Elizabeth DeMent, Theda Hammel, Kate Moran, Myssi Robinson, and Michelle Sui in The Mood Room, Big Dance Theater by Annie-B Parson, November 30—December 5, Performance view, BAM. Photo by Maria Baranova.

Big Dance Theater

The Mood Room

On View: November 30-December 5, 2021

BAM Fisher, Fishman Space (321 Ashland Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217)

BAM in association with The Kitchen presents Mood Room by Big Dance Theater, created by Annie-B Parson.

Against the urgent, experimental laptop music of Holly Herndon, Annie-B Parson’s Big Dance Theater explores a story of five sisters in 1980, gathered in their deceased parents’ Los Angeles home. A mix of theater, dance, and spoken opera, the mythic, piercing Mood Room is set in a time more focused on personal indulgence than the citizen body. In the physical and metaphorical mood room, the all-female cast retreats from responsibility as participants in the larger world. Referencing multiple texts, including Guy de Cointet's Five Sisters and Chekhov’s Three Sisters, The Mood Room is a mirror for being and nothingness, angst and regret, class and navel-gazing.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Created by Annie-B Parson
Music by Holly Herndon
Performed and co-created with: Elizabeth DeMent, Theda Hammel, Kate Moran, Myssi Robinson, and Michelle Sui*
Based upon the play Five Sisters by Guy de Cointet (1982) with some additional text from Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1901).

Sound Design and re-composition by Mark degli Antoni
Set Design by Lauren Machen
Lighting Design by Joe Levasseur
Video Design by Keith Skretch
Costume Co-Design by Baille Younkman and Samantha Mcelrath
Sound Associate: Keenan Hurley
Audio Engineer: Michael Alexander Hernandez
Production Manager: Alexandra Vasquez Dheming
Stage Management: Thomas Dieter and Rachel April
Producer: Sara Pereira da Silva
Tour Representation: ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann
*Creative process included original cast member Brittany Engel-Adams

The Mood Room by Annie-B Parson / Big Dance Theater © 2020.

FUNDING SUPPORT & CREDITS

The Mood Room is produced by Big Dance Theater and co-commissioned by The Kitchen, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carolina Performing Arts/UNC Chapel Hill, the Walker Art Center, the Wexner Arts Center, and with funds from the Starry Night Fund. The Mood Room was created with residency support from the Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, the Walker Arts Center, the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Orlando, FL), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and The Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Mood Room is also supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation, Café Royal Cultural Foundation, Dance/NYC Advancement Fund, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Big Dance Theater is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New York Theater Program, the W Trust, Virginia and Timothy Millhiser, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Organized by Tim Griffin and Matthew Lyons, The Kitchen's partnership with BAM on the world premiere of The Mood Room is made possible with commissioning support from NYSCA Restart NY: Rapid Live Performance Grant program; annual grants from Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Season programming is made possible in part with support from The Kitchen’s Board of Directors and The Kitchen Leadership Fund. Learn more about the Leadership Fund.

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