AFTER
is a live performance about experiences no human being has ever come back to report on - a show about possible afterlives and consciousness transfer. Using hyper-precise design and new breakthroughs in sound spatialization, it explores deep levels of human perception in an attempt to induce collective hallucination.
We need your help to complete the full experience of AFTER. These funds will help us bring the show to New York City and fabricate our own custom Wave Field Synthesis speaker system based on cutting edge research and design out of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. This speaker array is an immersive, spatial audio rendering technique that places and moves virtual sound sources in real space - basically a sound hologram.
The show will have its NYC premiere in January of 2018.
WHY AFTER
…there exists nothing else like it. This is what theatre is for. A genuinely mind-blowing show. -The Stage UK
In 2015 I premiered YOUARENOWHERE - a show about parallel universes and perception - in an independent gallery in Brooklyn. We expected the show to end there. But after touring the show to France, Slovenia, Australia, Prague, London, a 5-week sold out run in New York City, winning an OBIE, and being nominated for a Drama Desk - I knew our story wasn’t done.
AFTER answers the question YOUARENOWHERE leaves us with and investigates the events that constitute a life, traversing the possible realities at the precise moment of death. What happens to the individual atoms that constitute you? What happens to your energy? Your consciousness?
Wave Field Synthesis unlocks the possibility to explore these philosophical questions through perceptual experience and design - sensory overload and deprivation.
WAVE FIELD SYNTHESIS
We are working closely with EMPAC to replicate the design and construction of their new sound technology system - Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) . AFTER will be the first theatrical production in the world to use EMPAC's design of WFS.
WFS seemingly does the impossible by creating a virtual sound source in space. It can be thought of as an auditory hologram - a holophone. The sound can move around you, hover close by your ear then move to the next row. It is no different than a sound source moving around you. It just happens that the source is not there.
WHY WE NEED YOU
We've reached out for support from private institutions and just have a small gap in funding to get us over the finish line. We have the developmental support of our commissioning organization EMPAC and have secured a high-profile New York City premiere in January. The team is on board. The excitement is mounting. EVERYTHING is in place. We just need a little more to get us to our goal. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a thing that has never before been experienced in the theater.
A BRIEF HISTORY
AFTER has been in active development for close to two years through a series of residencies at Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Performing Garage, and LMCC Process Space - and with the generous help of many people and places along the way. In late 2015 Andrew was curated into a series of residencies at EMPAC in Troy, NY. After researching their facilities both he and his sound collaborator Bobby McElver became fascinated by EMPAC’s breadth of technical support.
EMPAC staff sat in on an early work-in-progress showing of AFTER, and realized the show’s ability to utilize WFS to its full potential.
That was the moment everything clicked. EMPAC worked to offer immediate use, training, and support on their 496 channel Wave Field Synthesis array. With limited time the team designed and integrated the array’s capabilities into the show before the world premiere at EMPAC in August of 2017.
The show is now in its finishing stages over the next 3 months during which we will be designing and fabricating our own Wave Field Synthesis rig, and refining the show in a makeshift warehouse space in the Gowanus.
CURRENT TEAM OF COLLABORATORS
We are a group of artists pulled together by the same fascination. What makes us - us? While everyone on the AFTER team arrives at the project from a different trajectory, we all have deep ties to the New York performance scene, and a fascination about what makes us all human.
Here’s a little bit about our current team:
Andrew Schneider (lead artist) is an OBIE award-winning, Drama Desk-nominated performer, writer, and interactive-electronics artist creating original works for theater, video, and installation since 2003. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Schneider creates and performs original performance works, builds interactive electronic art works and installations, and was a Wooster Group company member (video/performer) from 2007-2014. Rooted at the intersection of performance and technology, Schneider’s work critically investigates our over-dependence on being perpetually connected in an always-on world. Andrew’s original performance work in NYC includes YOUARENOWHERE (2015 OBIE award – The Invisible Dog, 2016 Drama Desk nom – 3LD); DANCE/FIELD (2014 – Dance Roulette), TIDAL (2013 – River to River festival); WOW+FLUTTER (2010 – The Chocolate Factory Theater); five AVANT-GARDE-ARAMA! works (2005-2013 – PS122); PLEASURE (2009 – Issue Project Room); and resident artist (2006) at LEMURplex. Next Andrew is working on a commission from Ars Nova (TBD) and continues to tour both YOUARENOWHERE and AFTER. Andrew creates wearable, interactive electronic art works such as the Solar Bikini, (a bikini that charges your iPod), and wireless programmable sound effect gloves. His interactive work has been featured in such publications as Art Forum and Wired, among others and at the Center Pompidou in Paris. Andrew is a recurring collaborator with The TEAM, Heather Christian, Lars Jan / Early Morning Opera, Hotel Savant, Fischerspooner, Kelela, and AVAN LAVA. His Off-Broadway designs include Dolphins and Sharks at the Labyrinth Theater; Small Mouth Sounds at Ars Nova and the Signature Theater Company; and Roosevelvis at the Vineyard Theatre. Schneider has served as an Adjunct Professor at NYU and has taught courses on Technology and Performance at the Interactive Telecommunications Program, and at Bowdoin, and Carleton Colleges. Andrew holds a BFA in Theater Arts from Illinois Wesleyan University and a Masters Degree in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU. More at andrewjs.com
Alicia ayo Ohs (core collaborator and performer) is a performer, educator and community builder. She is honored to have performed internationally and throughout the United States as an original cast member in Faye Driscoll’s Thank You for Coming: Attendance and Play and with Sally Silvers, Andrea Geyer, niv Acosta, Sondra Loring and others. ayo is a facilitator and founding member of Movement Research’s Artists of Color Council and continues to teach leadership development, yoga and wellness strategies in schools and non-profits. She is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Experimental Theatre Wing and lives in Brooklyn, NY with her pit-bull mix.
