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THE VAULTS PRESENT SOUNDS AND SORCERY CELEBRATING DISNEY

• THE VAULTS, LONDON’S HOME FOR IMMERSIVE THEATRE AND ALTERNATIVE ARTS, CREATES BRAND NEW EXPERIENCE SOUNDS AND SORCERY CELEBRATING DISNEY FANTASIA THIS SUMMER

• THE PRODUCTION, INSPIRED BY THE DISNEY MASTERPIECE, CELEBRATES AN ICONIC MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF AHEAD OF HIS 90TH ANNIVERSARY

• FEATURING THE WORLD’S GREATEST , A SERIES OF MULTI-COLOURED, KALEIDOSCOPIC AND THEATRICAL INSTALLATIONS WILL BRING THE WORLD OF DISNEY FANTASIA TO LIFE

• GENERAL ON SALE AT 10AM ON THURSDAY 19 APRIL The Vaults today announces its new experience Sounds and Sorcery celebrating Disney FANTASIA, a brand new immersive experience which will open this summer, in the year Mickey Mouse celebrates his 90th anniversary. Inspired by the classic 1940 Disney film, a series of unique installations will bring some of the world’s most iconic classical music to life in a multi-sensory experience. The production will open 3 July, with opening night for press on 11 July.

It's time for a dance with a funky hippo that will leave you in a celestial spin, walk in a prehistoric wasteland to give you goose bumps, seek out the fish and the fairies in a forest of ethereal dreams and, if you dare, sneak into the Sorcerer's lair - you may find this surreal symphony swells the soul.

Audience members will be invited to step inside The Vaults maze of tunnels in Waterloo, London, where, wearing individual headphones, the will guide them on an interactive journey. Each space will reveal a fantastical environment using a combination of cutting edge binaural sound, 3D projections, elaborate set designs and dazzling lighting effects to reimagine the many worlds of Disney Fantasia. Under the musical direction of Stephen Higgins, a 96-piece orchestra has created a new recording especially for the experience, featuring the 8 diverse classical pieces of music from the original film including The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, , Night on Bald Mountain and Nutcracker Suite.

Kieron Vanstone, Director of The Vaults, and Producer of Sounds and Sorcery, says: ‘When we first began exploring the world of Disney Fantasia, we knew instinctively that this was the next epic scale immersive project for us. For some time we’d been exploring the use of headphones, and specifically binaural technology, as a technique for plunging our audiences deeper into the worlds we create. Fantasia is such an inspiring, iconic movie that truly features some of the most excellent music that has ever been scored. We were incredibly inspired by what and his animators achieved with this music in the original movie, and our immersive take on it will aim to be as ground-breaking, just as inspirational and sprinkled with the same amount of wonderful.’

Anna Hill, Chief Marketing Officer, The Walt Disney Company UK and Ireland, says: ‘At Disney we love bringing innovative experiences to new audiences, and we are delighted that The Vaults are staging this Fantasia-inspired production this year, as the film marks a truly iconic moment in the history of Mickey Mouse ahead of his 90th anniversary. Fantasia was, and still is, a ground-breaking movie and Walt Disney’s creativity continues to inspire people all over the world today, so it is fitting that this experiential event is paying tribute to this seminal work in this way.’

“It is our intention to make a new version of ‘Fantasia’ every year. Its pattern is very flexible and fun to work with – not really a concert, not a vaudeville or a revue, but a grand mixture of comedy, fantasy, ballet, drama, impressionism, color, sound and epic fury.”

Walt Disney, 1941

Sounds and Sorcery celebrating Disney FANTASIA will be directed by Daisy Evans, the founder and Artistic Director of Silent Opera whose work focuses on the use of headphones to bring classical music to new audiences. Design for the production has been created by Kitty Callister in collaboration with a variety of artists who have created the installations including David Gregory Sound Designer, Doug Foster Video Designer, Jake Wiltshire Lighting Designer and Andy George Production Manager.

ENDS

For further information please contact THE CORNER SHOP PR on 0207 831 7657 Francesca Hoare [email protected] Su-Ann Chow-Seegoolam [email protected]

LISTINGS

SOUNDS AND SORCERY CELEBRATING DISNEY FANTASIA Produced & Presented by The Vaults Inspired by Disney Fantasia Directed by Daisy Evans Sound & Musical Direction by Stephen Higgins Sound Design: David Gregory

The Vaults, Leake Street, London SE1 7NN

First Performance: 3 July 2018 Opening Night: 11 July 2018 Final Performance: 30 September 2018

Evening: Tuesday – Saturday, performance slots between 18.30 and 20.30 Matinees: Saturday and Sunday, performance slots between 13.30 and 15.30

Additional matinee performances Thursday and Friday between 26 July and 2 September No performance 28 August

Box Office details www.soundsandsorcery.com [email protected] 0207 401 9603 Prices from £30 (concessions available)

Twitter: @thevaultsuk Facebook: @soundsandsorcery Instagram: @soundsandsorcery

General on-sale at 10am on Thursday 19 April. Visit social media for information on priority booking

NOTES TO EDITORS

SOUNDS AND SORCERY CELEBRATING DISNEY FANTASIA Binaural Recording, The Philharmonic Orchestra of The City of Prague, March 2018, conducted by Stephen Higgins

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven by Amilcare Ponchielli Night on Bald Mountain by by Franz Schubert

About The Vaults

The Vaults is London’s home for immersive theatre and alternative arts. Our mission is to collaborate and conspire, embracing artists from all walks of life to come together and inspire others.

