Leave Word
juliana roccoforte novello

Part puppeteering, part drama therapy, Leave Word forces people together who likely wouldn't cross paths organically. The characters speak to one another across walls, space, and time, bridging gaps routinely large enough to divide society. The conversations between the untrained actors range from cautionary tales, to truth, to surreality. These conversations and arguments reveal the internal mechanics of how we connect by breaking down the accommodations we make when interacting with others in a physical space by removing presence from the equation.

novello has a unique ability to connect with people, by way of her art practice, beyond how most of us can. Her relationships with the people in this show are real and complex – these are not transactional director-actor dynamics. If life were orchestrated by novello, we wonder: who might meet, talk, and break bread – and what might their communication foster in our collective understanding?

As humorous as it is peculiar, Leave Word knits together a group of people ordinarily operating outside of one another’s sphere. The way a child gives voice to their dolls, novello creates scripts weaving her own musings with the actor’s real lives.This way, they willingly turn their internal dialogues outward – while practicing communication, and learning how to perform – tethering to one another in this parallel world.

juliana roccoforte novello is an educator, activist, artist, and writer. She teaches photography and painting at both public colleges and prisons. novello holds several teaching positions across CUNY schools. A portion of her project, The Golden Pond, is being published with 89books this winter under the title Joe, Willets Point, which will be her third photo book. She was a recipient of the Mary Frey Book Award for her first book, Blooming Syzygy – The Fancy Free Delight of Janet Roccoforte, and held a Penumbra Workspace Residency in the summer of 2022. In November 2023, her video project, Need Not Know, will premiere at the Underhill Film Projects Screening.