Photo: Chelsea Petrakis
In this Split Chorus two new works-in-process share the stage. Dora Gaskill’s Graphical Optical Black Out (GOBO) plays with perception through the lens of lighting, anatomy, and dance. In Nothing’s really easy about the end of the world, Stephanie Lavon Trotter composes an opera that unearths the masks and markings of a civilization on a dying planet.
Split Chorus
a shared evening of new work in progress by Dora Gaskill and Stephanie Lavon Trotter
Alembic Co-Production
new dance/new music/new performance
Friday & Saturday, December 6 & 7, 7:30pm
Doors 30 minutes prior to showtime
Tickets: $12-$20
Advanced Tickets: https://chorus.bpt.me
Graphical Optical Black Out
by Dora Gaskill
Within the body of a theatrical light, a gobo is a patterned template, positioned between a source of light and its lens(es) to obstruct the projected beam in a useful or beautiful way. Into a field. Creating a texture or landscape. GOBO is a choreography by a lighting designer. The dry jargon of the anatomy of light conflates with the pulsing, lively experience of the technology of perception.
Nothing’s really easy about the end of the world an opera-in-process by Stephanie Lavon Trotter
The world is on fire and drowning, water level choking, heat stifling. Do we resist it and dig underground? Or ease into it, burning up from the inside like the dinosaurs? In this work the ritualizing of the mundane, hysterical laughter, hypnotic song, and the ways in which we connect with each other render an opera. Trotter, along with Annie Gilbert and other collaborators, utilize electro-acoustic voice, movement and video to situate us in the chaos and comforts of a dying planet.
Dora Gaskill is an interdisciplinary performance artist in the Pacific Northwest and a lighting designer, technician, and stage manager internationally. When in Portland, she teaches movement and anatomy workshops in the Body-Mind Centering® tradition and has launched a series which explores lighting as an embodiment practice for artists and technicians. All of these practices/professions of creating space and collaboration are in conversation with Dora’s love of the natural world. She values walking and witnessing landscapes as they adapt to conflating impacts and loves sleeping on the ground.. https://doragaskill.wordpress.com
Annie Gilbert has been playing and composing for trombone, voice and movement for 20+ years. Ages 8 – 18, a local community theater company was formative. She also studied piano, guitar and classical brass in her youth, and was in garage bands inspired by the surrounding 90’s Seattle music scene. Annie studied Experimental Music and Performance Art at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, where varied professors influenced her in The Frankfurt School of critical thought, Fluxus, mime, Butoh, multitrack recording, ritual studies (esp. Haitian Voudoun), and French language and culture. Annie sang in choirs and studied circus arts in Toulouse, France, and is a certified yoga instructor. She has participated in countless performance and recording collaborations in Olympia, WA and Portland, OR. Most recently, she plays with improv ensembles Uneasy Trio and ASLO, and can be seen playing in various local improv series.
Stephanie Lavon Trotter is an electro-acoustic vocal-instrument, composer, improviser, and performer. She has been dismantling her formal training in Western classical composition and operatic performance since 2009 in a range of compositions, and performances. Her work strives to provide a visceral interpretation of our world and the ways we live, move, sound, and make community. Work that investigates Voice, Body, Desire, Death and Power. In her capacity as a vocal coach and composer, Stephanie worked with Danielle Ross on Apparatus (2017) and Nancy Ellis on Nous on va danser (2017). Stephanie regularly produces music shows and performance art events in Portland, OR, and is a member of several collaborative music projects, including ASLo, uneasy trio, and TROTTERtrotter. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College, and a B. Mus in Vocal Performance from Cornish College of the Arts. stephanielavontrotter.com
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