| Immersive Theatrical Experience THE WANDERING Premieres Online and In Real Live on April 15-May15 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 12:25 pm EDT 03/18/21 | |
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| IMMERSIVE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE THE WANDERING PREMIERES ONLINE AND IN REAL LIFE ON APRIL 15-MAY 15 Inspired by the Music of Franz Schubert, The Wandering is Part Visual Album, Part Queer Drama, and Part Live Experience The Wandering, an immersive theatrical experience inspired by the music of Franz Schubert, is set to premiere online and in real life on April 15-May 15. Part visual album, part queer drama, and part communal live experience, The Wandering transports participants into a wonderous environment that unfolds both online and via physical tasks and ephemera shipped directly to audiences. At its heart, The Wanderinguses a queer lens to examine the love and pain that divided Schubert while taking guests on a journey that radically reshapes how classical music can be presented. The Wandering is created by newcomers Calista Small and Jeremy Weiss in collaboration with filmmaker Lara Panah-Izadi, designer Charlotte McCurdy, animator Zach Bell, theater artist Christine Shaw, graphic and print designer Irina Wang, web designer TanTan Wang, and executive producer Max Sauberman. Each of the four episodes that make up The Wandering contains a short film, an interactive object, an online experience, and an opportunity to connect with other audience members. Participants follow "The Wanderer," an enigmatic character ostensibly based on Schubert that is played by Weiss, a trained opera singer. In the films, original recordings of twelve Schubert songs featuring Weiss and pianist Marika Yasuda are set against a sparse and expansive midwestern landscape with indoor scenes shot on location at the historic Wright in Kankakee home and the 1928 Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove, IL. Complementing this visual narrative are physical experiences with augmented reality, outdoor excursions, and online interactions. "The ambiguity of Schubert's sexuality gave us license to imagine a future where his queerness was seen as wondrous and not strange," said Weiss. " We began to ask ourselves, 'Why is it difficult to find wonder and beauty in what we find different?' It's also known that Schubert and his friends performed art songs in their living rooms. So, too, are we inviting audiences to experience his music at home, while also transforming it, and queering it, for our digital reality." A limited supply of fully immersive experiences, containing objects and tasks, are currently on sale for $29.99 at https://experiencethewandering.com/. They are scheduled to ship in time for the April 15 opening of The Wandering. Pending availability, packages will remain in-stockthrough May 15. A digital-only experience is also available for $24.99. In addition to Weiss, the cast of The Wandering includes Bambi Banks Couleé as The Performer, Ethan Kirschbaum as The Doppelgänger, and Daria Harper as The Crow. The additional creative team for The Wandering includes Sahil Gupta and spase.io (augmented reality developer), Jared O'Brian (Sound Designer/Engineer), Brian Gill (Album Producer), Frank Sun (Director of Photography), and Craig Black (Choreographer). The development of The Wandering has been supported by The Schwarzman Center at Yale University and the Innovation in Art Song Summit at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. The Wandering was made possible by a grant from the Puffin Foundation. Please visit https://experiencethewandering.com/ for more information. About the artists Jeremy Weiss (Co-Creative Director/Vocalist/The Wanderer/Producer) is a classical vocal artist and actor who specializes in new and devised work. Recently, Weiss performed on PBS Great Performances as a street singer in Bernstein's Mass with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Marin Alsop. In 2019 he also made his debut at National Sawdust in the premier of Dialogues of the Travelers and premiered the role of The Creature in The Modern Prometheus in Redhook's Studio 153. He is also a two time finalist and award winner at the Lotte Lenya Competition (2019, 2020). Recent roles include: the title role in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, West Side Story (Action), and Rodelinda (Garibaldo) at Indiana University Opera, The Good Swimmer (Lifeguard) at BAM, Di Goldene Kale (Berke) with the National Yiddish Theater Off-Broadway, Belli's Orfeo Dolente (Orfeo), Cavalli's Erismena (Erimante), Oklahoma! (Curly), My Fair Lady (Freddy), and Into the Woods (Wolf/Prince). Jeremy completed