Love Letters to Humanity: Katie Wells’ Surreal, Interpretive Beauty

Katie Wells asked, “Who here finds being human hard?” It’s not a rhetorical question. Katie Wells was genuinely asking the audience, who in turn responded with resounding affirmation. And as the show goes on, she  continued to break through the fourth wall and speak with the audience, not through the audience,seated together on the brisk October evening in the front few rows of the Dickinson Main Stage Theatre. Reflecting now , it is an apt sentiment that people of varying backgrounds and demographics might share one night together witnessing this woman bring just a bit more art to the world in her piece: Love Letters to Humanity.

The performance was a perfect backdrop to open one’s mind to new and exciting experiences. The show opened with Wells exhibiting impressive physical control as she balanced upon a lone stool surrounded by a mosaic of multicolored fabric. Wells began to reflect on her place in the world, and quickly this pivoted to the wider topic of all of our places in the world. Whatever the audience saw in the colorful sheets which Wells handled throughout the show was more a matter of interpretation, as opposed to her own dictation.

As the show progressed, the lines between her own story and the vast reflection of the human experience began to meld together into a story of humanity primed for each audience member’s own interpretation. At many points, there were spaces of silence for each audience member to think and interpret what they had just seen, letting the words and actions of Wells linger in the backs of each of their minds. “When time is linear, you can’t really look back,” she said.

Yet there were also periods of noise, laughter, and audience participation like when she had the audience mime out strong emotions, bouncing them off each other, and feedbacking from her energy. This wasn’t a show merely of her, it was of us, and the interconnection we all feel in light of artistic expression.

“I want a world where everyone can hold onto their own hearts,” she said.