I decided that I wanted to use video projection very early on in creating UNPRONOUNCEABLE SYMBOL, for several reasons. It allows you to very easily incorporate outside material in a way you otherwise couldn’t. In this show in specific, we were able to incorporate a lot of footage, both still photos and video clips, that I had taken in Minneapolis and to have the sort of cold “outside”, urban imagery to contrast with the opulence of the “inside” world that we made onstage with heavy curtains, flowers, purple light and haze. Not to mention the easy ability to incorporate Minneapolis itself into the show, which I was interested in. I’ve also always enjoyed the aesthetic of projected video as I often favor very basic, i.e. transparent stagecraft so having slides appear behind the action appeals to me. Generally, the ephemeral nature of projected imagery, lights and shadows and such is something I really enjoy and think added a lot to our show.

Neal Medlyn

SOHO Think Tank ICE FACTORY '08 : TRACES/fades
July 16-19 Wednesday-Saturday 7PM $10-$15
Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster St

a meditation on Alzheimer's and our national inability to remember history.
an intergenerational performance that examines the fluidity of identity.

written and conceived: Lenora Champagne
directed: Lenora Champagne and Robert Lyons
featuring: Mary Fogarty*, Judith Greentree*, Joanne Jacobson*, Quanda Johnson*, Matthew Lewis*, Amelie Lyons and Lenora Champagne
music and sound:Daniel Levy and Lisa Dove
video: Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty
lights: Stacey-Jo Marine
costumes: Liz Prince
stage management: Nicole Marconi
assistant direction: Tricia Cramer and Janina Santillan

Red handle's Yellow Electras
PERFORMANCE: July 10 - 19 $17
Ontological-Hysteric Incubator

Red handle creates and presents live performances that crash through boundaries of media, genre, storytelling, and audience.
Red handle's newest remaking creates a new template for an old myth, mixing video, movement, opera, and theatre in a playful series of episodes, interruptions, and entertainments. Following the success of iph.then at the Ontological last summer, YELLOW ELECTRAS is a mash-up of the Electra myth and Kandinsky's Yellow Sound, and includes several Electras, a chorus, opera, dance, and sounds from Strauss, Kandinsky, and & Grizzly Bear.

Writer/Director: Peter A. Campbell
Dramaturgy: Ramona Thomasius
Movement: Laura Ward
Co-Producer: Eve Hartmann
Stage Manager: Christine Vartoughian
Sets + Lights: Peter Ksander
Video Design: Ann LePore
Video Editing + Operator: Laura Keller
Light Operator: Lauren Barbara

CAST:
Laura Heidinger - ELECTRA
Genevieve de Gaillande - ELECTRA
Karen Rich - ELEKTRA
David Gordon - ORESTES
Gavin Starr Kendall - MENTOR/PYLADES
Chorus: Diane Botta, Jackie Byrne, Carissa Cordes,
Annie Deng, Sarah Hartmann, Cindy Kawasaki,
Jaime Lubin, Ashlie Miller, Lauren Ospala,
Marjorie Polunas, Justine Raczkiewicz,
Iracel Rivero, Jennifer Stepanyk, Jenny Vallancourt

Prince: Neal Medlyn's Unpronounceable Symbol
PERFORMANCE: July 9th-20th 8PM
additional late show Sat 11PM
PS122

"Neal Medlyn's Unpronounceable Symbol is Neal Medlyn's fourth and largest to date pop song tragic-comedic extravaganza. Following the success of his Lionel Richie Opera, R. Kelly cabaret, and wild and bloody spin on Phil Collins, Medlyn takes on the purple, hyper- sexualized world of Prince.

Set to many of Prince's biggest hits and infamous b-sides, all performed onstage by a live band, Neal plays out an evening of seduction and intense internal spiritual conflict between two characters: an engaged cab driver and a messianic libertine. Jealousy, band troubles, violence, death, a dream ballet, decent into hell and the eventual transubstantiation of body fluids and redemption all find their place in an operatic and overblown evening of androgynous musical entertainment.

Co-written and with musical arrangements by Tony-Award Nominated and Obie winner Kenny Mellman; Herb of Kiki & Herb and co-creator, with Bridget Everett and Michael Patrick King ("Sex and the City") of At Least It's Pink. Neal will also be joined by Adrienne Truscott, lauded choreographer and half of the award winning neo-vaudeville duo the Wau Wau Sisters, who will also contribute choreography, and Carmine Covelli.
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SXIP Shirey performing at TED

Not digital, but certainly SXIP is someone who uses the technology that he does use completely smoothly and fluidly, and in innovative ways.

Anyway I just love Sxip's performances, so this is my "hey did you see this at TED" post.

and go watch some more Sxip, it's just wild, and second to live video is the way to see him.  It's hard to believe that "that sound" is coming from one man, and with "that instrument".

Do You Copy? is a multimedia puppet show, meaning that we integrate live cameras with the live puppets. I'm not so interested in making videos, but more interested in finding the interaction between real space and virtual space in a theatrical setting. So Do You Copy? uses live video that is projected back onto a variety of mobile projection screens. And also some video textures that are an attempt to create dynamics of emotion or kinesthetic experience. These textures are used like instrumental music that guides a viewers sensations, rather than direct storytelling elements.

So the actual technology of the show is quite simple. I'm not trying to use any fancy triggers or tracking, just really simple interaction via a live camera.

The 'story' of the piece is also about the effects of technology on one's person. Really about the disparate self created via the neverending supply of digital pictures, email accounts, social networking, site aggregators, chat, etc that in some ways define who we are as individuals. And how much control we do or do not, can or cannot have on creating our own definitions.

The content sounds like a very thoughtful show when i read the above paragraph, but really it's more of an action-packed sci-fi. Here are some pictures of the work we did in April at 10 Jay st in Brooklyn.

Further development is happening at the Little Angel Theater in London this July

and
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Assember Dilator
PERFORMANCE:  June 20,  21 8PM $10
Bushwick Starr

207 Starr St. Brooklyn, NY

ASSEMBER DILATOR is A loud work in progress with Caitlin McDonough Thayer and Mike Sharpie.
Featuring the work of Shannon Sindelar, Mirit Tal, Jon Luton, Andreea Mincic, TaraFawn and Benjamin Brown.

31 Down creates moody, audio-based imagistic work infused with obsession, voyeurism, time and ingenuity; covering such topics as surveillance, privacy, invention and innovation; telepathy, radio, television, the Internet and mass media; sanity, delusions and the last days and thoughts of people’s lives.