Portal of Light

[ All four guides + The Severance + Lia. Ethereal post- classical ambient. Three voices weaving in suspended harmony. ] Felicia, Universal Panacea, And Becoming Human I saw a door inside my mind — it looked just like the sky. It had been there my whole life but I had been too busy to try. LIGHT OF EDEN JOINS, FOUR-PART SUSPENSION The door does not open with e"ort. The door does not open with will. The door opens when everything inside you #nally stops and is still. [ Chorus — voices stack in canon. ] Step through, step through — the world you dream is dreaming you. Step through, step through — vision is a way of seeing that sees through. • • • [ THE SEVERANCE'S CONFESSION — he speaks/sings, deep voice, isolated, broken open. ] The Severance I am the lie of separateness. I am the wall I built around your name. I told you no one was coming. I was wrong. I was always wrong. I told you that you had to do this alone because I was afraid that if you looked up you would see me — and you would not love me back. (quietest possible) Take me back. Take me back. Take me back. [ The four guides answer in unison, reaching out. ] Felicia, Panacea, Becoming Human, Light Of Eden We see you. We name you. We take you back. The part of us that was alone was always us. [ LIA'S MOMENT. Lia steps to the threshold of the portal. From the other side, a second "gure emerges — OLDER LIA, played by an older performer in identical white. They face each other. They bow. No words. ] I n the bow, lifetimes pass. The audience reads everything in it. [ Verse 4 — all "ve characters in unison, one voice. ] ALL FIVE — FELICIA, PANACEA, 112 Luis Miguel Gallardo BECOMING HUMAN, LIGHT OF EDEN, INTEGRATED SEVERANCE What the eye has been searching for the eye is. What we thought we had to reach we are. [ Bridge — wordless, voices in spiraling harmony, like a ladder of light. THIS IS WHERE THE LEITMOTIF IS FULLY REVEALED. The audience hears it consciously for the "rst time. ] Aaah... aaah... aaah... Aaah... aaah... aaah... (A → F♯ → D, three notes, again, again, again — the show's DNA) [ Verse 5 — single voice (Older Lia, gentle, almost spoken). ] Older Lia And on the other side of the portal — no other side. Only the world we left, now luminous, now alive. [ Final chorus — all six voices (the four guides, the integrated Severance, and Lia) in suspended harmony. ] Step through, step through — the portal of light is the heart you brought. Step through, step through — the seer and the seen are the same thought. [ Outro — just breath, light, and the harp fading into silence. Older Lia withdraws back through the portal. Lia (the child) remains, alone. ] 114 Luis Miguel Gallardo T he orchestra fades to nothing. The cast withdraws into the upstage shadow. Lia is alone center stage. The lighting starts to change — going darker, slower, more solemn. A single circle of starlight rises behind her. She steps into it. ···