[Capdist-announce] PRESS RELEASE: Noh-Inspired Musical SUNWATCHER Leads Ancram Summer Play Lab Series

[Gail Burns]

May 19, 2022

CONTACT: Gail M. Burns

www.ancramoperahouse.org

gburns35 at gmail.com; 413-458-4246

PRESS PHOTOS:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/195256245@N02/albums/72177720298524218

NOH-INSPIRED MUSICAL “SUNWATCHER” LEADS SUMMER PLAY LAB SERIES AT ANCRAM
OPERA HOUSE MAY 27-29

Save $10 with New Summer Play Lab Ticket Bundle

Free Creative Movement Community Workshop May 28

ANCRAM, NY [May 19, 2022] - Ancram Opera House in Ancram, NY, starts its
2022 Summer Play Lab Series May 27-29 with a work-in-progress presentation of
songs by the artists of SUNWATCHER, a Noh-inspired piece directed by Nana
Dakin, with music by Tidtaya Sinutoke and book and lyrics by Isabella
Dawis. The Summer Play Lab
<https://www.ancramoperahouse.org/summer-play-lab-residency> residency
provides theater artists of all practices a space to develop innovative new
performances and connect with the community in meaningful ways.

A new Summer Play Lab  (SPL) Bundle ticket purchase gets tickets to one
performance each of SUNWATCHER and Celeste Lecesne’s POOF!, which runs July
8-10, for just $30 - a $10 savings off of tickets purchased individually.
This offer is only good through the run of SUNWATCHER, so buy now and save.

“The SUNWATCHER Team was a part of our 2021 Summer Play Lab, and we invited
them back this year to continue development on this innovative,
multi-layered piece,” AOH co-director Jeffrey Mousseau explained. “We
recognize that complex works need extended time frames in order for the
projects to come into fruition.”

An experimental chamber musical inspired by classical Noh theatre,
SUNWATCHER intertwines the story of two women -- the astronomer and “hidden
figure” Hisako Koyama (1916-1997), and the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu.

Hisako was a self-taught solar observer who drew the sun in painstaking
detail every day for 40 years, a landmark achievement that ranks among the
likes of Galileo. SUNWATCHER celebrates this underrecognized Asian woman in
science and her extraordinary dedication to ordinary observation.

In World War II Tokyo, despite the threat of firebombing from the US,
Hisako looks through her telescope every day and sketches the spots on the
sun’s surface. Her observations lead her to the sun goddess Amaterasu, a
powerful deity besieged by her violent brother. Hisako’s experience of war
collides with creation mythology, as both goddess and mortal are tested by
tragedy and despair.

Work in progress showings of SUNWATCHER are scheduled for Friday, May 27
and Saturday, May 28 at 8 pm, and Sunday, May 29 at 3 pm at the Ancram
Opera House, 1330 County Route 7 in Ancram, NY.  The $20 admission
supports the Summer Play Lab residency program.

The SUNWATCHER Team will also be leading a free Creative Movement Workshop
at AOH on Saturday, May 28 from 10 am-noon. Director Nana Dakin will guide
participants through a series of simple exercises to awaken physical
awareness. Next, the artists will talk about their creative process and the
inspiration for SUNWATCHER, including scientific information about the Sun
and sunspots. Composer Tidtaya Sinutoke and librettist Isabella Dawis will
share some of the music they created based on this sun data. Participants
will then be guided by Dakin on how to use these scientific facts and
musical material as inspiration to create their own one-of-a-kind SUNWATCHER
movement. Enrollment is limited and registration is required.

To purchase tickets, a SPL Bundle, workshop registration, and more
information visit www.ancramoperahouse.org.

AT-A-GLANCE

Summer Play Lab work-in-progress showing of songs from

SUNWATCHER

Music by Tidtaya Sinutoke

Book and lyrics by Isabella Dawis

Directed by Nana Dakin



Fri, May 27 at 8 pm

Sat, May 28 at 8 pm

Sun, May 29 at 3 pm

at AOH, 1330 County Route 7, Ancram 12502

Tickets: $20 each; SPL Bundle for $30 buys a ticket each for SUNWATCHER and
POOF!

