"In The Fête of Mistakes, Psychic Readings Co constructs an abstract fairground littered with the overwhelmingness of despair and the sustained tension of hopefulness." 

This production, produced by Psychic Readings Theater, given at Baltimore's Le Mondo in December 2016, presented a number of interesting challenges and opportunities.  The performance space, having no existing lighting system, grid or other infrastructure, was adapted into an intimate, even claustrophobic theater that opened out into the wider space of Le Mondo for a spectacular finale demolition derby. Lighting instruments, ranging from LED flashlights to clip lights to standard theatrical fixtures, were used to create a shadowy, subterranean space situated (or not) beneath Niagara Falls.
 
Projections were carefully prepared to create a seamless, hypnotic moving mandala and other apparitions which helped propel the plot of this all-American demimonde.
 
In addition, I appeared (as David J. Crandall) with a prophetic song in the penultimate climax of the evening:
 
“But you must hurry! Don’t you dare be late!
The engine of fate has no governor! Get what’s coming to you! Go! Go!”

Photos by Dave Iden

I have been fortunate to play a number of acting roles, ranging from a composite character in Annex Theater’s Macbeth, who witnesses the action of the play in a drunken post-battle fugue, to a classic role as Father Jack in Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, to a funeral director with a twist in Annex’s UBIK. These opportunities have deepened my understanding of the totality of theater on both sides of the footlights.
 
In addition to those pictured, I have also played the roles of:
 

• The Announcer (voice-over) in Psychic Readings’ The Failures (2016-7)
• The Old Man in Psychic Readings’ The Purple Flower (2015).
• The Second Messenger in Two Suns Over Thebes, Annex Theater's adaptation of The Bacchae (2013).
• Prologue/Sergeant/Porter/Old Man and Seyton in Annex Theater’s Macbeth (2013)
• Herbert Schoenheit von Vogelsang in Annex’s UBIK (2012).

One of my favorite classical works is Mozart's Magic Flute, a singspiel that is connected, not only to high opera, but to the rowdy German music halls of its time. So I was delighted when, in 2015, Annex Theater asked me to help as music director in staging this gem in a tiny, 30-person theater on North Avenue.

Budget ruled an orchestra out of the question—the score would have to be played on computer and built in software—but  it occurred to me to embrace this fact by scoring the orchestra as a collection of sampled toy, mechanical, and a few historical and folk instruments. By "historical" I mean samples of not just 18th century orchestral instruments, but also authentic 1950s and 60s synthesizers, including the unique Jennings Univox, a vacuum-tube instrument from 1954. The result was an exceptionally warm and unique accompaniment for the singers. The score was mixed in 4-channel surround and played back on computer. 

Annex company member Jacob Budenz joined me as director of the singers, and we collaborated on stylistic details; Evan Moritz directed the staging, and Doug Johnson provided magnificent painted backdrops that paged like a giant picture-book to reveal the settings.

Photos by Dave Iden