Archives: Portfolio

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”The Seven Deadly Sins”]Composed by Kurt Weill
Libretto by Bertolt Brecht
Walt Disney Modular Theater, CalArts (2024)[/lab_heading][vc_column_text css=””]The Seven Deadly Sins, the last opera collaboration between Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, is a biting satire of capitalism and an absurdist allegory on the immigrant struggle for self-determination. The story is ostensibly about a girl named Anna who leaves her home in rural Louisiana to pursue her dreams in the big American cities. Anna (who is actually performed by two people, Anna 1 and Anna 2), visits seven cities over seven years. In each city she combats one of the classical seven deadly sins: Sloth, Pride, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, and Envy.

Embedded in this allegorical tale is a complex tension: It’s a mocking and irreverent satire of the “American Dream,” but tucked away in Anna 2’s silence is the possibility of virtue amongst cruelty. This modern take on the 1933 opera examines the foundations of the American Dream, the virtualization of freedom, and if there is anything left of that dream for the rest of us?

Produced at the California Institute of the Arts as a co-production between the School of Theater and School of Music.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4138″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle” css=””][vc_single_image image=”4139″ img_size=”full” css=””][vc_single_image image=”4144″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_rounded” css=””][vc_single_image image=”4140″ img_size=”full” css=””][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4142″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle_2″ css=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4141″ img_size=”full” alignment=”right” style=”vc_box_circle_2″ css=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_single_image image=”4146″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle” css=””][vc_single_image image=”4145″ img_size=”full” css=””][vc_single_image image=”4151″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle” css=””][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_single_image image=”4150″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle” css=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”4148″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle” css=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_single_image image=”4155″ img_size=”full” css=””][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4152″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_rounded” css=””][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4154″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_rounded” css=””][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4153″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle” css=””][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”Channelers”]AI Oracle Opera (work in progress)[/lab_heading][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Channelers is a mystical, Artificial Intelligence-driven performance modeled as a hybrid post-show Q&A session/oracular divination ritual and set to a synthpop soundtrack, with all spoken language  and lyrics generated by our bespoke-trained A.I. chatbot personae. Audience members converse in real-time with our A.I. chatbots, as channeled by our performers via in-ear receivers. A hyper-transactional Q&A gradually gives way to penetrating contemplation and critique about the nature of our bodily, emotional, and ecological autonomy.

An initial production residency and work-in-progress performance was staged at Hamilton College.  Future iterations are in the process of becoming…[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]CREATIVE TEAM:

Conceived and Co-Created with Anna Huff & Jeff Larson
Directed by Chi-wang Yang
Lighting Design by Duncan Davies
Sound Design by Anthony Christiana[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4083″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4087″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4082″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4090″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle_2″][vc_single_image image=”4085″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”Scene with Cranes”]By Octavio Solis
World Premiere (2022)
[/lab_heading][vc_column_text]Octavio Solis—known for plays of satire, mythology, and steely realism—is considered one of the most prominent Latino playwrights in America. In this world premiere production, a tight-knit East L.A. family is left shattered in the wake of their youngest son’s mysterious death. Devastated, the mother searches for the truth by retracing her son’s final steps. In Solis’ signature blend of classic and contemporary, he parallels Jean Sibelius’ musical masterwork in a play of the same name. Exquisitely visceral, Scene with Cranes navigates the many avenues of loss, leaving us stranded in a meditation on grief.

Scene with Cranes is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Produced by CalArts Center for New Performance.

Photos: Gema Galiana[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”4065″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4071″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4064″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4063″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4072″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4069″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4070″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4059″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”Subterranean Heart”]Created by Cloud Eye Control[/lab_heading][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Subterranean Heart is an original hyper-opera that integrates experimental animation, music, and live performance. Set in an underground mining facility, scientists discover a powerful crystal in the body of a fallen worker. The worker undergoes a surreal, spooky and mediated surgery while her internal landscape is cinematically displayed on monitors close by. In the process her physical body transforms into a mediated body and vice versa while screens, projections and surfaces rotate to create an illusory architecture around her. Miners are sent into her body to excavate, and by doing so awaken a mysterious song into the universe. Two channels of projected video create an animated landscape that transforms into scenery, costume, and character.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]PRESENTATION HISTORY:

