No time for rest when they’re ‘Only Sleeping’

Over his last 12 years of working in Philly, Jorge Cousineau has developed a reputation for thinking big. And he’s usually able to persuade both audiences and collaborators to join him.

He is often hired to create visual or sound elements for local theater companies, but since 1999 he and his wife, local dancer Niki Cousineau, have pursued their own projects with their experimental company, Subcircle, where they blend dance, installation art and sound design.

For their latest, “Only Sleeping,” they approached local theater artist Geoff Sobelle about a year and a half ago. The three have been developing the piece ever since, initially communicating largely through video, as Sobelle was touring internationally.

The result is a duet of sorts between Niki and Sobelle, with the latter appearing courtesy of video projections.

“[Geoff] is really a projection of an interior character that lives within her that she’s having a conversation with,” explains Jorge. “Right now, she’s referring to this guy as ‘the editor.’ It’s the inner me — that person that’s constantly telling you how you should say something.”