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#aspellforfainting (2013-2014)

 

a spell for fainting
click here for: slideshow | description | credits | video trailer | press

DESCRIPTION

 

A brand new ensemble work for a solo performer, a sound artist/DJ and a video artist/VJ, titled #aspellforfainting is an improvisational piece, created anew for each performance by using disparate textual sources (The Seagull, Macbeth, Hamlet, Streetcar Named Desire, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, YouTube instructional videos, etc), a multitude of musical selections and sounds, and over 50 objects as an investigation in the chaos of creation. The performer is given a series of tasks to complete while the DJ/VJ team shifts through a constantly rotating series of textual sources, sound cues, light changes, and props placed in the performers path.

Using Charcot’s Tuesday night lectures at the Salpêtrière and his instigation of hysterical performance as a leaping-off point, we trace the lines of fainting, hallucination, delusion, and love letters that run through the source material. #aspellforfainting vividly celebrates the live, raw neurosis of being a performer. The tempest that occurs between the initial brilliance of an idea and the dread one encounters when they can't figure out what they were thinking just a moment before. The crippling of an artistic block, unforeseen circumstances, nightmares, getting out of ones own way... and what happens when one confronts the reality of what was created, exposed, capsized, deconstructed, demolished, and uprooted.

 


 

CREDITS

 

co-created and performed by | Gillian Chadsey + Ivan Talijancic
video | Shige Moriya
sound design + editing | Gillian Chadsey + Ivan Talijancic
properties + costumes | Gillian Chadsey + Ivan Talijancic


 

performed

 

November 15+16, 2013: Incubator Arts Project (New York, USA) – avant-premiere
December 13, 2013: I LOVE MZ festival (Mendoza, Argentina) - international premiere
January 14-19, 2014: Incubator Arts Project's OTHER FORCES 2014 festival (New York, USA) - US premiere
July 16-19, 2014: Fury Factory Festival (San Francisco, CA) - West Coast premiere
July 24-27, 2014: SOS / Son of Semele theater (Los Angeles, CA)
October 25, 2014: KONDENZ festival (Belgrade, Serbia) - European premiere
October 29, 2014: Stara Elektrarna / Old Power Station (Ljubljana, Slovenia)