"I have grown extremely jaded with work that has to be serious," Sharkey says. "Because I often feel that serious equals exploitative, I have been starting from a place of fun. I am thinking about how we celebrate all the aspects of who we are as people and make art as a collective community."
This playful philosophy guided Sharkey as a director and performer for the immersive theater company's upcoming show, Strange Natures, which will have its world premiere on Saturday, May 20, and run through June 4. Presented in partnership with the Aurora History Museum and the City of Aurora, the show is more of an experience — a 75-minute immersive dance party that explores climate change through a joyful, queer lens. Strange Natures is staged throughout the DeLaney Homestead Historic District and combines queer ecology with the creators' real-life experiences growing up in an increasingly plastic environment.
"Climate change is often kept abstract as a way for us to stay sane, but I feel like this show is about coming to terms with the idea that it has already begun," says George Delaney, who helped create the show and performs in it. "It’s not the future — it’s the past and the present. Strange Natures plays with the idea that things are getting better or worse; it holds space for both of those things rather than just one, which is very queer."
"Totally," Sharkey agrees. "It asks: How can you accept that you don't have a future, but with joy and absurdity?"
Strange Natures is directed by Caroline Sharkey in collaboration with fellow performers George Delaney and Elle Hong.
Courtesy of Control Group Productions
The creative team says Strange Natures is a followup to Control Group's post-apocalyptic show The End, a bus tour of Denver's climate future that ran last summer and was just produced again at La Jolla Playhouse's internationally recognized Without Walls Festival at the end of April.
"The End was a fantastic piece, but I wanted to return to Control Group’s...I won’t say experimental, but less linear roots," Sharkey explains. "A lot of things that I have made have had very clear stories, and this project felt like a chance to make something different and joyous. Strange Natures is structured in chaotic vignettes; there are things that are familiar at the basis layer, like a runway or a presentation, [and] we can use the familiar and twist it so it becomes uncanny."
"I think this is a very queer way of working," adds Elle Hong, an anti-disciplinary artist who collaborated on and is now performing in Strange Natures. "You are placed within a pre-existing system that defines you as different, so how do you survive? Everything that we've been making has been paying close attention to what happens when a person is asked to survive unsurvivable or unlivable circumstances. How do we not place judgment on the things that come out of survival?"
Behind-the-scenes at Control Group Production's Strange Natures.
Courtesy of Control Group Productions
The immersive experience is performed on an old homestead in Aurora that has been transformed into a bright, plastic ecosystem. "We take audiences through indoor and outdoor environments as well as a horse stable and the porch of the farm house, where we have seen prairie dogs, so we really bounce all around this space," Sharkey explains. "The experience is grounded enough that we can relate to each other as humans, but past that, we just bounce around this world."
Therefore, audiences can expect to be active throughout Strange Natures. Attendees will be asked to move with the performers around the homestead and will get the chance to walk down a runway, play dress-up, eat bananas and more. Control Group Productions is working to make the show as accessible as possible to all patrons, and has an accessibility guide available on its website.
"People can expect to be really engaged during the viewing, which I feel is unconventional," Hong says. "The audience's interaction will add meaning to the performance and make them feel like they are a part of the show."
To construct the show's queer vision of the world, Control Group Productions worked with Moe Gram on visual design and DJ Stevie Gunter for the show's sound design. "At every corner you turn, there is something unexpected and wonderful," Sharkey hints. "I think it's a really fun experience that challenges you to think about the world in new ways, especially in light of the absurdist Greek tragedy that we're all living through in real life."
Throughout the rehearsal period, the performers took into consideration how they could ease the audience into such a unique environment. "I've been exploring ways to seduce people into discomfort," Delaney says. "We want to make this something that people can be curious and playful about. Sexuality and gender are a part of it, and it might be a little uncomfortable for some people, but that’s why we infused the show with plenty of pop-culture references and goofiness."
The show's comedy and heart are juxtaposed with its unapologetically queer exploration of a polluted world. The result is a unique experience unlike anything you'll see around Denver. And even if you aren't part of the LGBTQ+ community, the artistic team invites you to embark on Strange Natures' journey.
"Sometimes when shows are created by queer people, people who aren't feel like they can't come," Hong explains, "but I just want to say that you don't have to be queer to come see this show."
"That's definitely something I think people need to know," Delaney says. "A big thing we talked about was how we can share the experience of queerness with other people in Strange Natures in a way that has a little discomfort but in the end is a fun, engaging invitation that you want to share."
Strange Natures opens Saturday, May 20, and runs through June 4 at the DeLaney Homestead Historic District, 170 South Chambers Road, Aurora. Find tickets, times and more information at controlgroupproductions.org.
