The Lorelei, the Albatross and the Pine Tree

This spring, Parallel Octave, in collaboration with MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet (http://www.moveiusdance.org/), will perform a theatrical work by Dara Weinberg entitled The Lorelei, the Albatross and the Pine Tree (or Albatross/Lorelei for short).  The work is a collage of poems and texts by Coleridge, Heine and others, set to free-jazz/electronic music and dance.  The Baltimore debut performances will occur at the Arellano Theater, Levering Hall, Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus on Sunday May 4 @ 4pm and Tuesday May 6 @ 6pm.  Both performances are free to the public.  Come and help us celebrate poetry, music and dance!

THE LORELEI, THE ALBATROSS AND THE PINE TREE

Text adaptation by Dara Weinberg, from works by Coleridge, Heine, and others

Directed by Danny Schwartz and Alexis Monroe

Music by Danny Schwartz and John Sullivan, with Stephanie Koziej and Phil Jenkins (including arrangements of 12th century French chanson)

Choreography by Olivia Sabee

Featuring Alexis Monroe, Dana Woodson, and Stephanie Koziej

Engineering by Aaron Smith and Josh Laskin

Spring 2014

This spring, Parallel Octave is continuing to perform French poetry with MOVEIUS Ballet in the recurring performance, “Invisible Steps,” and will also be presenting ALBATROSS//LORELEI, a mash-up of German and English poetry from Coleridge to Heine with live jazz music.  Performances will take place in April in Washington DC and May in Baltimore.  Details TBA.

Sunday, September 15th, 4 PM: Open rehearsal for INVISIBLE STEPS

The Parallel Octave 2013 Fall North American Tour (as we’re unofficially calling it)
continues this Sunday, September 15
with our preparation/rehearsal/brainstorming/recording session
for INVISIBLE STEPS
this Sunday
from 4-6 PM
at Danny’s Place (see Facebook event for address)

INVISIBLE STEPS is a collaboration between Parallel Octave and the DC-based dance troupe MOVEIUS Contemporary Ballet (http://www.moveiusdance.org/).

This is a performance combining live dance with text recitation and live music.

The show itself will be on Saturday, November 2 at the Cultural Arts Center in Silver Spring, comprising two performances (2:30 matinee and 7:30 evening).

Details will be covered at this Sunday’s session.
Snacks will be provided by John.
We hope to see you there! (And no, Parallel Octavians will not be required to dance.)

Friday the 13th at An die Musik: Bad Luck Poems with The Duc D’Angelos

“The Duc D’Angelos returns to An Die Musik for an evening of music, art, video projections, and spoken word ruminations. Guests include Rashidi Omari, Anthony Redd, Parallel Octave, as well as works from the Jordan Faye Block Contemporary Gallery. Doors open at 7:30, music starts at 8:30. Drinks and refreshments available. See you there! Cheers! — The Duc D’Angelos”

We will be providing the poems of ill luck.

Open Session: Poems of Bad Luck: Sunday, September 8th, 4 PM

Persons of the Parallel Octave!
We have resolved
to convene all interested actors, musicians, singers, and friends or foes of the poets John Milton Hay, Baudelaire, Ralegh, Donne, Tayyi, Cawein, and more,
for an open session upon the theme of
BAD LUCK.

When: Sunday September 8th, 4-6 PM
Where: Mattin Center, JHU campus, SDS room (the big orchestra room next to room 108 where we sometimes meet).

At this session, we will rehearse poems to be performed at The Duc D’Angelos upcoming event on Friday the 13th at An Die Musik: Word Sound Image 2 @ An Die Musik. ***It’s necessary to attend this rehearsal in order to perform with us on the 13th.***

We hope to see you there. BYOinstruments, and beware the 13th of September!

Poems follow:

HOME BURIAL

Parallel Octave presents “Home Burial,” a site-specific spectacle based on poems from Robert Frost’s “North of Boston,” at the Homewood House Museum on the JHU campus, on Thursday, August 1st, at 5:30 PM. Admission free but reservations *required*; admission is extremely limited. Call 410-516-5589 to make reservations. Facebook event here.

Reception, 5:30-6PM: free refreshments and live music.
6 PM: Performance.