his MM at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music where he studied with Dr. Brian Gill and graduated from Yale University with a double major in Humanities and Theater Studies. https://jeremyweissperformer.com/ Calista Small (Co-Creative Director/Producer) fosters innovation in the arts by creating opportunities for artists to work outside of their chosen mediums and collaborate in interdisciplinary teams. Trained as an actor, she has performed with The Neo-Futurist Theater, Redmoon Theater, and Filament Theater in Chicago as well as Richard Schechner of East Coast Artists in New York. She is a co-founder of The Merchant St. Gallery for Artists with Autism, a non-profit studio space in Kankakee, IL, and is the former director and creator of Play On!, a summer theater program for ESL students in Chicago. She holds a B.A in Humanities from Yale University, where she received the Susan J. Smith Arts Prize for outstanding contribution to the arts. https://calistasmall.com/ Charlotte McCurdy (Co-Creator/Design Director/ Film Special Objects Designer) is an award-winning interdisciplinary designer and researcher who works at the intersection of technology, futuring, and existential threats. Her work on carbon-negative materials, "After Ancient Sunlight," debuted as part of "Nature - The Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial." Fast Company selected it as the winner in the Experimental category in the 2019 Innovation by Design Awards and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Wallpaper, Dezeen, NowThis, Buzzfeed, and beyond. Based in New York City, McCurdy is a partner of the One X One initiative with the support of Swarovski, the UN Office for Partnerships and the Slow Factory Foundation; a member of the New Museum's cultural incubator, NEW INC with the support of Science Sandbox; and a member of Alternative Thinkers, a collective of change-making designers. She is a 2019 PopTech Fellow and a co-founder of cofutures, a platform for futurist creatives focused on directly impacting the world around them. She is a visiting professor at the Rhode Island School of Design where she previously served as the inaugural Global Security Fellow with the support of the MacArthur Foundation. She holds a Master of Industrial Design from RISD, and a Bachelor of Arts in Global Affairs from Yale University. https://charlottemccurdy.com/ Lara Panah- Izadi (Co-Creator/Film Director) is a French-American writer and director. She began directing for the stage by putting on an Opera at age 19. Her first play was selected for the 2013 Yale Playwright's Festival. In 2015, she directed and edited an award-winning documentary based on The Seagull by Chekhov. Lara continued learning her craft by assisting on set for Barry Levinson and Quentin Tarantino. In 2017, she directed her first narrative short film Chloe and moved to LA to work in creative development at Paramount Television. Her latest short film The Summer of Snakes, inspired by the life of artist Niki de Saint Phalle, was produced by Levantine Films (Hidden Figures, Beasts of No Nation.) Lara holds a BA in "Mathematics and Philosophy" and "Theater Studies" from Yale and recently graduated from the prestigious AFI Directing Workshop for Women program. She is currently developing two feature films and one TV show. Zach Bell (Co-Creator/Editor/Animator) is a writer and director based in Los Angeles, CA. Working in music videos, he has directed for Republic Records, Island Records, BMG, Universal Music Japan, Nettwerk, Deckstar, Photo Finish Records, Eleven Seven Records, Crooked Paintings and Milton Archer. His work has been featured on The Fader, Complex, Pitchfork, Noisey, Mass Appeal, Pigeons and Planes, Earmilk, HollywoodLife, and Ones to Watch, among others. As a director, his debut narrative short, Grapefruit, starring Olivia Olson (Adventure Time), will debut at the 2020 Woods Hole Film Festival in July. As a writer, he has most recently worked with AwesomenessTV and Scale Management on web series for digital distribution. Christine Shaw (Co-Creator) is a devised theater creator and performer dedicated to making work that asks her audiences impossible questions. Past and current provocations include: How do we wrap our heads around the immensity of natural disasters and our climate? (Sheet Metal Soup, 2019); How do we reckon with the absurdity of death? (The Usual, 2019); What does "surviving" sexual assault actually look like and how does a person heal? (The Aftermath, 2021); and how do women navigate the complex choices around motherhood? (The Motherhood Project, 2020-2030). Her work was in residence with Bethany Arts Community in 2020. Georgia-born and raised, she attended