Naked Revolution

ABSTRACT:
an opera • Harris Theatre • Center for the Arts • composed by Dave Soldier • libretto by Maita di Niscemi Conductor/Music Director: Sybille Werner • Stage Director: Kirby Malone • Choreographer: Emily Berry Multimedia and Set Design (based on paintings and collages by Komar & Melamid): Gail Scott White Lighting Design: Rob Hencken • Costume Design: Stephanie Lundy • Sound Design: Brian Keating.

STAGE DIRECTOR'S NOTE:
NAKED REVOLUTION is a history dream opera. Shards of dreams materialize, inhabited by the likes of George Washington and Vladimir Lenin. Are they escapees from a wax museum diorama, singing statuary, or flesh and blood? Before we can decide, they vanish. Librettist Maita di Niscemi has fashioned the Russian artists (now American citizens) Komar & Melamid’s concerns with monumental propaganda into a fragmented depiction of the historical forces wrought by revolution and political upheaval, and how these forces often leave a trail of corpses in their wake. To counter the juggernaut of ideologies, this opera conjures artistic revolutionaries Marcel Duchamp and Isadora Duncan, whose idiosyncratic world views embrace and celebrate the importance (and the freedom) of the individual, the dreaming citizen. The opera’s score, by Dave Soldier, swoops through and weaves among an array of musical styles, combining strings, woodwinds, keyboards, percussion, accordion, and electronics. Komar & Melamid’s paintings and collages of eerie visions and juxtapositions from the dreams of a Russian immigrant are animated in this production of NAKED REVOLUTION in a style that might be called "fantastical realism." The images come to life, and frame and interact with the singer-actors in a sort of "live movie." Washington, Lenin, Duchamp and Duncan gyrate in an operatic time-warp of revolutionary lyricism, on subjects political and artistic.

CONCEPTION:
Komar & Melamid

COMPOSER:
Dave Soldier

LIBRETTIST:
Maita di Niscemi

CONDUCTOR/MUSIC DIRECTOR:
Sybille Werner

STAGE DIRECTOR:
Kirby Malone

CHOREOGRAPHER:
Emily Berry

MULTIMEDIA AND SET DESIGN:
(based on paintings and collages by Komar & Melamid) Gail Scott White

LIGHTING DESIGN:
Rob Hencken

COSTUME DESIGN:
Stephanie Lundy

SOUND DESIGN:
Brian Keating

PRODUCERS:
Kirby Malone and Gail Scott White

CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Peter Joshua Burroughs, Loretta Giles Eric Greene, Alex Helsabeck, Anna Hurwitz, Nick Spanos, Jennifer McGinnis, Terri Erchul Malone, Andrea Schewe, John Boulanger, Mark Cobb, Loretta Giles, Adam Hall, David Humphrey, Susan Lloyd, Terri Erchul Malone, Jennifer McGinnis, Meaghan Rymer, Andrea Schewe, Dennis Michael Stroud, Steve Tipton, Kelly Wilson, Charles Lee Holley and Chris Parsons

OPERA COACH AND MUSIC PREPARATION:
Stephen Brown

ASSOCIATE MUSIC DIRECTOR:
Joel Lazar

ORCHESTRA:
Julie Angelis, Joseph Blumka, Lawrence Bocaner, Zsuzsanna Emödi, Ken Hall, Sonya Hayes, Jonathan Kalbfleisch, James Nalley, Matthew Nix, Zoltan Racz, Ronald Sipes and Jonathan Velsey

PRODUCTION MANAGER:
Dan Hobson

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER:
Kira Hoffmann

STAGE MANAGERS:
Lori Devonshyre and Ashleigh Stevens

MULTIMEDIA ARTISTS:
Mark Alyea-Cheu, Elise Berenson, Jill Buxrud, Rafael Chargel, Jesse Cowan, Andrew Green, Maryam Kasmai, Dan Sharnoff, Jeni Sarkilahti, Steve Schwartz, Lee Vaughan and Gail Scott White

STORYBOARDS:
Gail Scott White and Kirby Malone

SCENE SHOP SUPERVISOR:
Ethan Osborne

ASSISTANTS TO THE STAGE DIRECTOR:
Maryam Kasmai and Chris Parsons

WIG STYLIST:
Monica Simons

ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER:
Alecia Gower

DRAMATURGY:
Beverly Blois and Maryam Kasmai

OPERA ADVISOR:
Carla Rae Cook, Mason’s Department of Music

CHOREOGRAPHY ADVISOR:
Suzanne Carbonneau, Mason’s Department of Art and Visual Technology

HISTORICAL ADVISOR:
Beverly Blois, Chair, Humanities Division, Northern Virginia Community College

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER:
Evan Cantwell

DOCUMENTARY VIDEOGRAPHER:
Paul Seymour

The playbill program and announcement postcard for NAKED REVOLUTION are available upon request.

Made possible by support from:
College of Arts & Sciences;
Departments of Art and Visual Technology, Dance, Music and Theater of the College of Visual and Performing Arts;
University Life Programming Committee;;
National Endowment for the Arts;
& Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)