Anna Sokolow’s 1955 Rooms examined the psychic isolation and unfulfilled desires of characters isolated in their small city apartments. The controversial work channeled the loneliness and alienation following the breakdown of wartime solidarity, when the threat of atomic annihilation, the 1952 polio epidemic, and the Red Scare created a mood of pervasive uncertainty and dread in America.
The Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble began rehearsals for Rooms in August 2019 as one half of a concert series scheduled for March 2020. Then, a new contagion spread across the world, and human existence changed. As a spokesperson for the ensemble describes, “Anna Sokolow's 1955 choreography resonates with uncanny power in a world where people everywhere are living quarantined in their homes.”
This change in circumstances has forced an adaptation in the ensemble’s approach to Rooms and how the performance will be presented. While the three directors—artistic director Samantha Géracht and associate artistic directors Eleanor Bunker and Lauren Naslund—rehearse the dancers and direct camera angles over Zoom, the responsibility of actual video recording has been taken on by the dancers themselves. The recordings made by the dancers are edited by Naslund into a full-length video version of Rooms, titled Rooms2020.
