“It’s the night before the big night.”
“It’s the night before the big night,” so the entire ensemble sings in Scene 6 of PermaDeath as they contemplate the Tournament of Death that they’ll be fighting in the next day. A sleepless night for all.
It’s the night before the big night for the artistic and creative team of PermaDeath and we can’t wait to share this work with you.
It’s difficult to capture the spirit of struggle, creation, and perseverance that has brought all of us who collaborated on this piece to the world premiere. It been so hard at times, yet so rewarding, as we solve problem after problem to craft a new kind of transmedia opera. There are so many moving parts. Take the music and sound as an example. We’re trying to balance an acoustic orchestra and acoustic singers with electronic sound design and FX effects like explosions. On the visual end, we’re staging live singers while cutting in and out of computer-generated images of their avatars. And of course, there are the Faceware singers backstage singing along so that their facial movements can be captured and transmitted to the projected avatars.
Technology is fickle, like the gods. Music files don’t upload, CGI doesn’t sync, Faceware goes down, sound levels are problematic, balance keeps changing, projectors go dark . . . Yet our singers, musicians, and creatives are constant—constantly strong and talented, and supportive of this very difficult process.
To our artistic and creative team, I say “thank you” with all my heart for exploring this process of making a new work with me, for picking yourselves up after a failure, and for always believing that we can do this.
See more pictures from the final dress rehearsal on our Facebook page!
