Immersive Dance Production BONNIE & CLYDE Premieres May 27

The Moody Center for the Arts and Open Dance Project present Bonnie & Clyde, an immersive dance theater performance devised by the ODP ensemble under the choreographic direction of Annie Arnoult. Nine ticketed performances will run at the Moody's Lois Chiles Studio Theater beginning May 27, 2022.

"We're delighted to once again partner with Open Dance Project and its talented team," said Alison Weaver, the Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director of the Moody Center for the Arts. "Their innovative use of dance, design, and sound to directly engage the audience with thought-provoking themes brilliantly activates the Moody's theater and underscores our partner-driven mission."

Using history and a disruptive narrative to ask critical questions about today's world, Bonnie & Clyde personalizes contemporary issues of gun violence and prison reform through the lens of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's story. Situated in the 1930s through original music, costume, lighting, and immersive set design, this work looks inward at the emotional journey of two young criminals from Texas in the midst of the Great Depression. Through compelling choreography, the couple's sensationalized drama is peeled back to reveal the human experience of love, desperation, and violence.

Contributing to the intimacy of the narrative, the performance engages audience members through a multisensory experience that places them in the direct center of the theatrical moment thereby allowing individuals to navigate the stage within their own sense of boundaries. As audience members walk through a collagist, three-dimensional set installation by Ryan McGettigan, they are surrounded by video and soundscapes designed by David Deveau and Edgar Guajardo.

"The immersive, multimedia environment draws from archival photos, journal entries, letters, government documents, and environmental recordings that also inspire the movement and text," said Arnoult. "It is designed to be actively explored by audience members, who walk in and among the performers in a format that directly confronts conventional divisions between artist and audience."

Los Angeles-based Hunter Perrin and New Mexico-based Garreth Broesche composed the original live score that includes new arrangements of old tunes beloved by Barrow and Parker like "Deep Ellum Blues" and Jimmie Rodgers' "Sleep Baby Sleep." The score highlights the duo's fascination with showmanship while rooting the story in the context of 1930s popular media that glamorized the myth of Bonnie and Clyde and consequently overshadowed the reality of bungled robberies and failed relationships.

Supported by accomplished artists Ryan McGettigan (set designer), David Deveau (lighting and projection designer), Ashley Horn (costume designer), and Edgar Guajardo (sound design), the show benefits from their extensive local and national design experience, specializing in interdisciplinary collaboration and the innovative use of movement, space, and form. This is the fifth immersive performance this collaborative team has built together with production manager Christina Maley and ODP artistic director Annie Arnoult.

The nine intermission-free, hour-long performances will take place May 27 and May 28 at 7 and 9 p.m.; June 1, 2, and 3 at 8 p.m., and June 4 at 7 and 9 p.m. at the Moody's Lois Chiles Studio Theater. Tickets are $35 for the general public and are available at moody.rice.edu. The production features mature content and is recommended for ages 13 and above.

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