University of Connecticut at Avery Point

Co-created by Matthew Cumbie and Tom Truss, ReWritten reflects on the often-overlooked intimate relationship between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne as a way to explore queerness, history, intimacy, and writing. The relationship between Hawthorne and Melville has been characterized as one of the most mysterious and fruitful friendships in American letters, yet the letters from Hawthorne to Melville are missing. ReWritten springs from this historic gap and time-hops between then and now as an attempt to expand how we see ourselves in their stories and these times. Through performances, screendance showings, facilitated conversations, and community workshops, ReWritten weaves together dance, music, visual art, projection, and text, while reimagining an intergenerational queer love story. The creative team also includes Alex Aleksandrov, Larry Burke, Sarah Chapin, Roma Flowers, Summer Kodama, Rudy Ramirez, Diane Samuels, Katherine Stubbs and Jeremy Winchester.