Los Angeles County Musueum of Art (LACMA)
REDCAT NOW Festival
Images Festival (Toronto)
Platform International Animation Festival (Portland)
San Francisco International Film Festival
TBA Festival (Portland)

Photos: Scott Groller, Holly Andres, Cloud Eye Control[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4044″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4046″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4045″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4048″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”Under Polaris”]Created by Cloud Eye Control
REDCAT, 2009 (Premiere)[/lab_heading][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]At once playful and deeply expressive, Under Polaris confronts head-on the tension between primal nostalgia and modern technological optimism. In their latest mix of projected animation, live theater and electronic music, Cloud Eye Control charts an epic journey across a vast arctic expanse — a sublime icebound landscape illuminated under the ethereal lights of the Northern sky.

At the center of Under Polaris is the quest to preserve, inside pristine shards of ice at the top of the world, a seed containing the wealth of all human history: a back-up system for our genetic imprint and the sum total of our personal memories. En route, the story’s protagonist shape-shifts into many a mythic creature to survive the elements and, in the process, learns about the inextricable interdependence of humans and nature.

Under Polaris is a National Performance Network Creation Fund project co-commissioned by REDCAT, PICA and Leslie B. Durst. Created with support from the Princess Grace Foundation Special Project Award.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]PRESENTATION HISTORY:

Santiago a Mil Festival (Chile)
REDCAT (Los Angeles)
Portland Institute of Contemporary Art
EXIT Festival (Paris)
Fusebox Festival (Austin)
National Performance Network Conference (Knoxville)
New Genre Festival (Tulsa)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4031″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4032″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4034″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4029″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][vc_single_image image=”4035″ img_size=”full”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4033″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4030″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_single_image image=”4028″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”The Closest Farthest Away (La Entrañable Lejanía)”]Teatro Mella – Havana, Cuba 2009
Miami Light Project – Miami, USA 2010[/lab_heading][vc_column_text]The Closest Farthest Away (La Entrañable Lejanía) was both a cinema-theater production and groundbreaking cultural exchange between US and Cuban artists. Conceived by Sage and Aleigh Lewis and Project Por Amor, this project sought to bridge the physical, emotional, and artistic isolation of our two nations.

Build as a co-equal collaboration between US and Cuban artists, this original work was co-written, co-directed, and co-produced by artists in both countries.

The staging was work-shopped in Los Angeles in 2008, and again in 2009, before the company returned to Havana to complete and premiere the final work in December 2009. Through this innovative use of media in performance, Cuban actors transcend 50 years of barriers-appearing virtually on an American stage and creating a dramatic metaphor for the impossibility of exchange. Actors on screen and actors on stage grapple with their inability to be in the same place, demonstrating the struggle between our two countries separated by less than 90 miles.

This project was made possible in part by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Project Troubador, The Sufficiency Foundation, American Composers’ Forum, El Movimiento Nacional de Video, Cuban National Television, and a grassroots movement of over one hundred private individuals.

For more information, visit http://projectporamor.com/performance

Photos: Adrianne Koteen[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3996″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3997″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3998″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][vc_single_image image=”3995″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3991″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4001″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4002″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4005″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][vc_single_image image=”3992″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”4009″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4010″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”4011″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_rounded”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”Half Life”]Created by Cloud Eye Control
REDCAT, 2015 (World Premiere)[/lab_heading][vc_column_text]A lamentation of fierce urgency, the latest multimedia production from Cloud Eye Control is an imagistic, visceral work inspired by the nervous fear felt in the wake the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Half Life explores the psychological fallout of global disaster, and how it affects our emotions and imaginations. The Los Angeles-based collaborators— Miwa Matreyek, Anna Oxygen, and Chi-wang Yang —bring their signature mix of projected animation, live performance and music to summon the unseeable forces that govern our collective sense of personal safety and control.

