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REDCAT NOW Fest Program #3
Moving into the final week of the 3-week extravaganza of up-to-the moment performance ideas called the New Original Works Festival at REDCAT, we can look back and be excited for what's to come. The previous two programs have been eye-opening, entertaining and informative at various levels. This weekend seems to be just the same, only different.Multiple instrumentalist and composer Daniel Corral unleashes his mini-opera "Dislike" with an eight-piece accordion orchestra, called the Free Reed Conspiracy, and members of The People's Microphony Camerata. Constructing a libretto from commentary found on YouTube's most "disliked" video, promotional materials describe the "lush and comforting sonic world," within which the singers speak and sing a "surreal text filled with anger, mischief, naivety, homophobia and desperation."
Titling their dance "The Other Thing," LA-based choreographer/performer Meg Wolfe and similarly talented Minneapolis resident Morgan Thorson bring their process of human connection to the stage via this new work. They describe the piece as "a series of choreographic encounters staged in multiple cities . . . that trace the interactions that unlocked mutual recognition." Performing independent solos that appear less isolated as their proximity to each other changes, the two claim that "The Other Thing" is "done to destroy the awkward state of not knowing each other." And the press says that it is "exuberant, deficient, tender and daring."
Pop theater, an all-female cast, Sophocles' Philoctetes, Britney Spears and an audience armed with kazoos are the tools that director Deena Selenow, composer Paul Fraser and choreographer Genevieve Gearhart pool together to make "Toxikos." Against a narrative armed with what they describe as "irreconcilable moral dilemmas," the audience can savor the "super-sexy dance moves and the taste of a poison paradise."
Wow! Sounds almost too much for one night, but the festival welcomes and treats us to this smorgasbord of surprises.
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Related:
New Original Works Festival At REDCAT Kicks Off Week 2
REDCAT Celebrates 10 Years With 9 Original Performances
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