The Works

Below you’ll find an archive of past works.
Double click the carousel of images below each description
to access videos in addition to the photos you see scrolling for each work.

Follow these links to visit dedicated pages for current projects: Liturgy|Order|Bridge and Privy.

Reaction Bubble, a multimedia installation inspired by the science of proxemics, was a multi-year collaboration between Scapegoat Garden, ceramicist Matt Towers, and Kyle Lapidus and Tali Hinkis who make up the Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary duo LoVid and who served as lead artists on the project. The project premiered at Real Art Ways in March 2017, and received major support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Alongside Deborah Goffe, dance collaborators/performers included Safi Harriot, Rosanna Karabetsos, Kate Seethaler, and Arien Wilkerson.

A solo work commissioned and performed by Paul Dennis, with an original score by Damon Honeycutt and bespoke suit constructed by Kristen Jensen, BE’SPOKE(n) premiered at New York Live Arts (May 2015), and had its world premiere in Milan, Italy (October 2015). The work tests the boundary between audience and performer, the expectations one has for the other in the first few moments of encounter, and the emergent crisis brought about by a lack of recognition.

Press: by Jane Sato for Theatre is Easy, June 1, 2015

An intimate, interactive exploration of the human capacity for creativity and regeneration, this surreal baby shower anticipates new life, with all its joys and challenges. In this work, dynamic movement, eclectic music and projected images intersect; universal truths find expression in the modern day baby shower; and the notion of giving birth represents all we hope to bring into being. The first iteration of (re)Birth was developed and performed in collaboration with Jennifer Cormier, Leslie Maietta, Katie Jackson Cook, Jennifer Morley, and Amy Nesbitt.

In Prazer em conhecê-lo: Espaço Infinito (Pleased to meet you: Infinite Space), Scapegoat Garden’s Deborah Goffe and Mano Preto (Artistic Director of Cape Verde’s internationally acclaimed Raiz di Polon) inhabit a physical, visual, and aural environment where Cape Verde’s lyricism meets the drive of contemporary dance. Over the course of a year, each extended invitations to the other – sharing country, culture, and creative process. Together with musicians Jose Monteiro and Djim Job, Deborah and Mano perform a duet inspired by the rituals inherent in shared expressions of hospitality.

Studies in Empathy is a dance-theater adaptation of Sophocles’, Antigone. Directed by Deborah Goffe and constructed in collaboration with Damon Honeycutt, Hanna Kivioja and Sarah Weiss, Studies in Empathy draws on the texts of Sophocles, Jean Anouilh and recent presidential speeches. These texts become an aural quilt through which the story of Antigone and Creon unfold. Cloaked in the modern armor of a three piece suit, and wielding a sword, Creon exploits seductive political power to control and win the favor of the nation, yet finds himself facing three unexpected opponents. Wholly “feminine” in billowing layers of white crinoline, Antigone thinking, Antigone feeling and Antigone doing, labor for integration in the quests one cohesive identity.

Scapegoat Garden’s first work upon its founding, this multimedia journey interweaves solo narratives as the wrestler, the vagrant and the martyr are revealed in silent movie vignettes.