Documerica

ETHEL, Directed by Steve Cosson

Friday, April 11, 2014

8pm, (75min, no intermission)

Tickets: $50

“…unfailingly vital…” – New York Times

ETHEL’s Documerica is a multimedia performance event and a moving meditation on America’s relationship to our land, our resources and ourselves. When the newly-formed EPA hired one hundred freelance photographers across America to “document subjects of environmental concern” in the 1970s, an archive of more than 15,000 images was amassed.

In ETHEL’s Documerica, the dynamic, string quartet ETHEL breathes life back into these compelling snapshots with innovative projection design and the inspiring music of four distinctly unique composers (USA Friends Fellow Mary Ellen Childs, Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., Chickasaw Nation’s Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, and West Point commissionee James Kimo Williams); exploring a range of American musical styles, genres and techniques filtered through a distinctly 21st century lens.

Music by Mary Ellen Childs, Ralph Farris, Kip Jones, Dorothy Lawson, Ulysses Owens Jr., Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Tema Watstein and James Kimo Williams.

Projection design by Deborah Johnson, Set design by Adrian W. Jones, Lighting design by Christopher Kuhl, Sound design by Dave Cook, Concept by MZ Smith.

OZ is proud to be a co-commissioner of this project. Commissioned by BAM for the 2013 Next Wave Festival. Co-commissioned by Chestwatyr Foundation.