PROGRAM: THE DEMO APRIL 1 & APRIL 2 / 7:30 PM BING CONCERT HALL

ARTISTS PROGRAM , co-creator, composer/ The Demo (World premiere) librettist, and performer (playing Douglas Engelbart) ArKtype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann, producer Ben Neill, co-creator, composer, Jenny E. Goelz, associate producer and performer (playing William English, Engelbart’s associate) The Demo was commissioned and developed by the Krannert Center for the Bob McGrath, director Performing Arts in association with the eDream Institute at the University of Illinois Matthew Gandolfo, music director at Urbana-Champaign. Jim Findlay, set and production designer Jeff Sugg, set and projection designer The Demo is approximately 90 minutes in duration, including intermission. Christopher Ericson, sound designer Melissa Madden Gray, recorded vocalist The performances are dedicated to William and Roberta English. Veanne Cox, recorded vocalist

The Demo is generously funded by Applied Materials’ Excellence in the Arts Grants, a program of Silicon Valley Creates. Special thanks to consultant William English.

This program is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

For additional tour and project information, please contact: Thomas O. Kriegsmann, president, ArKtype PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones, pagers, and PO Box 180241, Brooklyn, NY 11218 watch alarms, and unwrap all lozenges prior to the performance. Photography and recording of any kind are not 917.386.5468, [email protected], arktype.org permitted. Thank you.

16 STANFORD LIVE MAGAZINE APRIL 2015 PROGRAM: THE DEMO

The Demo is a music-theater work “It was December 1968. An obscure scientist from based on Douglas Engelbart’s historic Stanford Research Institute stood before a hushed San 1968 demonstration of early computer technology. The piece reimagines Francisco crowd and blew every mind in the room. His Engelbart’s historic demonstration as a 90-minute demo rolled out virtually all that would come technologically infused music and media to define modern computing: videoconferencing, event, a new form of hybrid performance. hyperlinks, networked collaboration, digital text editing, Mikel Rouse (co-creator, composer/librettist, and something called a ‘mouse.’ ” —Wired Magazine and performer) leads our time with his powerful presence as a composer, filmmaker, performer, performer” (Time Out New York), “the mad live production. Mr. Ericson is best known for director, and visual artist. Critical acclaim scientist of dance-floor jazz” (CMJ), and “a his ambitious technological implementations and popular following have brought him to musical powerhouse, a serious and individual with composer and performer Mikel Rouse. the forefront of international attention with talent” (Time Out ). Mr. Neill’s music The son of small-business owner Thomas his modern operas, recordings, and films. His blends influences from electronica, jazz, and Ericson and principal dancer Jordeen Ivanov- formal education in both music and visual art minimalism, blurring the lines between DJ Ericson, Mr. Ericson grew up in the suburbs developed his sense of wholeness about the culture and acoustic instrument performance. of Detroit, pulling musical influences from role of art in his life and in our lives. A quick classical music training and performance. review of Mr. Rouse’s full biography provides a Mr. Neill has recorded nine CDs of his music Mr. Ericson studied theater at Western snapshot of his accomplishments: a trilogy of on labels including Verve, Astralwerks, and Michigan University and completed a master operas, books of string quartets, two feature- Thirsty Ear, and his music also has been of fine arts degree in sound design and length films, awards from leading funding featured on numerous compilations. In technology at the University of Illinois. organizations, and at least one recorded 2010, his music theater work Persephone album every year for the past 20 years. Mr. was presented at the Brooklyn Academy Mr. Ericson’s work in production specializes Rouse is an artist of our time. He blends of Music Next Wave Festival, and the CD in large-format sound system design, tradition and technology with an artistic voice Songs for Persephone from the production and he has been recognized for his work. that resonates in contemporary thought. was released in 2011. He has performed Some of his U.S. credits include design extensively around the world and began and production for the Brooklyn Academy Recognized as a leader in his use of digital developing the mutantrumpet in the early of Music, the Lincoln Theatre, South by technology, Mr. Rouse taps both the despair 1980s. Mr. Neill initially created an acoustic Southwest, Lollapalooza, the North Coast and the hope of life in the 21st century. instrument (a combination of three trumpets Music Festival, and Carolina Performing Arts. He delights in every step forward made and a trombone) and then integrated the possible by each new development in instrument with electronics in the mid-1980s Jim Findlay (set and production designer) computers, cameras, recording equipment, when collaborating with synthesizer inventor works across boundaries as a theater artist, and musical instruments because he , and in 1992, Mr. Neill made visual artist, and filmmaker. His most recent uses technology as a means for human the mutantrumpet fully computer interactive. work includes his original performance pieces expression—a digital look at an analog world. Dream of the Red Chamber (2013–current) Mr. Neill’s audiovisual work has been and Botanica (2011–12), the direction and Mr. Rouse’s works based on pop culture are exhibited in museums and galleries design of David Lang’s Whisper Opera for proving themselves artistic masterpieces including Paula Cooper, Sandra Gering, the Museum of Contemporary Art and long after the moment of “popularity” and Exit Art. ITSOFOMO, his major Lincoln Center, and the soon-to-be-complete has passed. He is, according to the New collaborative piece with the late artist David 3-D film adaptation of Botanica. He was a York Times, “a composer many believe Wojnarowicz, has been presented widely founding member of and collaborator in to be the best of his generation.” in venues such as Tate Modern, the New the Collapsable Giraffe and, in partnership Museum, and the Hammer Museum. with Radiohole, helped run the mythical and Ben Neill (co-creator, composer, and recently deceased Collapsable Hole from performer) is a composer, performer, producer, Christopher Ericson (sound designer) 2000 to 2013. In addition to his original works and inventor of the “mutantrumpet,” a is an American sound designer. Born in as an independent artist and with the Giraffe, hybrid electroacoustic instrument. He has Dearborn, Michigan, in 1980, he is known as he maintains a long career as a collaborator been called “a creative composer and genius a pioneer in sound design and engineering for with many theater, performance, and music