Set in a maze of disused railway arches under Waterloo station in London, we encourage those that have a natural affinity to the unusual, the daring and the unknown. We want talented artists from every vocation to mutate their art; to make stuff that is challenging, accessible and imaginative. We are unparalleled, we are unexpected and we are under your feet.

We also seek to prove that sustainability promotes a business, not stifles it, and are always trying to green-up our act.

We are here to feed your curiosity and open your mind. Let The Vaults’ maze of underground tunnels swallow you whole.

About Disney Fantasia

The 1940 release of “Fantasia” represented perhaps Walt Disney’s boldest experiment and culminated his desire to blend animation with classical music. and the joined forces with Walt Disney and his team of top talents to create a form of motion picture entertainment that was unlike any that preceded it. With eight diverse pieces of classical music selected for the program, Disney and his storymen and artists took on the challenge of finding the appropriate images. Their goal was to create music you could see and pictures you could hear.

From a technology standpoint, "Fantasia" also broke new ground. It was the very first motion picture to use stereophonic sound. The film's revolutionary "" soundtrack and playback system was an outgrowth of Stokowski’s dedication to the improvement of recorded sound and his desire to create a synthesis between sound and picture by having the music follow the animated images as they move around the screen.

"Fantasia" took 3 years to complete and used the talents of 1000 artists and technicians at The Disney Studios in addition to Stokowski's "100-man" orchestra.

BIOGRAPHIES

Daisy Evans (Director)

Daisy Evans is a theatre and opera director working internationally. Her most recent work includes VIXEN for ENO/Silent Opera at The Vaults in London and the Beijing Music Festival; King Arthur for the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican; and Cosi Fan Tutte at Bury Court Opera.

As a Librettist, she has written English versions of The Cunning Little Vixen (VIXEN), Don Giovanni (Giovanni), L'Orfeo and La Bohème.

Her theatre credits include Orpheus and Eurydice and Our Country's Good with the King's Players; and Bacchae and The Tempest for Waistcoat Theatre. Daisy is the Artistic Director of Silent Opera and is supported by the English National Opera. She was nominated for Best Young Director at the International Opera Awards 2016 and is the recipient of the Sky Arts Futures Fund and a winner of Best Opera Production at the OffWestEnd Awards.

Daisy is one of the few female Directors creating immersive work. She founded her company Silent Opera back in 2009, won the Sky Arts Award, and has gone on to critical and public acclaim. Daisy’s work focuses on the use of headphones to bring classical music and opera to new audiences across the globe. Daisy broke her original VHS copy of Fantasia by playing it too much as a child; she now has a new copy. http://www.daisy-evans.co.uk/

Stephen Higgins (Musical Director)

Stephen Higgins studied at Oxford University, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio in London and is a conductor who has worked extensively in major opera houses and festivals both in the UK and abroad.

He spent his early professional career on the music staff of ROH, Glyndebourne and ENO and has worked on a wide variety of repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi, Mozart, Puccini, John Adams and Stephen Sondheim.

Recent highlights include three world premieres: The Way Back Home: a children's opera at the Young Vic directed by Katie Mitchell, which he revived at the Opera de at the Bastille; Dr Dee by Damon Albarn, directed by Rufus Norris, which he conducted both for the Manchester Festival and at ENO, and recorded for EMI; and The Duchess of Malfi by German composer Torsten Rasch, which was a collaboration with ENO and the theatre company Punchdrunk.

Equally at home in standard operatic repertoire, Stephen has conducted Owen Wingrave for the Opera de Paris, Magic for ENO, L'Elisir d'amore for Opera Holland Park, Don Giovanni for the Porto festival, La Boheme, Hansel and Gretel and Magic Flute for young singers' company, Co-opera- co.

He also has an interest in music theatre, working with Sondheim on revivals of A little Night Music and Sunday in the Park with George at the Châtelet theatre in Paris, and conducting Phantom of the Opera in London's West End.

Stephen is also considerably in demand as a vocal coach and as guest chorus master for opera companies up and down the country and he appeared on the recent Maestro at the Opera on BBC2 as mentor to Josie Lawrence.

Other notable performances include another world premiere, Tansy Davies' Between Worlds at the Barbican, conducting Crazy for You by Gershwin for Gothenburg Opera, musical supervision for theatre pieces at the National Theatre in London and at Theatre La Criée in Marseille.