Yale University where she studied theater and dance. Since then, she has performed and created original works in Chicago (The Home for Wayward Artists), New York (The Araca Project), and Philadelphia. Now Philadelphia-based, she recently received her MFA from the UArts/Pig Iron program in devised theater. https://christineoctavia.com/ Irina Wang (Graphic and Print Design) practices the creative work of cross-sector translation, the strategic work of systems transition, and the ethical work of forging allyship. Her background in typographic, editorial, and book design started at the University of the Arts London, expanded into independent publishing, and carried over to Pentagram where she led cultural sector identity projects like London Design Festival. Combining a love of letterforms, literature, and environmental philosophy, she has presented on language sovereignty at TEDx and continues designing alongside linguists and native communities to revitalize endangered tongues such as Marma, Unangam Tunuu, Kouri-Vini, and A'ingae. Recognizing that language justice, environmental justice, and social justice are one demand arising from shared systemic issues, Irina obtained a Master of Industrial Design at RISD to interrogate the role of artifacts in change making and to develop transdisciplinary approaches to urgent systems-shifting. Scattered across the intersection of existential risk and structural injustice, her current project mosaic spans equitable carbon sequestration, global security architecture, indigenous language extinction, and circular energy/food systems. https://irinavw.xyz/ TanTan Wang (Web Designer and Engineer) is a recent graduate of Yale University with a Bachelor's Degree in Computing and the Arts. He has worked both as a designer and developer and is interested in drawing on both disciplines to shape new digital experiences. TanTan's most recent work was his senior thesis Liquid Dreams, where he explored the intersection between digital and physical materiality with abstract light and projection. He looks forward to exploring more of these avenues in upcoming projects. https://tantanwang.com/ Sahil Gupta (Augmented Reality Developer) is the founder and CEO of Spase, Inc., a 3D and Augmented Reality asset production company. He loves working on projects where technology and imagination have no limits. Sahil has previously written software for Tesla, Microsoft, and SpaceX, and graduated from Yale in 2017 where he created and hosted the satirical news show The Bull Report, wrote for the campus humor mag The Yale Record, and graduated with degrees in Computer Science and Economics. https://spase.io/ Frank Sun (Director of Photography) is a New York-based cinematographer and photographer. When not working on creative projects, Frank shoots for international brands such as Cartier, Lexus, Nike, etc. Frank's commercial work has screened all around the globe and at home on the billboards of Times Square. His personal short films and music videos have premiered at many film festivals including Vail Film Fest, Cleveland International, Colorado Adventure Film Festival, to name a few. His video art has been exhibited in SFMOMA and his commissioned work shown at the Highline Gallery in New York City. As a photographer, Frank's celebrity portraiture is frequently featured in Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine. His other editorial work has been published in W Magazine, Marie Claire Italy, Vogue Online, and other fashion publications. http://www.franksunfilms.com/ Max Sauberman (Executive Producer) manages strategy & analytics for Whisps full-time and is an alumnus of Bain & Company's Boston office, where he spent two years as an associate consultant dedicated to corporate strategy, post-M&A integration and private equity commercial due diligence. Max is an Economics graduate of Yale College with executive producer credits of world-premiere musicals at the New York Musical Festival and Yale University. He has spent time as a full-time touring vocal artist and business manager with the Whiffenpoofs. As both a performer and producer, Max is dedicated to developing and stewarding innovative new works. Max is trained in classical voice and musical theater performance at the Paper Mill Playhouse, and in 2017 led management and programming of a brand new black-box theater in New Haven, CT for its inaugural season. He serves on nonprofit boards for multiple performing arts outreach organizations and is dedicated to using the arts as a medium for bringing social impact and change. |
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| Link | https://experiencethewandering.com |
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