Awesome Collective on the move...

working on another collaboration with Awesome Collective, a super neat group of Providence-area artists. we had a successful show in Dec at Firehouse 13 and are gearing up for a medium size show this summer, and a large show this early fall. everything's still in development, but as a hint we're working on a mash-up of the Mercy Brown story and the Devil's Footprint story. maybe at waterfire...

deep in to Rhode Island macabre right now. if you are too, or want to be, look up Dr. Michael Bell. He's the man.

->NB! we are recruiting artists and performers, so if you're in the PVD area and interested, send a note to info@awesome-collective

and btw, check out fellow Awesome members:
Caroline Doherty
Adara Myers
Joe Waechter
Rachel Jendrzejewski
Kirsten Volness



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The (unfinished) Ballad of Adam and Elena Emery

for about a year now i've been obsessed with this story of a sensational Rhode Island murder case.
i did a performance version of it for two singers, percussionist, and live processed and edited video. it was performed last summer at the Tank in NYC by the extraordinary singers/performers Seth Gilman and Kamala Sankaram along with percussionist Bill Solomon. (i have a video of it i am keeping locked for the moment, but if you're interested in viewing it please contact me on vimeo).

through investigating this amazing and horrible story i've learned a lot about Rhode Island, my home for almost 3 years. though i've had trouble translating it, both in the instance above and in other performance settings of this story since. the weird humor, cast of RI characters, as well as the senseless tragedy of Jason Bass' murder are there, it's just hard to take a story with so much information about such a crazy place as the Ocean State and know which ins-and-outs to cut and which to keep, and how to express that info without bogging down. all the while keeping in mind that this horrible thing actually happened and that i want to focus not on answers (since there are none) but our obsession with the mystery of it, which drives us to these ridiculous re-enactments.

well i'll get another crack at it. probably at a rare for me "solo opera" performance at the RISD Tap Room on May 20th. i'll confirm soon.




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in progress...

so i've designated this place to put works in progress (media samples) along with a (hopefully) few (hopefully) choice selections of half-baked thoughts, schemes, questions, etc. everything here is unfinished or unstarted and open to develop or die as the fates allow. comments are welcome and appreciated. thanks, jr