The Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture’s Festival Pavilion, built in 1912 to warehouse army supplies and provide docking space for army transport ships, is the site of Haigood's work Port of Embarkation. Presented as part of Zaccho Dance Theatre’s 2nd annual San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival, the work was first in a series to honor the wartime history of Fort Mason and uses the 50,000 sq. ft. empty space along with simple objects, both static and aerial, to create a poetic landscape that evokes memory, mystery and loss.
The Festival Pavilion, originally known as Pier 3, was built in 1912 and used to warehouse army supplies and provide docking space for army transport ships. From the 1920s through World War II, the San Francisco Port of Embarkation played a critical role in the movement of supplies and troops to the Pacific. It functioned as the nerve center of a vast network of shipping facilities that spread throughout the Bay Area. The numbers of men and supplies that passed through the San Francisco Port of Embarkation were enormous. During the 45 months of war, 1,647,174 passengers and 23,589,472 measured tons moved under the San Francisco Port of Embarkation into the Pacific. This total represents two-thirds of all troops sent into the Pacific and more than one-half of all Army cargo moved through West Coast ports.
Much of the content of the performance is drawn from interviews with WWII veterans based in the Bay Area and the personal histories of the collaborating artists, all of whom have ties to the Army and the WWII legacy.
Collaborators
Direction: Joanna Haigood
Music Director: Anthony Brown
Scenic Design: Wayne Campbell
Performers
Performing Artists: Alex Allan, Delvis Friñon, Tanner Keal, Adonis Martin, John O’Keefe, Sandia Sexton, Helen Wicks
Military Re-Enactor: Deran Michael DeOrian
Performing Crew: Jack Campbell, jose e abad
Trumpeters: Ian Carey, Brendan Liu
Music: Arvo Part
Funders / Commissioners
Port of Embarkation was made possible with generous support from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts
Premiere Date
2016
Premiere Location
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, San Francisco, CA
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