(518) 329-0114

www.ancramoperahouse.org

Free Community Workshop

Creative Movement Workshop

Saturday, May 28 from 10 am-noon

Enrollment limited; Registration required

(518) 329-0114

www.ancramoperahouse.org

BIOS

Nana Dakin (she/her) is a queer Thai-American director of new work,
classics and devised performance based in NYC. Her work pursues social
equity by examining the way culture is constructed and unsettling dormant
biases. Upcoming: LOST COAST (The Playwrights Realm INK’D Festival) and
MAMMELEPHANT (Superhero Clubhouse/122CC). Recent: PASSAGE (University of
North Carolina School of the Arts), SORRY/NOT SORRY (Ars Nova ANT Fest),
SUNWATCHER (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Global Forms Festival, Ancram
Opera House Play Lab, Civilians FINDINGS Series), LOVE LETTER TO A SEED
(Clubbed Thumb Winterworks), WHITE PEARL (Royal Court Theatre), an
all-women and non-binary production of Shakespeare’s RICHARD III (Lenfest
Center for the Arts). She has developed new work at Ensemble Studio
Theatre, NYTW, The Song Collective, The Tank and Columbia University’s
International Play Reading Festival. MFA Theatre Directing: Columbia
University. www.nanadakin.com

Isabella Dawis (she/her) is a Filipina-American playwright and performer.
As a librettist and lyricist, she is the recipient of the 2022 Kleban
Prize, the 2021 Fred Ebb Award, and the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical
Award. Isabella currently holds a 2021-23 Composers and the Voice
Fellowship with the American Opera Project. Her musicals written with
composer Tidtaya Sinutoke include HALF THE SKY (5th Avenue Theatre Digital
Radio Play/First Draft Commission, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Theater Mu's
New Eyes Festival, Theater Latté Da's NEXT Festival) and SUNWATCHER
(Civilians' R&D Group, Goodspeed’s Writers Grove, Rattlestick Playwrights
Theater, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Tofte Lake Center). Isabella’s
writing has been supported by the Primary Stages Rockwell Scholarship, the
Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya Songbook, Musical Theatre Factory,
Coalition of Asian American Leaders, and more. B.M. summa cum laude, piano
performance, University of Minnesota, with vocal study at New England
Conservatory. Isabelladawis.com <http://isabelladawis.com/>

Tidtaya Sinutoke (ฑิตยา สินุธก) (she/her) is a Thailand born, NYC-based
composer. Composition credits include HALF THE SKY (The 5th Avenue
Theatre's First Draft Commission & 20/21 Digital Season, Weston-Ghostlight
New Musical Award, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Richard Rodgers Award
finalist); SUNWATCHER (The Civilians R&D Group, Weston Playhouse's Songs
for Today, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
Global Forms Festival); and DEAR MR. C (NYFA’s City Artist Corps Grants,
Polyphone Festival). She was awarded the 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, the
2020 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, the 2021 International Theatremaker Award
and the 2021 Fred Ebb Award. Her works have been supported by the American
Opera Project, Composer-Librettist Studio at New Dramatists, Yale Institute
for Music Theatre, Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Johnny Mercer Writers
Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, EtM Con Edison
Composer-in-Residence, MTF's Makers Cohort, and the Kurt Weill Foundation.
A proud member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, Maestra, MUSE, and Thai
Theatre Foundation. MFA: NYU. tidtayasinutoke.com

2022 SPONSORS

The 2022 season at the Ancram Opera House is made possible by the New York
State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor
and the New York State Legislature.

ABOUT THE ANCRAM OPERA HOUSE

The Ancram Opera House in southern Columbia County, NY,  is an intimate
showcase for fresh, contemporary work by visionary theater and musical
artists where audiences can connect with performers in immersive, immediate
ways.

The Opera House was erected in 1927 as Ancram Grange #955, a chapter of the
National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, to address the social,
educational and economic concerns of the region’s farmers.  In 1972, the
building was repurposed and renamed the Ancram Opera House as an arts venue
focusing on light operatic fare.

Today, Ancram Opera House rededicates itself to aspects of its origins,
producing and presenting inventive contemporary theatrical performances to
be shared by a rural community.

For more information visit www.ancramoperahouse.org.

###


-- 
Gail M. Burns
57 Linden Street
Williamstown, MA 01267-2511
413-458-4246 home
gburns35 at gmail.com <gailmburns at roadrunner.com>

Editor & Webmaster for Berkshire on Stage
https://berkshireonstage.blog/

PR & Marketing for the Ancram Opera House
https://www.ancramoperahouse.org/

Social Media & Webmaster for WAM Theatre
https://www.wamtheatre.com/

Social Media for Alison Larkin Presents, Dolores Heights Improvement Club,
Williamstown Community Chest, and the Williamstown Historical Museum

Freelance Writer
<http://www.GailSez.org>
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