Composers of percussion theater often take advantage of the fact that, while percussion instruments require significant physical movement to play, percussionists can simultaneously perform text. This adds interplay between body, text, and written music, because performers use characterization and emphasis with their voice and body to “reorchestrate” speech, while the composer chooses the percussive sounds the performer’s body as instrument will interact with. This proposed performance is a realization of Stuart Saunders Smith’s “By Language Embellished, I” which demonstrates the freedom of the performer to choose and use gesture and spoken emphasis to embody character, even as the score itself is grounded in specificity. This aspect of Smith’s works is why they feel intensely personal to many performers while remaining faithful to the composer’s intent, which is a gift that Smith left to the percussion community who have embraced his aesthetics and those who will continue to discover his work.