Dangerously Safe

Gemma Wilcox and Liz Barron performed "Dangerously Safe" for the Boulder 2010 Fringe Festival.  The performance was a unique way to utilize the space, and it created some memorable moments.  To begin, the audience was split into two different groups and seated on opposite sides of the space.  While the two groups were facing each other, there was a curtain preventing any visual contact.  Both performed simultaneously to their respective audiences by improvising, showing video, telling mythical stories, and having shadow dance fights through the curtain.  Ultimately, the piece came together when the curtain was finally drawn and the audience was reminded of the dual nature of the performance.

Film by Betsy Tobin, Tech by Jessica Bynam and David Ortolano

reConstruction

This is a clip from Ryan Wurst's performance on prepared piano:

Prepared Piano - clips, screws,balloons...

For those of you who don't know, to 'prepare' an instrument means to attach objects to the strings on an instrument.  When you play it, interesting, somewhat random timbrel effects happen.

CU New Opera Workshop

Sister Carrie - 3 screen projectio

This was an impressive display of talent by the student performers, writers, and crew members.  At the beginning of the (2) week(s), the operas were read for the first time and performed by the end of the week.  I don't think I need to describe the difficulty of this.  Short operatic scenes were shown each night and each week featured a longer opera.  "Sister Carrie" composed by Robert Aldridge is the story of a woman achieving the American Dream. "Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" was composed by Herschel Garfein.  The second week's performance was the premier of "Autumn Orchard" composed by Daniel Kellog and librettist J. Michael Martinez.  It features the powerful story of Garcia Lorca's imprisonment during the Spanish Civil War.

For the performance, I projected on to three 8' x 24' vertically mounted screens for scene changes.  Instead of using MAX/MSP/Jitter as I normally would.  I experimented with Isadora which was simple enough to manipulate the scenic images created by Andrew Metzroth.  Many of Isadora's tools are helpful (especially for video), however, I would still prefer to use MAX/MSP/Jitter.

Congrats to Leigh Holman - Producer, Andrew Metzroth - Technical Director, and Halley Albers - Stage Manager