Half Life is funded in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project with lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the LEF Foundation; and The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital, primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Half Life is produced with Los Angeles Performance Practice, and was made possible in part by creative residencies at the Headlands Center for the Arts, CalArts Center for New Performance, and Duke University.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3966″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3971″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”3973″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][vc_single_image image=”3972″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle_2″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”3970″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_rounded”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”3969″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”Vineland Staele”]Composed by Sandeep Bhagwati, Performed by Mike Svoboda
World Premiere
REDCAT, 2007[/lab_heading][vc_column_text]At once sweeping in scope and finespun in its intricacies, this ambitious new work by Indian-German-Canadian composer Sandeep Bhagwati was a full-evening structured improvisation that brought together an array of music practices from different parts of the world—all working to conjure a new and unabashedly polyglot musical culture.

Led by renowned new music trombonist Mike Svoboda, a 30-piece configuration of the CalArts New Century Players fanned out across the theater in small groups and performed the piece on conventional Western instruments, shakuhachi, sarode, tabla, jal tarang, gamelan metallophones and Ewe drums.

The performance was configured in the round, with Svoboda standing in the center of the REDCAT theater and conducting in a 360 degree rotation. He was surrounded by the audience – who were, in turn, surrounded by the musicians. Svoboda interpreted the score, which included music, text, and electronic processing, and led the interactions among the ensembles, which varied on a nightly basis.

Vineland Stelae was made possible in part by the Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund of the Creative Capital Foundation; Goethe-Institut Los Angeles; and Villa Aurora.

Photos: Steven Gunther[/vc_column_text][vc_raw_html]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[/vc_raw_html][vc_single_image image=”3957″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3958″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3956″ img_size=”full” alignment=”right” style=”vc_box_circle”][vc_single_image image=”3960″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3959″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”This From Cloudland”]By Kristen Kosmas
California Institute of the Arts, 2016[/lab_heading][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Thirty-five hundred feet directly below the world’s only known micro-nation, two young lovers are holding themselves hostage while someone falls off a high wire and someone else has their head stuck in the mouth of a bear. This From Cloudland is a benevolent labyrinth, a tender onslaught of text-for-speaking for three or more voices.

Written as a self-described “text-for-performance,” Kosmas’ play is written as a continues multi-page poem that fluidly shifts between tense, memory, fantasy, and stages of love/loss. This production was staged as an intimate and immerse storytelling environment inside a custom-engineered inflatable “terrarium.”[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3948″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”3945″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”3949″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_rounded”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”3947″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][lab_heading title=”Half Life @ SFMOMA”]By Cloud Eye Control[/lab_heading][vc_column_text]San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Performance All Ages
Cloud Eye Control: Half Life

Navigating the Data Wilderness, April 15-16, 2017
Rituals for a Nervous Body, April 22-23, 2017

Take a look behind the curtain with the Los Angeles–based artists of Cloud Eye Control — Chi-wang Yang, Anna “Oxygen” Huff, and Miwa Matreyek — in this series of activations for all ages. Take a closer look at the building blocks that bring a performance to life; from immersive video, original music, and digital animation to costumes and set design; as Cloud Eye Control unravels their acclaimed theatrical production Half Life. Created in response to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, Half Life examines cycles of destruction and rebirth, exploring the relationship between the body and the environment. Over two weekends, Cloud Eye Control presents short performances, an array of artist-designed interactive technologies, “psychic armor” building workshops, and more culminating with Free Family Day on Sunday, April 23.

Participating artists: Jennifer Greer (performer), Sara Sinclair Gomez (performer), Jackson Campbell (video systems engineer), Katelan Braymer (lighting design), Shannon Scrofano (scenic design), Kate Fry (costume design), Anastasia Bujko (“Psychic Blob” costume design).

Performance All Ages brings newly commissioned, participatory artworks to intergenerational audiences and facilitates direct engagement with artists through workshops, gallery activations, and live performances. Cloud Eye Control’s is the third and final in a series of residencies during the 2016–17 season, following Chris Kallmyer: A Paradise Choir and Lucky Dragons: User Agreement.

Further Reading: Sensing Cloud Eye Control, by Lindsey Westbrook

Photos: Joanne Kim[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3925″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3929″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][vc_single_image image=”3936″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”3920″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle_2″][vc_single_image image=”3923″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_rounded”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”3918″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_rounded”][vc_single_image image=”3919″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle_2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”3933″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”3922″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_circle”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]