On the question of performing, the great Jacques Copeau once instructed his acolytes to "throw the dots in the air and let the audience connect them to make the Bear." This celestial metaphor for the act of dramatic creation goes far in describing the process by which Goat Island assembles its own performance pieces.

The Chicago-based performance troupe is currently in Prague for a three-week residency at Divadlo Alfred ve dvorě, where it has already performed a portion of its latest (and last) piece, as yet untitled, and will be staging its previous piece, When Will the September Roses Bloom? Last Night was Only a Comedy, Part 1/Part 2, this weekend. Goat Island then concludes its stay in Prague with a weeklong workshop exploring collaborative performance.

Their creative responses in turn inspire new directives and new directions for the company, as they begin to discard original pieces of music and text for others that become more meaningful. The work is built from these various congeries of text shards and musical fragments. Layer upon layer of collective exploration produces a rich piece of theater, especially since the company is known to work for upward of three years on a single project.

The construction of a Goat Island work is much like the Lucite transparencies found in old encyclopedias, where each turn of a plastic page builds a fully fleshed human body from an écorché. Every movement and gesture of the performers is clothed in a thought, a memory of the rehearsal process. Everything ramifies and intersects on a Goat Island stage.

For all that, knowing that the latest work in progress has thus far been inspired by Emily Bronte, Nick Drake, Roberto Rossellini, Bob Fosse's All That Jazz, Lenny Bruce and Bach is immaterial to appreciating the work. Goat Island trusts audience members to make their own associative leaps — that is, connect the dots.

When Will the September Roses Bloom? began when the question "How do you repair?" was posed. From that simple inquiry, work began, first inspired by a Better Homes and Gardens' handyman's guide, then growing to contain the work of the philosopher Simone Weil, the poet Paul Celan and the great silent film The Wind, which stars Lillian Gish. Ultimately, the piece became a meditation on how to effect repairing a damaged world while always celebrating life.

Performed over the past two years around the globe, When Will the September Roses Bloom? is considered "done" by the company. "Completion happens within the whole group and the context of the piece," company member Karen Christopher told me. "You hit the bookend."

The bookend has yet to be reached with the new work-in-progress, which will have its official premiere in Zagreb this fall. It was originally inspired by the idea of the Hagia Sophia, a cathedral that was transformed into a mosque and then became a museum. Goat Island decided to explore the idea of the multiple identities that a piece of architecture can assume. It is a work that reflects on what lasts and what's lost. It is also about lastness: the quality of being last.

After 20 years on the stage, Goat Island will be dissolving as a company, and so this current piece serves as its coda. Because of this, the work is infused with a delicate strain of wistfulness, often felt in the performance's pauses — moments of dramatic immobility that allow both actors and audience to fully share the space together.