MƆɹNIŊ<br>[MORNING//MOURNING]
EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND THROUGH JANUARY 22!
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An experimental opera inhabits a world in which all humans have disappeared from Earth. An ensemble of five vocalist/multi-instrumentalists witness and guide the audience through the changes on Earth as forests grow back, new species evolve, and the human-made world erodes away. The piece is a fantastical and playful exploration into the dire political and ethical contradictions that structure current human relations with nature.
*The performance on January 11th will be followed by an artist conversation.
Produced by HERE. Commissioned and developed through the HERE Artist Residency Program.
The commissioning of Gelsey for mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Production design support provided by the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund, a program of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York). This production is made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
The development of mɔɹnɪŋ received funding from OPERA America's Opera Grants for Female Composers program: Discovery Grants program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Created by — Gelsey Bell
Directed by — Tara Ahmadinejad
Scenic design by — Afsoon Pajoufar
Costume design by — Ásta Bennie Hostetter
Lighting design by — Masha Tsimring
Sound design by — Hidenori Nakajo
Creative Producing by — Kristin Marting
Duration — 85 minutes
Cast — Gelsey Bell (Ari), Ashley Pérez Flanagan (El), Justin Hicks (Mag), Aviva Jaye (Kai), and Paul Pinto (So)
Team
Gelsey Bell (Creator)
Gelsey Bell is a Brooklyn-based songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and scholar. She has been described by The New York Times as “one of New York’s most adventurous musicians” and “a charismatic and fiercely intelligent performer.” She is a core member of thingNY, Varispeed, and the Chutneys. She is currently a resident artist at the HERE Arts Center and is looking forward to a music residency at Pioneer Works in November 2022. She has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opera America, the Japan Foundation, and others. Recent residencies include Mount Tremper Arts and the Kinosaki Arts Center in Japan. Her recent works include Cairns (2020), a soundwalk for Green-Wood Cemetery (included on the New York Times Best Theater of 2020 list); shuffleyamamba: Yamamba as a Bear (2021), a dance piece created with Yasuko Yokoshi; Meander (2021), a soundwalk created with Joseph White for Brooklyn Botanic Garden; SubtacTTTTTTTTT (2020), an early pandemic online performance created with thingNY; and Skylighght (2019), created with saxophonist Erin Rogers. She has released multiple albums, including the EP This is Not a Land of Kings, and performed her work Performance highlights also include Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway) and Ghost Quartet, Robert Ashley’s Improvement and Crash, Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens, Gregory Whitehead’s On the Shore Dimly Seen, Anthony Gatto’s Wise Blood, and a great many of John King’s Micro-Operas. She has a PhD from New York University in Performance Studies, and is part-time faculty at the New School.
