee Wanaselja
Image photo by Bill Adams
I am seeking a producer(s) who will share my vision and be able to bring it to the stage.
My goal is to have Ascent of Souls performed in the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
9/11 will forever be one of those defining moments in the life of those that lived through that day. A time they will always remember exactly what they were doing when they first heard the news.
I was living on Long Island at the time, driving west on the Long Island Expressway (also known as the worlds longest parking lot…) heading to work, when I heard on the radio that a “commuter” plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Ten minutes later another plane struck and we all knew this was no commuter plane accident but a deliberate attack on America. The sky had fallen.
Watching the events as they unfolded on TV that day and in the subsequent days that followed, I was struck, like all Americans were, with the enormity and incomprehensible nature of the scene I saw played out before me. My emotions ran the full gamut of shock, horror, pain, tears, sorrow, dread, anger, hatred and revenge. I tried to make sense of it all. And couldn’t. I felt drained, violated, numb, disconnected and hopeless.
As an artist I wanted to try and express what I was feeling so I tried writing some poems. One came but it didn’t seem enough.
My emotions were bigger than a single poem. I sat down at a piano and a piece of music came out, a lament that felt truer to my feelings. Over the years other poems and ideas came but I kept going back to the music and more melodies came and I began to envision movement…ballet. That is when I realized that what I was feeling required a full musical stage production with dance to express these emotions. And Ascent of Souls was born.
This piece is the first one I wrote and the impetus for the whole production. It appears in Act 1 Scene 3.
The Widows Theme.
STAGING: A lone female dancer (the widow) kneeling crumbled on the stage. A Single soft red spotlight on her. Stage is backlit with shades of blue.
MUSIC: Piano solo (Largo) joined by strings and pan flute, then full orchestra.
ACTION: The widow reminded again of her loss begins in a prone position then slowly raises an arm then the other in supplication and gestures of "why" until as the strings enter, she finally pushes herself to her feet and begins a slow expressive mournful lament. Her movements increase in passion as she fully enters into her grief and loss. With the last chord she is on her knees again bowed over.