Justin Hicks, Kenita Miller-Hick, and Jade Hicks create a surreal dreamscape through song and music in Dream Feed.
Dream Feed, currently at HERE, is a poetic meditation on the theme of dreams. Performed by the two-time Grammy Award–winning theatrical family band the HawtPlates (Jade Hicks, Justin Hicks, and Kenita Miller-Hicks), the production utilizes sound and song to bring subconscious ideas to the surface.
The show begins in darkness. Sounds emanate from every corner of the theater, blending and merging, yet becoming distinct as the ear grows attuned to them. One sound is reminiscent of steam moving through old pipes; another is a rhythmic swooshing; a third mimics waves lapping at the shore. Together, these elements set the stage for an auditory feast.
Jade Hicks has a sublime voice. Photographs by Daniel Vasquez.
As light enters the space, the performers emerge: Kenita Miller-Hicks brushes and stomps her foot; Jade Hicks opens her palm and brings it to her mouth; and Justin Hicks crouches while strumming an autoharp; an instrument he plays often in the show. The play is set up around a table over which a series of wind chimes hang with a single neon light that brightens and diminishes at times. Movement is confined to this circular space.
The songs follow a stream-of-consciousness style, accompanied by whispery and ambient acoustic explorations. The lyrics explore deeper states of unconsciousness and nightmares but are also a meditation on life and aging. In Greasy Dream(s), Justin sings:
My legs are looking
Lumpy and strange
That’s just what happens
To men when they age
Something could kill ya
While you’re dreaming your life away
The performance space is one of constant discovery. The trio unearths hidden objects from Kent Barrett’s design of a round wooden table set in rich, red earth, with the audience seated in the round. At one point, Miller-Hicks pulls a xylophone from the dirt. At other times, they pick up mallets from the table and tap the wind chimes hanging over the table.
The HawtPlates create ambient and percussive sounds using tabletops, chimes, and dirt to accompany their vocals.
Later, the trio removes the tabletop and separates it into two parts. Jade Hicks takes the top section which, when she tilts it, reveals itself to be a giant rain stick—often a hollow tube filled with rice or pebbles that creates a soft percussive sound. As she shifts the tabletop, now transformed into a giant rain stick, and moves around the space, the giant sphere makes sounds evocative of wind at the beach and falling rain.
As the show unfolds, the songs shift toward dreams as a metaphor for hope and the realities of a life lived. Kenita sings in Willow Tree, which also features improvisational vocal sounds and percussive accents made by Jade and Justin stomping their feet:
Mother daughter eagle wife
Scales or feathers branches time
You are my wife and
We love and fight and
It’s hard and we manage
To have a sweet life
Structured as a series of songs under Philip Howze’s direction, each piece develops into its own theatrical world. Buried objects in the soil evoke the feeling of an ancestral grave. Above, neon strips light a series of chimes hanging from the ceiling. Tuçe Yasak’s lighting design sends beams down from the corners of the theater, creating sprays of warm light and, at one point, a dancing rainbow that engulfs the audience.
The songs are performed as solos, call-and-response, duets and trios. In the finale song Mustard Anthem, they perform in harmony:
And I always wondered
Just how will we make it
Will our poor hearts stand the steady
Waves a breaking cross the paths of our time
Here…
The HawtPlates’ vocal explorations demonstrate that anything can become a song. Simple words sung with intention—such as “I quake, I break”—create a world of emotion independent of a linear narrative. By utilizing everything as an instrument—from dirt brushed across a table to metal pipes struck at different angles—the work honors the dreams of sleep and the broader dreams of the human experience.
The Hawtplates’ Dream Feed plays through Feb. 1 at HERE (145 Sixth Ave.). Evening performances are at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are at 4p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit here.org/shows.
Creators: The HawtPlates: Jade Hicks, Justin Hicks & Kenita Miller-Hicks
Director: Philip Howze
Scenic Design: Kent Barrett
Lighting Design: Tuçe Yasak
Sound Design: Sean Davis
Original Music: The HawtPlates
