Interference Arts Collaborations
A great joy that we have at Interference Arts is the opportunity to collaborate with tremendous artists working in a variety of creative arenas on adventurous projects. In 2014 we were immersed in Flamenco music and the Convivencia (“coexistence”) period in Medieval Spain; in the Indian Kathak dance style, Persian music and 12th Century poetry; in the realm of a contemporary musical probing “the power of the imagination to effect change”; and in the “wildly imaginative” fictional world of archetypal characters in a cosmic struggle for survival. We have composed, produced, arranged and performed music; we have created glorious poetic visual environments for dance theater productions; we have designed engaging movement costumes; and we have brought our integrated design perspective to several new collaborations. In all of our work we strive to bring the highest level of creativity, our insights, and our experience to explore humanity – to “interfere” – as we endeavor to contribute to the evolution of a healthy, positive and sustainable world. We celebrate our opportunities to collaborate with these wonderful artists, and we look forward to what 2015 will bring.
Limited material has been visible for these projects beyond the productions, and we are excited to be able to share documentation now for all of our 2014 collaborations: ConVivir: 7 Dances to a More Compassionate World, with Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre; Stripe and Spot (Learn to) Get Along, with Off-Leash Area; Rubaiyat – a Life in a Day, with Katha Dance Theatre; and The Secret Lives of Coats, with Red Eye Theater. In addition, we would like to bring attention to a collaboration undertaken in 2011 that highlighted how theater helped people to stay alive during the WWII Holocaust, and included a tour in the Czech Republic – Why We Laugh – a Terezin Cabaret, with Step in Time Theater.
We invite you to explore this work.
ConVivir
In the spring of 2014 we worked with Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theater on the show ConVivir: 7 Dances to a More Compassionate World at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. The show explored this vibrant period when Muslims, Jews and Christians were able to establish an equilibrium that made it possible to live, learn and create amazing work together. Directed and choreographed by Susana di Palma, audiences were mesmerized by such acclaimed modern world masters of flamenco, hip hop, and Sephardic music and movement as Amir-John Haddad, José Salinas, Arcadio Marin, David Jordan Harris, Antonio Arrebola, Judith Brin Ingber, La Conja and Zorongo dancers.
Interference Arts created the visual design, served as design dramaturg, integrated digital illustrations and costumes created by Candy Kuehn, and served as music adviser.
Learn more about ConVivir here.
Stripe and Spot (Learn to) Get Along
Craig Harris composed and produced the music for Off-Leash Area’s new touring production Stripe & Spot (Learn to) Get Along. This show presented two characters stranded on a desert island, at first struggling to exist, and then ambitiously striving to control their world. The initial production launched on June 6-8, 2014, and the tour took place in September and October 2014.
Pamela Espaland called it “wildly imaginative, sophisticated and very funny” on Minnpost. Sophie Kerman calls it “fun and refreshing” on Aisle Say Twin Cities, and highlights Paul Herwig and Taous Khazem as “engaging performers.”
Learn more about Stripe and Spot (Learn to) Get Along here.
Rubaiyat – a Life in a Day
Rubaiyat – a Life in a Day explored the poetry of Omar Khayyam, providing a platform to examine human existence, and probing the convergence of the Kathak Dance style of Northern India and Persian music which helped to create a renaissance of the dance style. Craig Harris created the projection design and served as dramaturg for Rubaiyat, which was produced at the Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts November 7-9, 2014. As a member of the artistic development team Harris collaborated to create the scenario. Artist Candy Kuehn created digital illustrations for the show.
Learn more about KDT’s Rubaiyat here.
The Secret Lives of Coats
Craig Harris was the Music Director and Pianist for The Secret Lives of Coats, a play by Stephanie Fleischmann, with music by Christina Campanella, directed by Hayley Finn.
Red Eye Theater kicked off their 31st season with the world premiere of a quirky musical in which three coatcheck girls confide their hopes and dreams via a network of tin can telephones, and our most precious treasures disappear into the holes in the pockets of our coats. The show is a charming riff on class and aspirations that taps into the post-crash, recession-era mentality.
Learn more about The Secret Lives of Coats here.
Why We Laugh – a Terezin Cabaret
In 2011 we worked on the artistic team to create Why We Laugh, a play written by playwright Kira Obolensky about a cabaret created by Jewish prisoners in the Terezin ghetto/transport camp during World War II. Craig Harris adapted music from fragments that were discovered with the cabaret script, created new music for the play, and served as the Music Director and pianist for a production that toured in the Czech Republic.
Stay tuned! There is a USA premiere production in the planning for later in 2015.
Learn more about Why We Laugh here.