Passing Through The Bardo
Ensemble created
Conceived & Designed by Blair Thomas
Direction by Adrian Danzig & Yael Rasooly
Song by Brian Dewan
Music arrangement by Mark Messing
Costume Design by Caitlin McLeod
Puppets and props painted by Averly Sheltraw
Additional developmental staging by Greg Allen and Tom Lee
Producers Sandy Gerding & Blair Thomas
Silas Thomas Gravetender
Blair Thomas Ghost and Demons
Based on the ballad Cowboy Outlaw (1992) by Brian Dewan, who based his song on the true-life story of Elmer McCurdy (1880-1911)
Does A Dog Have Buddha Nature?
Conceived, Written, Designed and Puppetry Performed by Blair Thomas
Music by Travis LaPlante
~Nois Quartet
Julian Velasco, Soprano Saxophone
Natalia Warthen, Alto Saxophone
Jordan Lulloff, Tenor Saxophone
János Csontos, Baritone Saxophone
Scrolls painted by Rowena Liu, Aiden O’Hagen, Soph Schiavone, Averly Sheltraw, Sophia Traducci, Silas Thomas and Lingyu Parasol Zhou
Shadow puppets by Linda Wingerter
Stage design and construction by Blair Thomas
Additional construction by Caitlin McLeod, Margaret Nelson, Michael Reed, Dan Reilly, Zac Sun
This piece is built around Travis LaPlante’s 2024 composition Running in a Field of Flowers commissioned for ~Nois Quartet combined with the writings of Bodhidharma (early fifth century CE) as translated by Red Pines.
Text by Blair Thomas
Where me warm spot
in this cold place?
Me floor vent or
sunlit space?
Me moody man
comes dragging home,
me wag me tail,
I’ve been alone.
In countless ages,
countless drives,
me wandered through
dog countless lives.
No dogs nor
humans can foresee
when evil deeds
will fruit there be.
Me had anger
without me cause.
Guilt me had too
without me flaws.
Now though little
me do no wrong,
me punished for
me past dog gone.
In me sufferin’
this injustice
me on dog path,
life is luscious.
Give it, give it,
Now give it me!
The smell, me smell,
No blind! Me see!
Away you walk,
me bite the meat.
Lick, lick, lick, lick!
Me teeth it eat.
Me fast sleeping
Though slight the sound
on feet jumping
no me back down.
Woof, Woof, it’s me!
All world will know.
Me stand me ground.
Me chin pulled low.
Forever, me
Prosperity,
alternates with
calamity.
To have body,
Suffers increase.
Does any one
body know peace?
On absence of
self and other,
meditate it,
he’s my brother.
On oneness of
dog and human,
meditate it,
bite the shoe in.
Conditions make
our joy and pain.
Conditions change,
me stand remain.
The world complete,
all things are pure,
empty of
intrinsic nature.
All emptiness
reveals itself,
like dust removed
from off the shelf.
There is nothing
worth begrudging,
empty dish or
love withholding.
Me give me life
and body free
in charity
without regret
and without the
vanity of
giver, gift or
recipient.