it's very much about seeing the audience, and letting the audience see me. The end of the play kind of points towards the idea of landing somewhere. The audience is going through this journey with Baby Bird, interacting with these figures of authority and these figures of assurance and these figures of rage and craziness and being in this place of ‘Well, how do | find myself in relation to other people?’ It’s that commonality of belonging; it’s something that connects to people, connects to anyone who finds themself wondering who they are, given what’s going on, given that we're living on colonial land.”

The emotional journey and the thoughts that will accompany the audience are clear, but what about the visual experience? “[Early on] we have some shadow puppetry.” Esmaeili begins by saying: “Before Baby Bird meets the actual Bird, the audience and Baby Bird meet the shadow. All you can see is a shadow first— Baby Bird really wants to be that bird, but as soon as that bird enters the stage, there is no mask, you can see the whole bird, you can see all of their emotions, and their identity, and all their insecurities. This is something interesting; it is something that | really want the audience to see: ‘Who are these birds? Who are their true selves? Is their true self what we see in the shadow? Or is it when they come on-stage?”

Importantly, the collective aims for viewers to go home changed: “I think when viewers leave our play [they] will carry along this embodied and thought-provoking piece [,] questioning their connection to their ancestry and moving towards this place of self-acceptance.” Solomon adds: “Something we Say all the time when we’re going into rehearsal, is that we treat the play like a ritual, and in our ritual, we are exploring questions of where we belong and how we accept ourselves for who we are and where we are. | think viewers will leave feeling stimulated by all sorts of light, shadow, dance, music, that we produced ourselves, and walk away telling their friends that they saw a really awesome, creative and inventive show.”

Yet, after completing the process of creating this play—the music, the choreography, the poetry, the puppetry—having treated the rehearsals like a ritual, the question becomes does the collective feel closer to answering ‘Where is home?’ Likewise, are they closer to a sense of self-acceptance and belonging? “Absolutely,” Esmaeili answers, “I rarely recognize these internalized voices that come from my family.” The collective continues by describing how the different characters in the play are directly relatable to their own familial experiences. “The play helped me recognize that we can love all these birds, but at the same

Promotional images for 'Wings Over Water' via Three Flying Birds Collective

time, we don’t have to become them; we don’t have to do what they ask us to do. How can we separate their voices from our voices? | think that the play really helped me to grow and be like ‘Hey, these Birds—or these people can still love me, but I’m just gonna follow my path and break the cycle.”

“The play really deals with themes of breaking cycles,” Solomon elaborates. “So, in performing the play, and in creating the play, [we were] thinking about ancestral cycles that we’re breaking. | feel the growth in acknowledging that and imagining a world in which Baby Bird can break cycles.” Esmaeili finishes by describing how the theme of breaking cycles extended through the realms of the play and into their process of creating Wings over Water. “Working with these two really helped me innovate theatre, [since] I've been used to traditional theatre for so long. But because we were so connected, it felt very fun and very fluid and smooth; we were improving in the beginning, we were really helping each other and offering feedback and there was no power dynamic happening— which is something that theatre needs to have. We should all be on the same level, and share and receive, our team really has that.”

Wings Over Water premiers on September 10 and runs through September 19 via Vancouver Fringe Fest. To accompany Baby Bird and experience an otherworldly collision of visual pleasures, original music, and evocative poetry, tickets are available online at the Vancouver Fringe Festival website.