With Jeff Colosino, Chris Geekie, Richard Goldberg, Maddie Hicks, Connor Kizer, Sandy Koll, Kevin Moreno, Bruce Nelson, Lauren Reding, Natalie Ware, the Parallel Octave Chorus, and JHU Summer Programs students from Theater & Music Lab.

Special guest performance by Megan Ihnen and Katherine Magruder: selections from Ralph Vaughn Williams’s “Ten Blake Songs.”

With video projection designs by students from the “Auteur 101” class in the Film & Media Studies Program at JHU, under the direction of Mónica López-González.

Poems: “Home Burial,” “Death of the Hired Man,” “The Wood Pile,” “Mending Wall,” “The Fear,” “A Servant to Servants,” and “After Apple-Picking.”

The Homewood House Museum is located on the circular lawn at Charles/33rd, at the front of the JHU campus. If you are standing facing the front of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, the Museum is the building directly to your right.

ANTHOLOGY III wrap-up

Thanks to everyone who came to last evening’s screening of ANTHOLOGY III at The Creative Alliance! We will post pictures and video when everything is edited. For now, here’s another one of the students’ films: “Nomade,” directed by Abby Francis, based on the poem by Pierre Reverdy.

ANTHOLOGY III

On Monday, July 29, at the Creative Alliance, the Parallel Octave Chorus and students from “Auteur 101: Short Film Laboratory” @ JHU will present the third annual screening of short films based on poems.

ANTHOLOGY III

a compilation of short videos
based on the the poetry of William Blake, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Alan Seeger, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Stephen Crane, Pierre Reverdy, and more!

Admission: FREE

Date: Monday, July 29, 7 PM
refreshments available for purchase at 6.30

Location: The Creative Alliance
at The Patterson
(3134 Eastern Ave., Baltimore MD 21224
www.creativealliance.org / 410/276-1651)

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/597582366931109/
CA site: http://www.creativealliance.org/events/2013/anthology-iii

Sample student film, Catherine Wityk’s “To See A World” (based on a fragment of William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience”):

The screening will be followed by a live improvisation / collaboration session with the audience, where we read aloud poems with live acoustic music. Free kazoos, noisemakers, and other sound-generating items will be distributed to all of the audience–or you are welcome to bring your own instruments!

The Parallel Octave Chorus and student performers from JHU Summer’s Theater & Music Lab will be providing more musical mayhem.

***Also featuring a special guest film by Polish artists Marta Ostajewska and Justyna Apolinarzak.***

Screening made possible due to the generous support of the following Hopkins departments and programs:
Summer Programs,
Film & Media Studies,
Writing Seminars,
Homewood Arts,
and the Brown Foundation Digital Media Center.

Course blog: http://auteur101.wordpress.com/
http://www.creativealliance.org/events/2013/anthology-iii
Email contact: paralleloctave@gmail.com

Pictures from Artscape Sunday

This Sunday at Artscape, students from “Auteur 101: Short Film Laboratory” in Film & Media Studies at JHU created slide projections for a reading of the “End of the Line” script at the Single Carrot Theatre. Summer and pre-college students and RAs participated in the chorus for the project, along with Parallel Octave regulars and Baltimore performers.  We also had the opportunity to conduct a chorus workshop with Artscape audience members, and teach choruses to them before the reading began.

“End of the Line” at Artscape, July 21

Eight writers from Poland, Hungary, the US and Spain respond to Polish playwright Wojtek Ziemilski’s “Mała Narracja” (Small Narration) by exploring the stories of their own grandparents. With live music.

Reading of “The End of the Line“: (free admission)
Sunday, July 21
7 PM
Single Carrot Theatre, Artscape Festival, 1727 N. Charles

(Facebook event here and Artscape link here.)

With music from the Parallel Octave Chorus and the Theater & Music Lab of JHU Summer Programs, and slide projections designed by summer students from JHU’s “Auteur 101: Short Film Laboratory” class, in Film and Media Studies, under the guidance of Meg Rorison.

Writers:
Bakk Ágnes (Hungary), Nathan Cooper (US), Rachel Jendrzejewski (US), Marek Krawczyk (Poland / US), Dorota Sobstel (Poland), Maite Tarazona (Spain), Vági Eszter (Hungary), Dara Weinberg (US)
Performers:
Natalia Ballestero, Genevieve de Mahy, Megan Ihnen, Sandy Koll, the Parallel Octave Chorus, and the JHU Summer Theater & Music Lab