New London – “Heartbroken and heartful” was how director Marya Ursin described her latest project at the Hygienic Art gallery, and for many in attendance Sunday that billing certainly hit the mark.

Dozens of people packed into the Hygienic for “Hygienic Egg 2018: a Focus on the Poetry of Death,” the eighth annual promenade performance put on by performers and artists associated with the Dragon’s Egg, an artist’s studio in Ledyard.

"I've had a lot death in my life and my sister died two years ago and I'm still trying to cope with that," said Ursin of why she chose the poetry of death as the theme for this year's show.

Performed every March at the Hygienic, prior years themes have included "Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop" by William Butler Yeats and the month of Mars.  

The project conceived and assembled by Ursin, co-founder of the Dragon’s Egg, intertwined poetry, music, dance and puppetry as visitors moved throughout the event. Performers were as young as high school students.

“I am just amazed at how much talent is around the area in both performing art and other forms,” said Anna Sullivan, a resident of Mystic who was in the audience. “It is really cool to come out here and see it.”

Although the Dragon's Egg also has a summer show with more of a narrative arc, the show Sunday was more thematic and loosely connected and put together in a more "assemblage" way, said Ursin.

In January, Ursin sent the idea for the poetry of death theme to performers who have previously been residents at the Dragon's Egg. And after receiving responses from the artists, she organized the order in which the works would be presented while performers rehearse on their own.

"People prepare what they prepare, then we get together on the last day and put it all together, then toss it up to the gods," she said with a laugh.

Although the performers only had a walkthrough an hour before the exhibit opened, visitors would have been none the wiser, as the artists delivered powerful and intimate performances reflecting on death.

Some pieces such as a puppetry reading of a children's book performed by Bobi Nidz and solo dance and text performance by Ara Fitzgerald riffing on "Why did Sarah Bernhardt Sleep in a Coffin?"drew big laughs from the crowd. While other works such as the original poetry of Gillian Whittle and Robert Palm brought audience members to the verge of tears.

And the dance performances also frequently drew the amazement of the crowd with one audience member remarking, "It was beautiful" after four students from Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts performed an original dance, "Doomed."

Ursin was ultimately thrilled with how engaged the audience was as it worked its way through the gallery, and with the performers who she said gave so intimately of themselves.

And although she felt the project was open to whatever the audience interpretation was, for her she felt it was important to address the topic of death because it's complex and a part of life.

"For life itself, for the joy and tragedy of it," said Ursin. "That sounds kind of pat, but you know for the absolute ecstasy and the hollow empty ... it's so wide and it's so deep and ineffable in a way."