Past and present Work
Ridge Theater
Prior Work
Lightning At Our Feet
“This Is My Letter To The World”
A multimedia song cycle inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson. Four contemporary women channel the poet as they pore over poems, write songs, and contemplate mortality, while receiving dispatches from a distant war. Together, these collaborators create a theatrical prose poem that reimagines Dickinson’s words as songs for our time.
Commissioned by BAM for the Next Wave Festival
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston
Reviews:
The New York Times
Henryk Górecki Symphony No. 3
“No, Mother, Do Not Weep”
Conductor Michael Christie’s closing concert of the season features the world premiere Ridge Theater staging of Henryk Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Gripping dreamlike visual artistry and hallucinatory film work accompany Gorecki’s prolific prayer for light in the midst of darkness.
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Reviews:
The New York Times
The Sinking Of The Titanic
“Men Fear Death, As Children Fear To Go In The Dark”
The Sinking Of The Titanic immerses audiences into a rich sonic and visual world that imagines the music of the ship’s orchestra after it submerges through a multimedia theatrical re-visioning of British composer Gavin Bryars’ 1969 score.
The Union League Of Philadelphia
This realization of The Sinking Of The Titanic was co-commissioned by Peregrine Arts and The Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University with the generous support of The Philadelphia Music Project, a program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, administered by the University Of The Arts. Additional funding was provided by The Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation and The Argosy Foundation.
The Difficulty Of Crossing A Field
“Why Father, What Has Become Of Mr. Williamson?”
The Difficulty Of Crossing A Field is an opera based on an Ambrose Bierce tale about an inquest into the strange disappearance of an Alabama planter just before the Civil War.
Alexander Kasser Theater
Harry Partchs’ ‘Oedipus’
“For Death Is All The Fashion Now, Till Even Death Be Dead.”
The world premiere of a new production of Sophocles’ tragedy, using a score written by, and instruments created by the late avant-garde composer Harry Partch.
Alexander Kasser Theater
Reviews:
The New Yorker
Gotham
“Why Am I Living Here?”
A symphony with projections, Gotham captures the aura of a city through music and imagery. In this case, the city is our city where we live—New York.
Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, New York City; Performed by American Composers Orchestra
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; Performed by London Sinfonietta
Jennie Richee
“This Will All End Sadly, Badly.”
Obie Awards for Direction, and Collaborative Design.
Bessie Award for Visual Design.
A multi-media theater work inspired by the life and art of Henry Darger. The piece delves into the wildly fantastic world created by Darger in, The Story Of The Vivian Girls, In What Is Known As The Realms Of The Unreal.
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, (World premiere)
Tanz Theater, Darmstadt Germany, (International premiere)
St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn
The Kitchen, New York City
—Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune
Reviews:
The New York Times
—Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times
The Death Of Klinghoffer
“I Am An Old Woman. I Thought You Were Dead.”
An opera based on the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. Few works have ignited more controversy than John Adams’ audacious, multilayered opera.
BAM’s Next Wave Festival
Reviews:
The New York Times
Hypatia
“She Is No Longer Behind A Screen.”
A Play by Mac Wellman.
Directed by Bob McGrath. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Set Design by Molly Hughes. Lighting by Jane Cox.
SoHo Rep, New York City
Charlie In The House Of Rue
“Why Is Everybody Laughing?”
A silent play with music. Initially the story gives the impression of a strange but amusing dream with the Little Tramp at its center, then the dream becomes a horrific nightmare.
Presented by American Repertory Theater (ART), Cambridge, MA.
Chaos
“A Butterfly’s Wing In Beijing Can Magnify Till It Sets A Kansas Cyclone Spiraling.”
A modern opera.
Composed by Michael Gordon. Libretto by Mathew McGuire. Directed by Bob McGrath. Projections by Laurie Olinder. Film by Bill Morrison. Dramaturgy by Daniel Zippi.
Co-Presented by The Creation Company and Bang on a Can.
The Kitchen, New York City
Reviews:
The New York Times
Alice In Bed
“The Innocent Boy Came And I Tried To Corrupt Him.”
A Play by Susan Sontag, Alice in Bed is a free dramatic fantasy which merges the life of Alice James, the brilliant sister of William and Henry James, with the heroine of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It is a play about the anguish and grief and rage of women; and about the triumphs and limitations of the imagination.
North American Premiere.
Presented by American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, MA.