Bobby McElver (core collaborator and sound designer) is a sound designer and composer for theater, dance, and film. He also designs interactive audio-visual technology for bands and live events. Company member of The Wooster Group 2011-2016. The Wooster Group: THE ROOM, EARLY SHAKER SPIRITUALS, CRY, TROJANS! (TROILUS & CRESSIDA), EARLY PLAYS, VIEUX CARRÉ, and HAMLET. Theater and Dance: Faye Driscoll, Andrew Schneider, NYC Players, Half Straddle, Young Jean Lee, Palissimo, Michou Szabo, Erin Markey. Film: Every Secret Thing (Tribeca Film Festival 2014). Nominated for 2015 Bessie for Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design. More at bobbymcelver.com
Alessandra Calabi (core collaborator, company and stage manager) is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist hailing from Milan, Italy. A graduate of the New School for Social Research, she completed her Master’s Degree in Philosophy in 2015, concentrating her research at the intersection of performance, politics, and social theory. Alessandra is the stage manager and co-creator of Andrew Schneider's Obie-award winning YOUARENOWHERE, and is a main collaborator on AFTER. She has worked in the US and around the world for Faye Driscoll, Pascal Rambert, Thaddeus Phillips, R.B. Schlather, Adam Weinert, Fixed Agency, Banana Bag and Bodice, among others.
Peter Musante (collaborator and performer) creates interdisciplinary performances with a diverse group of artists. Director: the.humanest & Archipelago. Performer: Andrew Schneider’s FIELD and YOUARENOWHERE, Martha Clarke’s Angel Reapers, a canary torsi’s The People To Come and Blue Man Group. Resident artist with Trusty Sidekick Theater Co., founding member of Fixed Agency and collaborator with Spring Street Social Society. His work has also been presented by The Brick, The Kraine, Galapagos and The Chocolate Factory's THROW series. More at petermusante.com
Kedian Keohan (collaborator and performer) is a theater maker and performer. They are 1/7th of the theater company Church of the Millennials, whose series “AMERIKA!” has been presented at BAX, Ars Nova’s ANT FEST, and upcoming at the IRT Theater. Kedian performed as a puppeteer in John Heginbotham & Amy Trompetter’s Fantasque, served as the choreographic assistant and performer for the 2016 tour of Erin Markey’s A Ride On The Irish Cream, and has worked as a production assistant for Geoff Sobelle, Faye Driscoll, Romeo Castellucci, Real Estate, and Gotye. BA: Bard College. More at churchofthemillennials.org
Sandra Garner (lead producer) is an independent producer working through her company Lingua Franca Arts which is dedicated to the development, support and presentation of international contemporary performing arts projects. LFA is about cultivating a common language among artists, art forms and audiences. Current and past artists and projects include: Andrew Schneider Performance, GAZR, Grisha Coleman, Alessandro Magania, Howard Fishman, Patricia Noworol Dance Theater, Christina Masciotti, Palissimo, Radiohole, Banana Bag & Bodice, Operating Theater Company, Oye Group, Nellie Tinder, minor theater and Gary Winter. More at linguafrancaarts.com
A note from Andrew:
I would also like to acknowledge the many individuals and institutions along the way who have gotten us to where we are today. Not a person who has had a hand in making this show has left without their indelible mark of positive change within the room. This show is not mine, it is theirs. This show does not belong to me, it belongs to the community of artists, designers, laborers, curators, audiences, administrators, marketers, friends, critics, proofreaders, photographers, interns, interviewers, writers, front of house managers, ushers, and technicians at every step along the way giving feedback, helping sweep up, researching a part number, hanging a light, opening a door, making an introduction, telling a friend, opening their mind, letting us in, and saying yes. This work belongs to you. I believe in us. And I believe in this community - and my personal accountability to it.
here we go.
Risks and challenges
I’ve been making work in New York City, large and small, since 2003. From self-produced festival shows literally tech-ed out of a suitcase - to fully produced sold-out extended off-broadway runs, I’ve learned the importance of scalability. The show will always happen, but we need to be adaptable. A shortfall of funds, while disappointing, will in no way stop the premiere in January 2018. But we will miss the opportunity to contribute to the cutting-edge of sound design in live performance that could have a ripple effect across our field.
We have an opportunity to go above and beyond. To bring our ideas, along with this technology to NYC and the world. We believe we are the first theatre project in the world to use WFS. We have the potential to change the way an audience perceives sound. We take seriously the challenges of making work that is not about the technology itself, but it’s application. How it touches you as an audience. It’s not about the tech. It’s about what we do with it. How we can tell stories in ways no one has ever heard before.
We believe theatre is about gathering people together to have a collective and hopefully profound experience that brings us all closer as humans. To see ourselves and one another. To change perspectives and to challenge the ways we think we perceive.
There is a short turnaround time to build this. And limited space and time to use it. We have some funding, and just need to fill the gap. We have this opportunity now. Please help us fulfill it.
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
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Funding period
- (26 days)