Director and Composer
Oliver Tompkins Ray

Choreographer
John Heginbotham

Voice
Patti Smith

Lighting Designer
Thomas Dunn

Associate Lighting Designer
André Segar 

Sound Designer
Chris McLaughlin

Costume Designer
Maile Okamura

Dancers
Gerald Casel, Mykel Marai Nairne, Lindsey Jones (cover)

Musicians
Oliver Tompkins Ray, Cornelius Dufallo, Connor Gallaher

Rehearsal Director
Marjorie Folkman

Libretto by Oliver Tompkins Ray, based on the book Woolgathering by Patti Smith

Run Time
60 minutes

Photos: Maria Baranova

Baryshnikov Arts commissioned the world premiere of Woolgathering, an evening-length spoken word opera directed and composed by Oliver Tompkins Ray, based upon singer-songwriter and author Patti Smith’s book of the same title. As a longtime artistic collaborator of Smith’s, Ray was joined by John Heginbotham, who developed a choreographic vision and language that inspirited the natural and supernatural worlds of Woolgathering, a meditation on memory, childhood, and imagination. Smith’s words enliven and amplify the setting, music, and dance. Woolgathering features Patti Smith (voice), Cornelius Dufallo (violin), Connor Gallaher (pedal steel/guitar), and Oliver Tompkins Ray (guitar and electronics), as well as Gerald Casel and Mykel Marai Nairne of Dance Heginbotham, with lighting design by Thomas Dunn, sound design by Chris Mclaughlin, and costumes by Maile Okamura.

World Premiere: October 21, 2024
Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jerome Robbins Theater
New York, NY

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DIRECTOR’S NOTE
I’ve been traveling around the world with this little book for 30 years. Dreaming of its music and its world, inhabiting its sanctuary.

I’m grateful to Baryshnikov Arts for the opportunity and support to create this piece. And grateful to Patti for allowing me to work with these stories.

I am also excited to be working with choreographer John Heginbotham, who has animated the spirit of the words and music of Woolgathering with deep sensitivity.

We’re looking forward to offering the work to the atmosphere, that it might quietly temper the rigid divisions of this moment with the humble fire of imagination.

Wool-gath-er-ing
noun: woolgathering
Indulgence in aimless thought or dreamy imagining; absentmindedness

—Oliver Tompkins Ray

Woolgathering was commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts through its 2024 Commissioning and Producing Initiative which commissions new work, provides artists a technical residency to develop the work, and produces a series of public performances of the work. Woolgathering premiered in Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater October 21, 2024.

Choreography for Woolgathering by John Heginbotham is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Dance Heginbotham and Baryshnikov Arts gratefully acknowledge Dance Heginbotham’s Board of Directors as producing sponsors of the dancers in Woolgathering.