Holy Bone
The DWZ show succeeded in truly marrying spirituality and performance for a Western audience.
—Arts and Culture Texas
Holy Bone
2017
Excerpt from a review: There are no comfy seats, glossy playbills or curtain calls. They’ve long jettisoned those theatrical touchstones. Though there are scenic elements, they occur in concert with their environment like art installations taking advantage of the buildings, the neighborhood and even the time of day. The dusk night sky lends itself to stunning visuals of downtown in particular. The immersive environments allow for more varied sensory input than traditional theatre. Soundscapes are employed in many of the locations with an emphasis on blurring boundaries of the noise of the environs be they physical or mental. In one stunningly vast room, the quiet was engulfing on the night I walked through. In another, the source of sound was moved around the audience instead. There are locations that traffic in olfactory overload like incense. Sprinkled along the way are interactive moments from the tactile to taste. Be ready for anything.
David Novinski, Theatre Jones
Riccio started to think about creating a piece of theater that didn’t necessarily take place in any particular space but used the entire city as its theater, expanding the definition of a theatrical production so broadly that the Zombies could claim any space to perform.
Holy Bone was born. The project began in December and will unfold over several months, taking place across the city and evolving into different forms throughout the process. The initial iteration is much like what I experienced at Whole Foods. Dead White Zombies performers will pop up in various locations around town, mostly unannounced, sometimes even without Riccio’s knowledge, to perform a mix of scripted scenes and improvised characters.
In the spring, the second phase will invite performers, participants, and witnesses for some of these first performances to a series of meetings or interactions. Some of this will be captured on video and preserved on the project’s website, HolyBone.com. Most of it, however, will appear and disappear, sometimes without anyone outside the performers even knowing it happened.
—D Magazine
Camus remediation — from the Holy Bone. Required of audience members deemed inauthentic.
Go ahead, and take the test.
Inspiring audiences to get tattoos. Thanks, Faith Hart.
Manual of Holy Bone Images. Each character was linked to an image(s), and the audience traveled through a labyrinth of images to complete their initiation.
Far Side of Consciousness Assembly Meetings
Unannounced public performances held throughout the city of Dallas to develop characters, themes, and action for the Holy Bone performance.
Far Side of Consciousness Assembly Meetings performance intervention. North Park Mall, Dallas, TX
Far Side of Consciousness Assembly Meeting performance intervention at Trader Joe’s. Dallas. TX
Theatre Forum Essay 2019
Compilation of audience photos taken at the conclusion of the Holy Bone.