S 16 – Luna (working title; this project is under development).
Creative team:
Created, Libretto, designed by Gian Marco Lo Forte
Music composed by Adam Cuthbert
Art projected Mark Tambella
Lighting Design Ji-youn Chang
Video Design Rocco D’Santi
Production consultant Abby Felder
S 16 is loosely based on the short story Ciaula scopre la luna (Ciaula discovers the moon) by Italian writer and playwright Luigi Pirandello and presents the life of a young miner, Ciaula, who works and lives inside a Sicilian sulfur mine in the 19th century. Black moon S 16 – Luna nera S 16 is a new performance work created, written and designed by Gian Marco Lo Forte exploring human displacement. The story analyzes the harsh lives of miners whose work subjects them to the danger of bodily injury, primarily from the ever present possibility of explosions. The stage action takes place in an installation environment that evokes a diaphragm shutters system inhabited by live performers, live music and animated video and projected art. The world is created with smoke, see through plastic screens and mirrors, using live camera feeds projected on actors bodies to create an intimate experience of the desperation and psychological isolation of sulfur miners.
Singers:
1) The storyteller / Luigi Pirandello. Pirandello’s character is the one writing about the caruso Ciaula Pirandello is portrayed by a sicilian intellectual and writer - baritone.
2) Sicilian cantastorie. The sicilian music passages are sung by Kat Yew.
Instruments:
1, 2) Trumpet and guitar/ noise soundscape inside the mine.
3) Piano = The moon
Performer:
1) Ciaula - male dancers/ early 20’s (on video and on stage).
Stage Spec:
- Video TV screens (to reveal action of two miners/ dancers and emotions of Caruso Ciaula inside the mine).
- Storyteller/Pirandello singer w/ microphone.
- Cantastorie /Singer for Sicilian musical passages
- Ciaula’s chair with miner clothes and tools on it.
- Piano: The Moon
- Viola, violin
On video:
-Ciaula – young Caruso (he will be on stage as well)/ dancer
Creative Team
Gian Marco Lo Forte (libretto, concept and design) is the Artistic Director of PgEc ~ Pioneers go East Co. Gian Marco is originally from Italy and has worked as a writer, director, actor and set designer in NYC and Italy for the past ten years. Gian Marco is artist-in-residence at La MaMa where he founded in 2005 Pioneers Go East Co. which has developed original projects with music. Currently PgEc is performing I Fioretti in Musica – Opera in Danza. Its previous production was Caravaggio Chiaroscuro, an operetta with original libretto based on the Roman years of Caravaggio (libretto both in Italian and English, concept and design). Gian Marco’s directing and design credits include Bastiano e Bastiana by Sovrintendenza Beni Culturali di Perugia, Italy and a dance adaptation based on The Seagull. He wrote, designed and directed Butter Melts Away, a dance theater piece at La MaMa. He has collaborated with visual artist Sam Samore on Love, Beauty - Pitti Immagine, Firenze and designed for SLANT, Watson Arts, Magis Co, Pan Asian Rep. and for The Great Jones Repertory Co. at Biennale di Venezia. He has appeared in productions of Ping Chong, Elizabeth Swados, Federico Restrepo, and Roberta Nicolai and toured to Poland, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Italy and US. Graduated in Theatre at Centro Universitario Teatrale di Perugia, Italy, 2000; MFA in Design, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Award: NYU Graduate Assistantship 2007-2008. Opera America Award Director –designer showcase 2010.
Mark Tambella (paintings & drawings) is a resident artist at PgEc where he was artist and set co-designer on all of the company’s productions. Solo Exhibitions: 2010 & 2008 painting shows, John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY; 2005 Marmara Manhattan Gallery; 2001 LaGalleria /Paintings 6 E 1st St, New York, NY; LaGalleria 1 /Paintings, New York, NY; LaGalleria /Paintings, New York, NY. Group Exhibitions: 2004 LaMama Group Exhibition at LaGalleria, New York, NY; 2003 LaGalleria/Dieter Hall and Mark Tambella /Flowers and Nudes, New York, NY; Portrait Show/ PS122, New York, NY; Benefit Show for St Vincents Hospital, New York, NY; LaGalleria/ 4on4, New York, NY. Published Art: Bomb Magazine/Absolute Tambella, Poster for Festa della Cilegie, Bazzano Supieore, Italy Illustrations for Poems by Richard George-Murray Illustrations for "Lilac Cure"/poems by Richard George-Murray drawings Gay Sunshine/ drawings. Mark Tambella paintings: (www.johndavisgallery.com)
Jiyoun Chang (Lighting Designer) Recent collaboration with Gian Marco Lo Forte on new opera, I Fioretti in Musica at LaMama, Other works are T. 1912 (the Sinking of the Titanic) at the Guggenheim Museum, Light Within at Carnegie Hall, Musical RENT directed by Mike Donahue, Love Song by John Kolvenbach, New Musical Helen on 86th St. Resident Designer at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre. MFA in Design at Yale School Drama ‘08.
Rocco D’Santi (lighting & projection design) is a resident artist at PgEc where he co-designed projections for the opera I Fioretti in Musica, Dir: Gian Marco Lo Forte at La Mama NYC (World Premiere). New York based lighting and projection designer. His video work includes the Broadway productions of Time Stands Still and Collected Stories by Donald Margulies. Off- Broadway Credits include Imelda for Pan Asian Rep; Inner Voices for Primary Stages & 59E59; Bright New Boise at the Wildling Project; Shen Wei Dance Arts; A Second Chance at The Public Theatre; Reckless at Manhattan Theatre Club. Rocco’s lighting & projection design includes: A World Elsewhere, Ben Newman (Dir) New York City Fringe Festival; The Secret Lives of Losers; The Quindaro Project; The Secret of Osono, Ron Nakahara (Dir) Pan Asian Rep; The Assistant; Middlecrest at Saraw Lawrence College; and Marrio Fratti's Love and Sex; Donna Miceli Dance Concert, DMDC, Boston-Mass.; Much Ado About Nothing, Jan Page, (Dir), Colorado Shakespeare Festival. MFA in Theatre Design, University.
Abby Felder (mask/ make up design) most recently collaborated with Jane Catherine Shaw to build puppets for I FIORETTI IN MUSICA for Pioneers go East Co. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College where she studied puppetry with Dan Hurlin, and also completed an apprenticeship with renowned puppet artist, Frantisek Watzl and woodcarver/puppet builder Vaclav Krcal in Prague, Czech Republic.