HERE to Present SCIENCE FAIR, 4/13-24

By: Mar. 22, 2016
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As part of its 2015-2016 Producing Season, HERE proudly presents Science Fair, a HERE Resident Artist production conceived and performed by Hai-Ting Chinn. This new opera-theater work, a live science show with lessons & lectures in song, Science Fair features Music Direction by Erika Switzer (piano), and Music by Matthew Schickele, Renee Favand-See, Stefan Weisman and Conrad Cummings. Lisa Rothe directs. This world premiere will have 8 performances only, April 13 - 24, at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, just below Spring Street). Developed through the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP), Science Fair marks the culmination of a residency for Hai-Ting Chinn with HARP.

Science Fair is an opera singer's love-song to science, conceived and performed by mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn. With a libretto created in collaboration with science writers and teachers, Science Fair uses original music in a theatrical setting to celebrate the scientific. From the incredibly familiar baking soda-vinegar volcano to the intensely complicated wave-particle duality of matter at the quantum level, Science Fair tackles various concepts - aided by hand-made models of things like the solar system, atomic orbitals, molecules of DNA and more - infusing them with humor and wit, employing arresting operatic vocals to uplift the ordinary into the realm of wonder.

Science Fair is conceived and performed by Hai-Ting Chinn, with Erika Switzer (Piano and Music Direction). Music is by Matthew Schickele, Renee Favand-See, Stefan Weisman and Conrad Cummings. Lisa Rothe directs. Set and Video Design is by Caite Kemp, Lighting Design is by Lucrecia Briceno and Costume Design is by Hai-Ting Chinn.

American mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn performs in a wide range of styles and venues, from Purcell to Pierrot Lunaire, Cherubino to The King and I, J.S. Bach to P.D.Q. Bach. She was featured in the revival and tour of Phillip Glass's Einstein on the Beach (2011-2015), and she is currently singing the role of Belle in Glass's La Belle et la Bête, also on tour. Career highlights include the title role in The Wooster Group's production of La Didone (music of Francesco Cavalli); the title role in Opera Omnia's Coronation of Poppea at Le Poisson Rouge, and Peter Maxwell Davies's The Medium and Tarik O'Regan's The Wanton Sublime in London's Grimeborn festival. At HERE, Hai-Ting has appeared in Yoav Gal's Mosheh, a VideOpera (January 2011) and Stefan Weisman's Scarlet Ibis. Hai-Ting was also co-host of the podcast Scopes Monkey Choir a lighthearted discussion of science and music.

The OBIE-winning HERE (Kristin Marting, Artistic Director and Kim Whitener, Producing Director), founded in 1993, is a leader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performance viewed as a seamless integration of artistic disciplines-theater, dance, music and opera, puppetry, media, visual and installation, spoken word and performance art. Standout productions include Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique and Arias with a Twist, Hazelle Goodman's On Edge, Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers, Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, Corey Dargel's Removable Parts, Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge and Stefan Weisman & David Cote's The Scarlet Ibis, among many others. In 2008, following an extensive renovation, HERE re-opened the doors to its longtime downtown home for the arts, where it continues as a vibrant, welcoming haven for artists and audiences alike.

The HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) has been HERE's signature development and producing program since 1998. HARP commissions, develops and premieres new hybrid performances. Productions developed at HERE challenge existing boundaries between disciplines -- theater, dance, music, opera, puppetry, media, visual arts, installation, spoken word and more. Through HARP, the Resident Artists are given the unique opportunity to develop their projects for up to three years through free works-in-progress showings, workshop presentations in HERE's annual CULTUREMART festival, culminating in full-scale productions.

Each season, HERE premieres several of these Resident Artist productions as mainstage works. These innovative projects are grown in a diverse artistic community where artists receive career development resources and hands-on training. HARP has been widely recognized as a unique model for artistic development for the field to emulate. In honoring HERE with the 2009 Ross Wetzsteon Award, the OBIE Committee noted, "it's become increasingly hard for artists to find a place to take risks, a safe haven where they can develop daring new work. One theater has regularly bucked the trend, making its mission to ensure that artists have a home for their research and development, and that theatregoers can sample the exciting results."

HERE is also home to the cross-disciplinary productions of Artistic Director Kristin Marting and proudly hosts adventurous artists, companies and productions, whether emerging or acclaimed, through its SubletSeries. It also presents work from New York, across the country, and around the globe through the Dream Music Puppetry Program (co-curated with Basil Twist).

HERE produces, with Beth Morrison Projects, PROTOTYPE, the premier global festival of daring opera-theatre and music-theatre in New York City. Having just closed its fourth season this January, PROTOTYPE brought 39 packed houses of 7 productions to over 7,500 audience members at 6 venues all over New York City. David Allen of The New York Times stated, "This vibrant festival becomes more central to the future of opera with every passing year." In 2016, PROTOTYPE served up the world premiere of Angel's Bone, composed by Du Yun with libretto by Royce Vavrek; the New York City premiere of Dog Days, composed by David T. Little with libretto by Royce Vavrek; and American premiere of The Last Hotel, composed by Donnacha Dennehy, with libretto and direction by Enda Walsh, and much more.



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