A "hyperopera" conceived by composer Christoffer Schunk, choreographer Lauren Frias, and director Kestrel Farin Leah. Schunk’s choral vocal score, based on TS Eliot’s The Hollow Men, follows the five movements of the poem but substitutes Eliot’s words with the composer's own syllabic translation, which is distorted, repeated, and voiced using extreme vocal textures in a combination of structured singing and paralinguistic vocalization. Wielding the Brechtian aesthetic inherent in Schunk’s music, the work approaches the trauma of battle through parody, playing with themes of translation and interpretation, and the transfer of realities between subject, performer and audience.
Original Score: Christoffer Schunk / Direction: Kestrel Farin Leah / Choreography: Lauren Frias / Costume design: Kate Fry / Lighting design: Zach Moore / Scenic design: Nina Caussa / Vocalists: Marcus Rubio, Christoffer Schunk, Max Wanderman, Danny Wood, Coleman Zurkowski / Cast: Chelsea Duvall, Lauren Frias, Nora King, Sadie Kuwano, AJ Schemadovits-Nor, Sarah Shoemaker, Gyasi Silas, Joseph Thomas, Renell White