Since January 2016 Stephen has been Head of Music at Bergen Nasjonale opera in Norway. He has conducted Hansel and Gretel and Carmen for the company and has assisted visiting conductors on productions of Madama Butterfly, Il Turco in Italia, Otello, Peter Grimes and Messiah.

Stephen regularly works with young artist programmes and opera students at the main conservatoires both in the UK and abroad. For the past few years he has been involved with Garsington auditions, both as accompanist and advisor to the panel.

Future plans include conducting Thais for Chelsea Opera Group and conducting Candide and Carmen in Norway.

Doug Foster (Video Designer)

“Mesmerizing” is the word most often used to describe Doug Foster’s work. He employs craft skills honed in a previous life as a lighting cameraman to create imagery that aims to affect people at a visceral level. Years of research into the human visual system have informed his use of repeating spatial patterns and subtle temporal rhythms to stimulate primal areas of the brain. His projection installations might appear to be abstract compositions on first sight, but they soon reveal themselves to be constructed with intricately filmed elements from nature.

Selected group shows: Beyond 2001: New Horizons, London College of Communications, London – 2018; The 14th Factory, 440 North Avenue 19, Los Angeles – 2017; Daydreaming With… UNKLE, Lazarides Rathbone, London – 2017; Daydreaming With... Stanley Kubrick, Somerset House, London – 2016; Still Here - A Decade of Lazarides, Lazarides Rathbone, London – 2016; Shangri-La, Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury – 2014; Out Of Our Heads, James Putnam, Shoreditch Town Hall, London – 2014; BRUTAL, Lazarides & The Vinyl Factory, 180 The Strand, London – 2013; In Dreams, The Cob Gallery, London – 2013; PROJECT/ion 2, L&L Arts, The Old Bowery, New York – 2013; Bedlam, Lazarides, The Old Vic Tunnels, London – 2012; Secret Cinema presents Prometheus, (secret location), London – 2012 Daydreaming With... The Hong Kong Edition, Artistree, Hong Kong – 2012; The Minotaur, Lazarides, The Old Vic Tunnels, London – 2011; Daydreaming With... St Michael’s, St Michael’s Church, London – 2011; Hell’s Half Acre, Lazarides, The Old Vic Tunnels, London – 2010; Tunnel 228, Punchdrunk & The Old Vic, The Old Vic Tunnels, London – 2009; Works from the David Roberts Collection, One One One Gallery, London - 2007

Selected solo shows: No Beginning, No End, Royal Festival Hall, London – 2014; UNKLE Sounds, James Lavelle, (all visuals for international tour) - 2011 & 2012; In the Naughty Chair, Lazarides Rathbone, London – 2011; Only Human, FAS Contemporary, New Bond Street, London - 2008

Jake Wiltshire (Lighting Designer)

Recent lighting credits include: Vixen for Silent Opera in association with ENO (London, Helsinki and Beijing); Purcell’s King Arthur and The Fairy Queen for the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican Centre; Traviata For Longborough Festival Opera; Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro for Turku Opera at Åbo Svenska Teater, Finland; Cosi fan tutte for Bury Court Opera; Theodora for the Royal Northern College of Music; Blue Beards Castle for NYO; Flight, Alcina; Poppea; May Night; Orpheus in the Underworld; The Rape of Lucretia, Ariodante, The Lighthouse, and many other productions for Royal Academy Opera; Rigoletto for Iford Arts; Il Pastor Fido for The London Handel Society and RCMIOS; Don Giovanni for Opera Faber, Portugal; Falstaff for Fulham Opera/Grimeborn Festival/Wiltons Music Hall; The Castle for Silent Opera in association with ENO; Snow Maiden, Macbeth and Acante et Cephise for UCO Opera.

As an Associate lighting designer Jake lit the US premiere of Peter Maxwell Davis and David Pountney’s “Kommilitonen!” at the Lincoln Centre New York. Jake has also lit for theatre, independent films and Perrier Award winning comedy productions. In 2009 he was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. jakewiltshire.com

Andy George (Production Manager)

Andy has made his name production managing some of the biggest immersive events in London including five editions of the critically acclaimed VAULT Festival (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018), the Olivier Award nominated Alice’s Adventures Underground (2015, 2017), and three productions of the Olivier Award nominated You Me Bum Bum Train (2011, 2012, 2015). Other credits as production manager include Goosebumps Alive! (2016), Goosebumps Kids (2016), Belarus Free Theatre’s Burning Doors UK and International Tour (2016-2018), and The Woman in Black UK & International Tour (2014-2015 & 2016-2017).

Andy is currently Head of Production for the Heritage Arts Company, and co-Festival Director of VAULT Festival.

Andy was also awarded the Production Manager of the Year Award at the Technical Theatre Awards 2016.