PROTOTYPE: OPERA/THEATRE/NOW
January 7-20, 2018
Sixth Annual Festival Features Seven Topical Presentations
Gregory Spears + Greg Pierce’s
FELLOW TRAVELERS (NY Premiere)
Michael Gordon + Deborah Artman’s
ACQUANETTA (World Premiere, Chamber Version)
Mikael Karlsson + Elle Kunnos de Voss + Kathryn Walat’s
THE ECHO DRIFT (World Premiere)
Vladyslav Troitskyi + Illia Razumeiko + Roman Gryhoriv’s
IYOV (US Premiere)
Claron McFadden + Tuur Florizoone + Michel Massot + Marine Horbaczewski’s
SECRETS (US Premiere)
Matthias Bossi + Jeremy Flower + Carla Kihlstedt’s
BLACK INSCRIPTION (World Premiere)
Dylan Mattingly + Thomas Bartscherer’s
STRANGER LOVE (Work-in-Progress Preview)
Learn more at the official site here…
PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now launched in January 2013, unleashing a powerful wave of opera- and music-theatre from a new generation of composers and librettists. Across its first five seasons, PROTOTYPE produced and presented a total of 160 performances of 32 presentations, and shared the work of more than 500 local, national, and international artists. Now in its sixth season, PROTOTYPE, as Opera News proclaimed, “has become a major leader in opera theatre for the twenty-first century.”
Founded by Kristin Marting (of HERE), Beth Morrison (of Beth Morrison Projects), and Kim Whitener (of HERE), and now produced and directed by them along with new co-director Jecca Barry, PROTOTYPE supports and spotlights a diverse range of culturally and socially engaged work from intrepid creators across ethnicity and gender. Half of PROTOTYPE’s lead artists to date have been women, and the Festival has presented work from Belgian, Chinese, Dutch, Egyptian-American, Indian-American, Irish, Kazakh, KoreanAmerican, Lithuanian, Mexican, Russian, and Slovenian lead artists.
~~~
PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now invigorates New York City January 7- 20, 2018, with the sixth annual showcase of progressive opera- and musictheatre, curated by co-founding directors Kristin Marting (of HERE), Beth Morrison (of Beth Morrison Projects) and Kim Whitener (of HERE), along with newly appointed co-director Jecca Barry (of Beth Morrison Projects). Since its launch in 2013, the Prototype Festival has presented a phenomenal 32 new works across five seasons, propelling the industry forward as a firstrate presenter and influencer.
Socially conscious and artistically stimulating, PROTOTYPE 2018 boasts seven new presentations—three world premieres, two U.S. premieres, one New York premiere, and one work-in-progress—encompassing topical explorations of ethnic, gender, and queer identity, as well as environmental concerns and the human condition. The Festival kicks off with a toast—soprano superstar Renee Fleming hosts the PROTOTYPE Soiree at City Vineyard January 7, 2018—an intimate evening to mingle with artists, festival directors, and Metropolitan Opera stars.
Performances open January 9 with Michael Gordon and Deborah Artman’s Acquanetta, a “fascinating experience of modern psychological theater” (Super Sontagg) that observes the way the cinema has shaped racial/gender stereotypes and has created public/private identities. The piece is inspired by Mildred Davenport, the African-American star of the 1943 cult classic horror flick “Captive Wild Woman,” who was reinvented by Universal Studios as the “Venezualan Volcano.” This chamber version, commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects is produced in association with Bang on a Can and Trinity Church Wall Street and co-presented with Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center. It is the first production of the piece since the 2005 original in Germany. (@ Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center)
Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce’s “powerful…ravishing” (Cincinnati Enquirer) Fellow Travelers, based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 eponymous novel, is an extraordinary personal journey and illicit love story between two men set during America’s gut-wrenching McCarthy-Era witch-hunts and the often-overlooked “Lavender Scare.” This acclaimed Cincinnati Opera production, developed and co-commissioned by G. Sterling Zinsmeyer and Cincinnati Opera, is co-presented with John Jay College of Criminal Justice and American Composers Orchestra for the opera’s much-anticipated New York debut. (@ Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice)