encoremediagroup.com 19 PROGRAM: THE DEMO

groups, including The Wooster Group, Ridge He currently teaches at Virginia Tech. eDream (Emerging Digital Research and Theater, , Ralph Lemon, Stew He previously taught at Sarah Lawrence Education in Arts Media) at the National and Heidi Rodewald, and Accinosco/Cynthia College and New York University. Mr. Center for Supercomputing Applications Hopkins. His work has been seen at Lincoln McGrath received three Obie Awards. (NCSA) at the University of Illinois is Center, Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy dedicated to exploring and expressing of Music, Arena Stage, and the American Jeff Sugg( set and projection designer) is human creativity through emergent digital Repertory Theater and in more than 50 cities a Brooklyn-based award-winning designer. technologies. The institute is committed worldwide, including Berlin, Istanbul, London, His credits on Broadway include Macbeth to fostering interdisciplinary creativity Moscow, and Paris, as well as in the tiny (Lincoln Center Theater), A Time to Kill, that brings art, science, humanities, and theater he built in David Lang and Suzanne Bring It On, Magic/Bird, and 33 Variations. engineering into a powerful synergy for Bocanegra’s home. He has been awarded His off-Broadway designs include The Last research, creative expression, and education. three Obie Awards, two New York Dance and Five Years, This Clement World, Tribes, Performance Awards (Bessies), two Princess The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, and For his creative use of technology in the arts, Grace Awards, and Lucille Lortel and Henry The Accidental Trilogy. His regional work Mikel Rouse was named the first eDream Hewes Design Awards as well as residencies includes The Elephant Man (Alley Theatre), Institute Visiting Research Artist in 2012–13. with the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross The Mountaintop (Alley Theatre/Arena eDream and the Advanced Visualization Foundation, the Massachusetts Museum of Stage), and As You Like It (Shakespeare Laboratory at the NCSA have collaborated Contemporary Art, and Mount Tremper Arts. Theatre). He also has worked with Cynthia with Mikel Rouse and Ben Neill to “dream Hopkins, Laurie Anderson, and The forward and backward” for The Demo by Matthew Gandolfo (music director) Wooster Group. He has received a Lucille exploring state-of-the-art technologies and recently created arrangements for Susan Lortel Award, an Obie Award, a New York futuristic visualizations for the project. eDream Merson’s Between Pretty Places at HERE; Dance and Performance Award (Bessie), investigated novel interfaces such as Google Wonder, a piano quartet for Pax Amicus and two Henry Hewes Design Awards. Glass and Kinect interactive technologies and Castle Theatre; and Oedipus the King, a worked with students to design an audience suite composed for prepared piano and ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann participation component. Learn more at www. voice at Players Theatre. As a cofounder of Thomas O. Kriegsmann is a producer of edream.illinois.edu and avl.ncsa.illinois.edu. Veritas Musicals, a company dedicated to acclaimed internationally based projects and the creation of educational theater for young the recently appointed director of programs Krannert Center for the Performing Arts audiences, Mr. Gandolfo’s work has recently for New York Live Arts. ArKtype’s work Located in Urbana on the campus of the been produced at the Birmingham Children’s includes projects with Mikhail Baryshnikov, University of Illinois, the Krannert Center Theatre, Fargo Moorhead Community Peter Brook, Yael Farber, Annie-B Parson for the Performing Arts is dedicated to the Theatre, and Rising Stars Performing and Paul Lazar, Lisa Peterson, Jay Scheib, advancement of education, research, and Arts Company. He thanks Mikel for the Julie Taymor, and Tony Taccone. Ongoing public engagement through the pursuit of privilege of being part of this new work. collaborations include 600 Highwaymen, excellence and innovation in the performing Rude Mechs, Andrew Ondrejcak and Shara arts. Embracing the art of the past as well Bob McGrath (director) is a cofounder Worden, Theatre for a New Audience, Denis as the art of our time, the center supports and the artistic director of Ridge Theater. O’Hare and Lisa Peterson, Byron Au Yong the belief that creativity is a core human He has directed theater and opera at venues and Aaron Jafferis; Christeene; Soho Rep., characteristic and that the arts hold uniquely including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brent Green, Byron Au Yong and Aaron transformative potential.• Lincoln Center, the American Repertory Jafferis, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, Sam Theater, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, the Green and Yo La Tengo, Compagnia T.P.O., Vineyard Theatre, the La MaMa Experimental Mikel Rouse and Ben Neill, and Object Theatre Club, and St. Ann’s Warehouse. Collection. Upcoming premieres include He has collaborated with composers and Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s How to Be a writers including John Adams, Gavin Rock Critic (Spring 2015), Byron Au Yong and Bryars, Ben Katchor, David Lang, Michael Aaron Jafferis’ Trigger (fall 2016), Andrew Gordon, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Ondrejcak’s Elijah Green with John Jasperse Mark Mulcahy, Ben Neill, Daniel Bernard and Shara Worden (spring 2016), and Object Roumain, Mikel Rouse, Susan Sontag, DJ Collection’s It’s All True based on the live Spooky, Mac Wellman, and Julia Wolfe. works of seminal punk band Fugazi (fall 2016).

20 STANFORD LIVE MAGAZINE APRIL 2015