FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Graphic Novel Comes to Life with Music Performed by Kid Koala and Cecilia String Quartet and a Cast of Puppets Manipulated and Filmed Live on Stage
“Part of the enjoyment is glancing from the screen to the dimly lighted stage, seeing the puppeteers move from backdrop to backdrop and watching the ingenuity of the perspective and the minuscule gestures that translate into big-screen drama.”
—The New York Times
“The film, small and tender, could stand strong on its own, but the heart of the production lies in watching it being created.”
—The Guardian
NASHVILLE, TENN. – OZ Arts Nashville is pleased to present Montreal-based DJ, graphic artist, composer and music producer Kid Koala’s magical, multi-disciplinary adaptation of his graphic novel Nufonia Must Fall, March 4 & 5. Directed by the Oscar-nominated production designer K.K. Barrett (Her, Where the Wild Things Are, Lost in Translation, Being John Malkovich), Nufonia Must Fall Live unfolds as a film animated live on stage, with the soundtrack performed live by Kid Koala and Canada’s dynamic Cecilia String Quartet.
Performances of Nufonia Must Fall Live will take place at 8pm (with doors opening at 7pm). Running time is approximately 60 minutes. Tickets are $50 ($20 for kids 12 and under) and can be purchased at www.ozartsnashville.org. OZ Arts is located at 6172 Cockrill Bend Circle in Nashville, Tenn.
The “mesmerizing” (Art Info) Nufonia Must Fall Live centers around a lonesome, music-obsessed, headphones-sporting robot on the verge of obsolescence who falls in love with a winsome office worker. After a chance encounter, their precarious courtship unfolds via real-time filming of more than a dozen miniature stage settings and a cast of meticulously crafted puppets and robots. Kid Koala and the string quartet perform his original score for piano, strings, and turntables. The result is an unforgettably heartwarming performance that provides a fresh look at contemporary relationships, technology, and existential relevance.
Eric San (Kid Koala) created Nufonia Must Fall Live with set design by Benjamin Gerlis; puppet design by Clea Minaker, Patrick Martel, Félix Boisvert and Karina Bleau, music by Kid Koala and musical direction by Vid Cousins. AJ Korkidakis is Director of Photography.
Nufonia Must Fall Live follows Kid Koala’s 2012 project Space Cadet Headphone Experience, which combined a piano, space pods, turntables, and 250 sets of headphones with an audio science fair/gallery for a fully immersive audience experience. In his most recent live experience, a “Satellite Concert” (2015), the audience helped create the program through the use of turntables, effects boxes, and small crates of color-coded vinyl records. Subtle lighting changes cued the audience to play along, resulting in dozens of harmonized turntables creating a unique, uplifting, dynamic evening of light and music.
About the Artists
Kid Koala is a world-renowned scratch DJ, music producer, and award-winning graphic novelist. He has released five solo albums and has toured with the likes of Radiohead, the Beastie Boys, Arcade Fire, Money Mark, A Tribe Called Quest, Mike Patton, DJ Shadow, and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band. He has contributed to scores for the films Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Looper, and The Great Gatsby. He has composed music for the National Film Board of Canada, the Cartoon Network, Sesame Street, and Adult Swim. In addition to Nufonia Must Fall and Space Cadet, he recently created a score to the short film Minotaur and feature length film Zoom.
Production designer K.K. Barrett started his artistic career as a noise musician and painter before moving into film and music videos. Through close relationships with a handful of directors who share his penchant for personal and intimate narratives, he’s built a diverse body of work including Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, David O Russell’s surreal I Heart Huckabees, Michel Gondry’s Human Nature, and Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He has collaborated with director Spike Jonze on several multi-award winning feature films including Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Her (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award in Production Design).
Barrett has been twice honored with the MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction: for Beck’s “New Pollution” (1996) and for Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” (1997), and earned two Silver Clio Awards.
Formed in Toronto in 2004, where they are Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, the Cecilia String Quartet are powerhouse performers and enthusiastic educators and mentors to the next generation of chamber musicians. Hailed for their “powerful” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “dauntingly perfect” (Berliner Zeitung) performances, the CSQ perform for leading presenters in North America and Europe. Past engagements include performances at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, Northwestern University in Illinois, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Their live concert recordings have been broadcast on more than a dozen international public radio networks, including Australia (ABC Classical FM), Canada (CBC/SRC), the United States (WQXR), England (BBC Radio 3), and Germany (DeutschlandRadio). Prize-winners at several international competitions, including Osaka (2008) and Bordeaux (2010), they were awarded First Prize at the 2010 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), where they also won the prize for the best performance of the commissioned work. Min-Jeong Koh, Violin; Sarah Nematallah, Violin; Caitlin Boyle, Viola; and Rachel Desoer, Cello make up the dynamic Cecilia String Quartet.
Funding Credits
Nufonia Must Fall Live was co-commisioned by Luminato Festival, Adelaide Festival, The Banff Centre, Internationales Sommerfestival Hamburg, Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival Groningen, Roundhouse UK and BAM.
About OZ Arts Nashville
Since opening in 2014, OZ Arts Nashville, a 501(c)(3) contemporary arts center, has changed the cultural landscape of the city. Housed in the former C.A.O. cigar warehouse owned by Nashville’s Ozgener family, OZ Arts brings world-class performances and art installations to the city, and gives ambitious local artists opportunities to work on a grand scale. The flexible 10,000 square-foot, column-free venue, nestled amidst five acres of artfully landscaped grounds, is continually reconfigured to serve artists’ imaginations, and to challenge and inspire a diverse range of curious audiences.
OZ Arts, under the artistic leadership of Lauren Snelling, has presented luminaries such as Philip Glass and Tim Fain, Tim Robbins’ The Actors’ Gang, Kyle Abraham and Abraham.In.Motion, Peter Brook’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Trisha Brown Company, Vijay Iyer and Laurie Anderson. OZ Arts serves as a catalyst for local creativity through its TNT (Thursday Night Things) program, which fosters collaborations between Nashville-based artists from varying creative disciplines; and its newest series the Artists’ Lounge, which gives artists opportunities to develop work before a live audience, including fellow artists, in the venue’s intimate lounge space.
For more information, please visit http://www.ozartsnashville.org/.
OZ Arts Nashville Media Contacts
Nashville press, please contact Amy Atkinson at Amy Atkinson Communications, 615.305.8118 or amy@amyacommunications.com.