PANORAMANIA; Or The Adventures Of John Banvard / An O'er True Tale.
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Jacob Sexton
July 25, 2012
What is your job on this show?
director.
What type of theater do you like most to work on?
I am interested in collaboratively creating interdisciplinary new work. I am interested in inviting artists of other disciplines into the theatre making experience in order to create something new and stretch the existing boundaries of the theatrical form. This production is a collision of history, theatre, video, and music.
HISTORY: This is a TRUE story, throughly researched and developed. It began as a history term paper, and developed into a full-length play through the support of a Fordham University Research Grant. Mentored by historian Roger Panetta, Ph.D.
MUSIC: PartyFolk, is a NYC folk band, who have a "propensity for soulful musical satire and an infectious ability to turn any blank face into a grin." They just finished their debut album, We All Belong in a Zoo. They've written original music and lyrics for this production, as well as repurposing some of their existing work. The lead duo are also actors in the production, playing the ghosts of our protagonist's parents.
VIDEO: We are recreating Banvard's massive moving painting of the Mississippi River through projections and video. We are using original videography by Minnesota-based video team, Closing Eye Studios, who are currently making a new documentary entitled Twilight of the Mississippi.
THEATRE: {breathing time machine} bridges the gap between oppositions of old in order to create something new. Through the collision of theatrical and cinematic techniques, conventional and eccentric sensibilities, and natural and societal expectations, we aspire to break down traditional divisions in the theatre. We want to collaboratively create interdisciplinary art. To us, {breathing time machine} encapsulates our goal: to explore the interplay between the organic (breath) and the artificial (time machine). Originally an Avett Brothers lyric, we aim to:
“Break this tired old routine,
And this time don’t make me leave.
I am a breathing time machine;
I’ll take you all for a ride.”
Why did you want to be part of FringeNYC?
It's an invaluable opportunity to be a part of such a large artistic community within the heart of Manhattan. FringeNYC offers young arts an affordable venue to develop and share their work. Most of us working on PANORAMANIA are current students and recent grads; we are brimming with enthusiasm, but are in need of a stage and an audience to present our ideas. FringeNYC provides that. It has become a vital training ground for many young theatre artists, and we are thrilled to be a part of that community.
In your own words, what do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
A panoramic, folk infused, multi-media view of the life of John Banvard (1815-91), the unknown painter of the first "moving image."
Which famous New Jerseyite would like your show the best: Snooki, Bruce Springsteen, Thomas Edison?
Thomas Edison would be thrilled to see our production, because PANORAMANIA is about the man who created the first "moving image." But wasn't that Edison himself, you ask? History has misled you. John Banvard unveiled his “Grand Moving Panorama of the Mississippi” in 1846; it was the world's first moving painting - a quarter mile of canvas, hand sketched and painted of the Mississippi River valley, spun from one cylinder to another by hand crank at speeds up to 130 feet per minute. His contraption was so popular that Queen Victoria gave Banvard her Royal Approbation, and he went on to become the world's first millionaire artist. So, why haven't you heard of him? I bet Edison had.
Can theatre bring about societal change? Why or why not?
I love the sentiment street artist J.R. expressed when awarded the T.E.D. prize and challenged to change the world through his art: it is not the job of the artist to change the world; but rather, its the job of the artist to change how we see the world, so that we can then change the world ourselves.
Join us as we "rewind time" to the 19th century, and resurrect the life of the creator of the original "moving image." And then, maybe, we'll see our 21st century, over saturated, moving image based society through a new lens.
