wrack zone — ELI NIXON

‘wrack zone’

created by Eli Nixon and Friends

‘wrack zone’ is an indoor coastal naturedrag pageant, clown show, and DIY effort to unsettle time. Starring an iron-age bog body, Hulk Hogan’s ghost, Pangea-in-process, and at least one massive flock of endangered shore birds, this puny human play reckons with five billion years of the moon. Amidst 450 million years of horseshoe crabs, the tide(x2), SPF 50, and an egg salad sandwich in the sun. wrack zone messes with intertidal space/time and invites audiences into low-stakes collaboration through drawing prompts, snack eating and fabric handling. Bask in cardboard anthropomorphism and poetic semaphore. Join us to be overtaken.

Much like our coastline itself ‘wrack zone’ continues to shift and reveal itself. I’ve enjoyed opportunities to research and play with its ideas and languages through residencies with Mercury Store, Fresh Ground Pepper’s Ecoweek, and Mauricio Salgado’s Theater Research & Climate Action class at NYC. In January of 2024, with an ensemble of 9 performers, accompanied by cellist el beh, I shared a work-in-progress of ‘wrack zone’ at NYC’s Public Theater as part of my participation in their Devised Theater Working Group. In May of 2024, we shared a 3 person version of ‘wrack zone’ at Ars Nova in NYC. el beh was on cello and sound effects, Patrick Costello animated my drawings and other overhead projections, and the audience and I played everyone else (crowd participation included DIY volcanic eruptions and other events of the last 5 billion years.)

Since then, I have been leading naturedrag workshops with participants (ages 4-70), prowling the beach, and figuring out next steps for exploring the flamboyant failures of our clumsy cardboard anthropomorphism. May we arouse delight and empathy, lubricating further vulnerability to collectively and individually abandoning anthropocentrism (and maybe other hierarchies of power and scale.) Shriveled and emboldened by what’s exposed, set loose and expanded by the cool relief of the tide’s coverage again, ‘wrack zone’ is a way to mess with intertidal space/time and liberate ourselves from 'management' as our noun of approach. All this in the costume of a play; 60 minutes plus meanwhile.

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Thanks to photographers Danny Bristol, Jaynie, Sonya, Ben, and Patrick.