LAX Festival: TIME with Anna Luisa Petrisko

Anna Luisa Petrisko travels through the turbulence and isolation of the 2020 lockdown and transcribes her experience in her performance, ALL TIME STOP NOW. In connection with her best friend who was living in a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar during the pandemic, Petrisko captures these intimate moments through a video opera of live music, projection mapping, and movement in collaboration with performers Mark Golamco and Peter Hernández.

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Petrisko shares with me a little bit about the conception of the project.

How did the pandemic shape the themes of your conversation? What were they?

I think the pandemic shaped the themes of every conversation I had in 2020 and I am sure I am not the only one who feels that way. 

During the months of lockdown, it was comforting and humbling to have conversations with Mel because she was experiencing her own kind of chosen isolation for spiritual purposes. On top of that, there was a global pandemic happening which affected her, but at the same time, she was removed from it in many ways too. It was just interesting to get a wildly different perspective on a global situation.  And it was also interesting to update her on what was happening here as she was mostly totally removed from the news.  It was a way to process what we were going through, for both of us, and to have each other’s perspectives to consider and listen to. 

Talking to Mel during that time kept me from losing my mind to be honest. She was someone I could check in with, and she helped me to stay grounded in my own meditation practice. I am so grateful to her in so many ways! 

In what ways did you translate those topics or moments into the piece?

This piece came out of that time. I wrote all of this music during the 2020 lockdown. It was a way to move through all that was happening internally and externally, to try and send out healing vibrations to the world, and a way to commune with myself and with spirit.”

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Anna Luisa Petrisko will be performing ALL TIME STOP NOW at the Live Arts Exchange (LAX) Festival presented by the Los Angeles Performance Practice on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. Tickets and more information are available here.

Elaine Nguyen is a recent graduate of USC with a focus in public relations and marketing. She is currently the 2021 Development Intern at Los Angeles Performance Practice.