The Good Swimmer

The Good Swimmer was salvaged largely from defunct lifesaving manuals, using music and found text to explore grief and loss and to question what is lifesaving, what is heroic, and what are the repercussions of sending teenagers to war. The interdisciplinary ensemble of nearly two dozen artists from the worlds of theater, opera, rock and roll, and film have developed the piece together over seven years since inception, and share a commitment to the type of work that thrives on cross-pollination and challenges traditional genre categories.

Di Novelli’s lyrics are crafted entirely from found text – lifesaving instructions, a cocktail recipe from the Kennedy White House, a cultural guide to Vietnam. The aim is to create a seamless integration of music, movement, gesture, video, sound, and lighting that animates the poetic text and lush rock score. The nine-piece band, led by veteran rock and theater singer David Driver, remains central while a chorus of seven 18-to-22-year-olds orbit the band, singing harmonies, and engage in gestural movement inspired by the rituals and maneuvers of both lifeguard and combat training. On layers of scrims are video images of ocean waves, rivers, lifeguard and military diagrams, and text from various “found” manuals. A simple lifeguard chair grounds the action. TGS gradually reveals a rich tapestry, beginning with subtle nods to life-saving training and water-rescue maneuvers and morphing into the rituals of training for Vietnam.

Rodewald’s multi-layered score for guitar, bass, piano, trumpet, woodwinds, strings, and drums fuses her rock and theater sensibilities, drawing on musical influences from the 60s to today.  Stylistically, the piece brings the language of rock music onto the theatrical stage offering a level of immediacy. While The Good Swimmer is not a traditional narrative piece, the songs and staging gather intensity by accumulation and juxtaposition to deep emotional effect.

In today’s climate, the artists find themselves asking how their work reflects the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of the world around us. The Good Swimmer examines lifesaving and heroism. How does one move from lifesaver to warrior, and how do we remember those who die trying to save lives? Much has changed since Vietnam, yet stereotypes plague our perception of what it means to go to war. Racially, the piece features a diverse band and choir of 18-to-22-year-olds, providing an accurate picture of our armed forces and our schools, as well as reminding us of the harrowing fact that the majority of the GIs who lost their lives in Vietnam were under 22 years old and served less than three months duty.

The Good Swimmer appeals to a broad audience across all age groups. It is equally moving to those who lived through the Vietnam era and to newer generations who have known only a time of ongoing war. The Good Swimmer’s timely impact is to remind us of how we romanticize previous wars in our effort to memorialize them, yet simultaneously seem to accept ongoing wars and their devastating effect as a given, particularly ignoring that it is the poor, the working class, and soldiers of color who are often sent to the front. In an era of so much division and endless war, we find that bringing audiences to this emotional place serves both as a catharsis and as a call to action.