New Islands Archipelago
(2010, theatrical projections design)
In 2010, I lived in Manhattan for six weeks to do projections design and performance for the play New Islands Archipelago, written and directed by Paul Zimet featuring the Talking Band theater company. The Company had a residency at 3LD Art and Technology Center in Lower Manhattan, which allowed three weeks to build and rehearse the program, and then perform it for three weeks.
The play takes place on the cruise ship S.S. Azure, where the lives and dreams of the passengers all intertwine before the ship sinks, delivering everyone to a tropical paradise real-estate pyramid scheme. It's a musical comedy.
I loved this play, and my job was basically to direct a series of short films for enormous data projectors, and then perform them from the booth along with the actors. Overall it got great reviews, my favorite called it "that rare example of multimedia theatre in which video projections are used judiciously, presented artfully, and kept in disciplined service of the story.” Every gig should be both this challenging and this much fun to do.
