Gamelan Madu Sari and
Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad present
MARATHONOLOGUE
Norman Rothstein Theatre
950 West 41st Ave (at Oak)
February 18, 19 & 20th 2010
tickets $20 (general) & $15 (students/seniors)
ticketstonight.ca • 604.684.2787
info 604.683.8240
www.marathonologue.com
Naoko Takahashi drank an extract distilled from Japanese giant killer hornets (Vespa Mandarina Japonica) just before she won the women’s marathon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Marathonologue, an interdisciplinary production inspired by this ultra-marathon runner energized by killer hornet extract, combines highland bagpipe, Japanese taiko and Balinese gamelan music by composers Michael O’Neill, Boyd Seiichi Grealy and I Wayan Sudirana, in live synchronization with computer-animated projections by Kenneth Newby and Aleksandra Dulic. The production brings to life the interplay between the physical landscape and a runner’s internal ‘mindscape’ as it develops and transforms in the experience of running a global marathon.
Marathonolgue zooms in on the creative powers of imagination catalyzed by motor-rhythmic physical exertion, the enzymes of hornet juice, the landscape, and the solitude of long distance running. Performing live with a tri-cultural ensemble of 7 musicians, and using additional animation by Oliver Szeleczky, Brendan Edward Wingrove, and Melissa Ftrzelec, Newby and Dulic use digital animation techniques to produce a startling array of images, envisioning both the runner and the hornets’ chameleon-like transformations, and reflecting the terrain and human physical/ cultural differences encountered. Image and sound combine to transport the audience to a realm of heightened imagination.
Michael O’Neill and Kenneth Newby have a long history of inter-arts collaborations originating with their involvement with the gamelan community in Vancouver in 1986. In keeping with the Indonesian tradition of using gamelan in an interdisciplinary capacity, their initial collaboration was a shadowplay presented in the context of a large interdisciplinary outdoor work Journey to the New World, a Vancouver Public Dreams Society production. Their collaborative work has continued over the years to include works involving dance, theatre, and many shadowplay productions. In 2005 they were principal artists in the development of a major new cross-cultural, collaborative multi-media shadow play with gamelan, shadow puppetry and media performance, Semar’s Journey, which was premiered at the Roundhouse in 2007.
Videographers Newby and Dulic, leaders in the field of interactive audiovisual installation, received critical praise for their work, in a thousand drops… refracted glances, presented in Genoa, Italy in 2008. Their collaborative interdisciplinary performance work Triaspora, was presented at the National Arts Center in Ottawa in 2009, their visual music work, Symmetry, was selected as a finalist in the Punto y Raya animation festival in 2007.
The three composers creating music for Marathonologue are each immersed in rich cultural music traditions; Balinese gamelan, highland bagpipe and Japanese taiko. The music in Marathonologue gives the composers, who will also be performing in the show, an opportunity to explore the relation between these musical styles both in theory and in practice. I Wayan Sudirana was born in Ubud, Bali and is regarded as one of Bali’s most gifted musicians. He has composed and taught actively in Bali and abroad and has been artist in residence at the University of British Columbia since 2004. Vancouver composer-performer Michael O’Neill is a founding member of Gamelan Madu Sari and performs both Javanese gamelan and Balinese gender wayang. Michael also performs with and composes for his own highland bagpipe ensemble Mearingstone. A native of Victoria, Boyd Seiichi Grealy is a multifaceted taiko drummer and percussionist. He has spent seventeen years as an international touring artist and co-artistic director of Vancouver ensemble Uzume Taiko, Canada’s first professional taiko group. Together, in collaboration with musicians Sylvia DeTar, Elaine Ng, and Eien Hunter-Ishikawa, they create a mesmerizing river of sound and texture, trance-like and rhythmic, expanding the sonic landscape.