Manual Cinema and the Chicago Q Ensemble

Project Title: FJORDS

FJORDS is a multidisciplinary, multimedia performance by Manual Cinema in collaboration with the string quartet Chicago Q Ensemble. Toeing the line between live scored cinema and performance art, FJORDS features shadow puppetry, live silhouette, video, and manipulated slide projection to create haunting visual renderings of Portland-based poet Zachary Schomburg’s poetry. Juxtaposing dreamscapes with banal everyday experience, Schomburg’s pseudo-narrative poems explore themes of loss, displacement, and childhood. Chicago Q Ensemble will accompany the performance with Manual Cinema composer Kyle Vegter’s original score for string quartet, percussion, and electronics. Employing extended string techniques, live audio signal processing, and theatrical staging, the musical portion of the work will be integrated with the visual elements of the show. Chicago Q Ensemble performers will manipulate amplified objects, play Peking Opera gongs, and interact with shadow puppets to create a unified and decidedly new theatrical performance experience.

FJORDS will premiere February 23-26, 2012 at the Poetry Foundation in downtown Chicago, Illinois. In March 2012, Manual Cinema will embark on their first East Coast tour in tandem with poet Zachary Schomburg.

manualcinema.com
chicagoqensemble.com
lovelyarc.tumblr.com
kylevegter.net

About the Artists:

MANUAL CINEMA creates immersive theatrical stories that combine handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic motifs, and live sound manipulation. Shows include THE BALLAD OF LULA DEL RAY (2010), STUDY IN FORGETTING #3 (2011), and their first full-length work, ADA/AVA (2011). Manual Cinema has performed at Links Hall, the Chopin Theatre, the Charnel House, the Comfort Station, the Milk Factory, the Logan Square Arts Center, Detroit’s Trumbullplex, and various bars and underground spaces around Chicago. In Spring 2012, the University of Chicago will commission Manual Cinema to create a site-specific performance for the new Logan Arts Center. Manual Cinema is Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter.

CHICAGO Q ENSEMBLE is a string quartet of four women dedicated to creating musical experiences which uplift and engage all people involved. Their mission is to help create a vibrant community of 21st-century musicians, collaborators and listeners — and to have fun doing it. The ensemble has been heard in concert throughout Chicago, including recitals at Northwestern University, DePaul University, Ganz Hall, Spoke Gallery, Uncommon Ground Devon, Grace Episcopal Church, Music Institute of Chicago, and on the Ravenswood Concert Series at Dixon Strings.