Interference Arts' IT IS SHE WHO I SEE Begins 11/15

It is She Who I See is the inaugural production of the new multimedia performance company Interference Arts. In this show, Artistic Director Craig Harris draws the audience into an innovative immersive multimedia environment. The production creates a rich visual environment designed by Jim Peitzman that integrates remarkable digital illustrations by artist Candy Kuehn, projected on a series of scrims hung around the stage. The mood created by these projections is enhanced with lighting design by Mike Grogan, a 2012 Ivey Award winner. After the formal performance, audiences are invited to interact with others in the immersive environment, in whatever "character" the experience encourages.

The production celebrates the original woman who is in all of us, and explores gender imbalance and the perception of time in our society. It is She Who I See emanates from two sources: a digital illustration created by artist Candy Kuehn, which provided the show's title, and a poem by renowned poet Rita Dove, "The Hill has Something to Say." Candy describes the digital illustration as reflecting her perception of the original woman whose DNA carries forward into all of us through time. The poem by Rita Dove explores the depth and meaning of time's passage on the hill, and reinforces the thread that holds all time together in each of us.

Artistic Director Craig Harris says, "The balance of female and male energy in the universe determines the evolutionary path that we traverse, and it doesn't take a great deal of observation to note that today's state of imbalance requires attention. There is a difference in perspective and approach between genders, and the balance of energies and forces at play in the world have a dramatic impact on individual, local, national and global scales. In my opinion, male energy is currently favored in a way that is detrimental to creating a healthy and sustainable world."

He goes on to explain, "In this production I'm doing two things: first, I am slowing down time to create an environment conducive to exploring how male and female energy balance is embodied in all of us, regardless of our gender; and second, I am trying to create a state where we can explore this balance of female and male energy, and perhaps establish a new balance where both co-exist in a more healthy way. The question becomes, is gender balance a pendulum that swings back and forth over extremely long trajectories of time (multi-millenia), and we're heading back towards a condition that favors the matriarchal perspective, only to swing back a few thousand years later?"

The show brings together a remarkable cohort of artists, musicians and theater professionals to perform a variety of compositions and narrative soundscapes written by Harris. These award-winning performers include soprano Norah Long, vocalist Viv Corringham, theater artist Paul Herwig, cellist Randall Davidson, the New Music ensemble Zeitgeist, English Horn performer Merilee Klemp, electronic music artist Steve Goldstein, projection designer Jim Peitzman, digital illustration artist and costume designer Candy Kuehn, and lighting designer Mike Grogan, with creative audio mixing and sound processing by Tim Donahue and project midwife Kym Longhi.

November 15-18, 2012

Company launch and CD release party follows performance on Saturday, November 17

The Ritz Theater 
345 13th Avenue NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413 
For tickets, call the Ritz Box Office: 612-436-1129 or online at www.ritzdolls.com/tickets/ 

Performance schedule & ticket prices
$3 per ticket discount for students and seniors: 
Thursday, November 15 @ 8:00pm ($20) 
Friday, November 16 @ 8:00pm ($25) 
Saturday, November 17 @ 8:00pm ($25) 
Sunday, November 18 @ 2:00pm ($20)

Interference Arts
Interference Arts is a creative arts company offering immersive experiences that cross traditional genres and disciplines. The company brings together performing artists in theater, dance and performance art; musicians in classical, jazz, popular and world music; and practitioners in art, science, technology and human behavior. Interference Arts' distinctive configuration of these diverse elements results in a call for artists and audiences alike to act-to interfere- constructively and collaboratively, deepening community conversations and paving the way for change.

Based in Minneapolis, MN, Interference Arts is headed by Artistic Director Craig Harris, a composer, performer, media arts designer, writer and educator who has been at the forefront of several creative waves, including computer music development, electronic arts evolution, and arts-based community development initiatives. Harris' work has appeared at numerous international festivals and conferences. His composition "The Hill Has Something to Say", commissioned by renowned soprano Renée Fleming, premiered in Alice Tully Hull at Lincoln Center in New York; his multimedia oratorio "Five Books–First Series", was commissioned and produced by the Sabes JCC Center for Jewish Arts and Humanities. He is a former President of the International Computer Music Association, and former Executive Director of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology. In Minneapolis he has been Executive Director of Ballet of the Dolls and the Ritz Theater Foundation, where he led the initiative to renovate the Ritz Theater in NE Minneapolis, and has been Managing Director and Interim Director at The Playwrights' Center. Harris received his PhD in Composition at the Eastman School of Music.

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