Magic Futurebox Presents NYC Premiere of DEMON DREAMS

Magic Futurebox is proud to present the second in the Playwright Spotlight series of works by LARK PONY fellow Tommy Smith, the NYC premiere of DEMON DREAMS: a children's musical (for all audiences) featuring music by Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky. DEMON DREAMS was presented as a workshop at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 2006 and the Yale Cabaret in 2010.

In a not-so-distant future where humanity is just a memory and demons rule the earth, three demons and three immortals gather in a broken down temple to tell stories and spit rhymes, arguing the inherent goodness or wickedness of the human race. Starring 6 actors in over 50 different roles, DEMON DREAMS fuses traditional Japanese story-telling with a hip hop aesthetic to bring you a fast-paced, enchanting allegory about the complexities of human nature.

When the Japanese earthquake and tsunami occurred in March, Magic Futurebox decided to make the production a fundraiser for the prefects most affected by the disaster, donating the box office proceeds from DEMON DREAMS directly to four of the Japanese prefectures most affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami. Both Tommy Smith and DJ Spooky have donated the rights to their work for the production, and costume materials were donated by generous Magic Futurebox fans.

Tickets are general admission, $15 / $10 for students and unemployed. Discounted tickets (2 for $25) available until May 31st at the Demon Dreams IndieGoGo campaign: http://indiegogo.com/Demon-Dreams-Theatre-Fundraiser-for-Japan. General presales start June 1st at http://demondreams.eventbrite.com.

Demon Dreams

By Tommy Smith
feat. Sound Design and Beat Production by DJ Spooky

Directed by Kevin Laibson
Assistant Directed by Ben Mann
Production Design by Suzan Eraslan

Featuring:
Celeste Arias as Chipon
Jeanette Bonner as Sanpon
Joe Burch as Kubon
Veracity Butcher as Nippon
Dylan Lamb as Hibon
Brian Walters as Yobon

About Tommy Smith:

Tommy Smith's plays include FIREMEN (Magic Futurebox; dir. Michael McQuilken), PIGEON (Ensemble Studio Theatre; dir. Billy Carden), THE WIFE (Access Gallery; dir. May Adrales), WHITE HOT (Here Arts Center; dir. May Adrales), SEXTET (Washington Ensemble Theatre; dir. Roger Benington), PTSD (Ensemble Studio Theatre; dir. Billy Carden), THE BREAK-UP (Flea Theater; dir. Sherri Kronfeld), AIR CONDITIONING (Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference; dir. Steve Cosson), among others. His work has also appeared at PS 122, The Ontological Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, The Yale Cabaret, The Huntington Theatre; internationally, he has been produced in Prague, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Montreal and Athens. His award-winning theatrical collaborations with Reggie Watts include RADIO PLAY and DUTCH A/V and have played at PS122, The Public Theatre, Lamama, The Warhol Museum, MCA Chicago, ICA Boston, On The Boards and PICA: TBA, among others. He is the recipient of the PONY fellowship at The Lark, a two-time winner of the Lecomte du Nouy Prize, a recipient of the E.S.T. Sloan Grant, a winner of the Page73 Productions Playwriting Fellowship, a recipient of the Creative Capital award and a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writer's Group at Primary Stages. Publications include WHITE HOT in the New York Theatre Review and STREAK in "Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays", printed by Vintage. He is a graduate of the playwriting program at The Juilliard School.

About DJ Spooky:

Paul D. Miller aka DJ SPOOKY is a composer, multimedia artist and writer. His media artwork has been featured around the world at museums and galleries such as the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Biennial for Architecture, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany; Kunsthalle, Vienna; The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and the Miami/Art Basel Fair. His first large-scale multimedia performance piece, REBIRTH OF A NATION, was commissioned by the Lincoln Center Festival, the Spoleto Festival USA, Weiner Festwochen, and the Festival d'Automne a Paris and has been performed more than 50 times in venues around the world including the Sydney Festival and the Herod Atticus Amphitheater. A DVD version of REBIRTH OF A NATION was released by Anchor Bay Films/Starz Media. TERRA NOVA: SINFONIA ANARCTICA, a multimedia performance piece with video and music for a piano quartet, was commissioned by the BAM Next Wave Festival, the Hopkins Center/Dartmouth College, UCSB Arts & Lectures, Melbourne International Arts Festival, and the Festival dei 2 Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Other projects include THE NAURU ELEGIES: THE IDEA OF AN ISLAND and rescores of Jean Cocteau's BLOOD OF A POET (Guggenheim Museum), DONBASS SYMPHONY - ENTHUSIASM (commissioned and presented by Creative Association «Cultural Enlightenment» St. Petersburg, Russia), and MADAME FREEDOM (commissioned by Art Center Nabi in Seoul, Korea and the Korean American Film Festival in New York). His musical releases include OPTOMETRY, DUBTOMETRY (featuring Lee "Scratch" Perry), DRUMS OF DEATH (featuring Slayer's Dave Lombardo and Chuck D.), and THE SECRET SONG (featuring Thurston Moore, The Coup, Mike G. of the Jungle Brothers, Rob Swift of the X-Ecutioners, Mike Ladd, Vijay Iyer), and he produced material for Yoko Ono's YES, I AM A WITCH. Miller is the author of two books, Rhythm Science and Sound Unbound and his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Source, Artforum and The Wire. The DJ SPOOKY mixing app for iPhone and iPad is available for on the Apple iTunes store.

About Magic Futurebox's Playwright Spotlight:

In 2011, Magic Futurebox will produce three plays by award winning playwright Tommy Smith. We wanted to take the opportunity to present a season of work by one playwright to highlight the stylistic variety and consistent talent of a young but prolific writer.

The first was FIREMEN, directed by Michael McQuilken. Magic Futurebox received a grant from the Yale School of Drama for the production presented at The Tank in March 2011.

The second, Demon Dreams, a hip hop musical based on Japanese Noh theatre and a fundraiser for the prefects most affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, will have its NYC premiere in July.

The final production will be the narrative rock concert Fourth, which Tommy is developing with the Civilians writing group, to be presented in November 2011.

About Magic Futurebox:

Magic Futurebox is a production team dedicated to making interesting things happen around lots of people.
Our Goals:

Start with the story, then add the tech.
To embrace and develop technological innovations that serve the art (not the other way around)

Participation isn't asking what you think, it's inviting you to play.
To provide multiple opportunities for different types of engagement so you decide how you participate in interactive and immersive art

What we make may not be for everyone, but it should be available to anyone.
To pursue methods of broadening access to art by integrating online media and live performance

 

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