REDCAT to Stage World Premiere of HALF LIFE Next Month

REDCAT, CalArts' Downtown Center for Contemporary Arts, presents the World Premiere of Half Life, the newest work by Los Angeles multimedia ensemble Cloud Eye Control, Thursday, January 15 to Sunday, January 18, 2015.

Cloud Eye Control was formed in 2006 by the Los Angeles based trio of animator and media artist Miwa Matreyek; composer, writer, and performer Anna Oxygen (Anna Huff); and theater director Chi-wang Yang, all known internationally for their stunning work individually and as a multimedia collective.

A deeply expressive lamentation of fierce urgency, the latest multimedia production from Cloud Eye Control is an imagistic, visceral work inspired by the nervous fear felt in the wake the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. It features Cloud Eye Control's signature hybrid performance style that mixes projected animation, live performance, and a live soundtrack of original electronic music.

Weaving together narrative and abstract modes of storytelling, Half Life explores the psychological fallout of global disaster, and how it affects our emotions and imaginations. It's story centers around two women who literally and figuratively live on opposite sides of the world. When an unknown cataclysmic force disrupts both of their lives, each is compelled to embark on a journey to locate its source.

Cloud Eye Control transforms the stage into an imaginative landscape with several customized, moveable screens full of lush animations where live actors interact in the layered space to create imaginative and odd encounters between the virtual and the physical. The original score, sung by the performers with a live band, brings a rock concert dynamism to the moody and atmospheric world.

Cloud Eye Control's Half Life is part of a continued supportive relationship with REDCAT. Cloud Eye Control's Under Polaris, anepic journey across a vast arctic expanse was co-commissioned and premiered by REDCAT in 2009. The piece went on to tour nationally and internationally, to Chile and France, and helped establish Cloud Eye Control as "transcendently spectacular theater" - Los Angeles Times.

In 2014 REDCAT presented Cloud Eye Control member Miwa Matreyek's magical, visually rich fusion of intricate video animation and solo performance to sold out audiences that were left spellbound.

More on Cloud Eye Control can be found at their website, http://cloudeyecontrol.com.