Share This Campaign:
WHAT WE'RE ABOUT
OZET is an ongoing collaboration between Aaron Meicht and Scott Blumenthal that encompasses a variety of live performances, films, studio-produced song recordings, experiments with new media, and a band. Each piece of the project draws on and expands the fictional history of the Collective Sphere OZET: an enormous spacecraft, created by an alternate-past Russian Communist empire to be home to nearly seven hundred lishenets (politically disenfranchised enemies of the people), euphemistically dubbed "Pioneers."
Since 2007, we've performed 9 original pieces, including two evening-length shows. Last year's ALBERTS I-V opened a window into the secret pre-history of the OZET. COMMON HALL VILLAGE 20 picks up the story of the OZET 300 years later, and invites you to walk through the door.
WHAT OUR NEW SHOW IS ABOUT
It is the evening of the Festival of the Fifteenth Generation, a celebration preceding the birth of the first children of the Fifteenth Generation of OZET Pioneers. The adults of Village Twenty arrive at their village common hall to talk, drink, and participate in the festivities as directed by the Council of the OZET's official video broadcast. A band of local musicians plays. The Mayor gives a speech. Before the celebration is over, an interruption will reveal a dark fissure in the utopian facade of OZET society, and the Pioneers will face the beginning of a new, troubled age.
CHV20 is inspired in equal parts by images from the Romanian Revolution, the writings of J.D. Bernal, the life and music of Woody Guthrie, and the creators' years as participant-observers in the local scene at the 80-year-old Washington Heights watering hole Reynold's Cafe.
We will be performing CHV20 from January 26 through February 5, 2011, at the historic theater at St. Mark's Church, home to Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater for over 30 years. The show will presented by Incubator Arts Project (founded by the OHT to develop the work of emerging artists) as part of their Winter season.
WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO DO THIS TIME
This two week residency at the Incubator Arts Project has inspired us to think big, and to take on artistic and technical challenges we couldn't have considered before. It's also a sterling opportunity to invite a larger audience into the world of OZET, and to bring our work to the attention of the press and producers so that we hopefully don't have to ask you for financial support next time.
Here are just a few aspects of COMMON HALL VILLAGE 20 that we're particularly excited about:
OZET Band member, and frequent collaborator Daniel "The Smuggler" Baker will be not only performing in the show, but will be joining Aaron and Scott as an integral member of the creative and producing team.
We have already started rehearsing with other members of our unique and incredible cast which now includes powerhouse director Liesl Tommy (in a rare onstage appearance), the Talking Band’s Paul Zimet, Julliard alum and soap opera veteran Nick Choksi, actor and choreographer Jesse Perez, composer Paula Matthusen, and OZET mainstay “Cousin” Dave Hopkins. And drummer, composer, and long-time Meicht confederate Brendan Dougherty is coming all the way from Berlin to perform with the Common Hall band.
On board the OZET for the first time are designers Kathleen Geldard (costumes), Britt Plunkett (set), Dan Scully (video), and Brandon Wolcott (sound). Others artists are with us once again: Thomas Dunn (ALBERTS I-V) is lighting the show, and Daniel Kluger (ALBERTS, KOBA, OZET Band) will join forces at the board with Brandon.
Google any of these folks; they are all amazing. (If you'd like to know about some of the other artists who have worked with us in the past, please browse through the list of events on our site, http://ozet.us.)
Each OZET performance has been an occasion to bring together artists and audiences across the boundaries of music, theater, film, and beyond. With CHV20, we want to foster a deeper sense of community and shared experience by transforming the theater into a living version of the Common Hall; audience members will drink, hang out, and celebrate together as the action of the performance unfolds. We are also in the process of assembling a large, revolving community of Common Hall regulars who will help us lift the energy and guide the action of the show each night.
CHV20 will also gives us a chance to present the history of the OZET in a more comprehensive and cohesive way than our previous pieces.
WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO WITH YOUR MONEY
Every dollar you contribute will be used to bring the physical world of COMMON HALL VILLAGE 20 to life (costumes, sets, video, lighting and sound equipment), to promote and rehearse the show, and to pay honoraria to the artists who will create and populate it. We pride ourselves on consistently producing our work on a shoestring budget without compromising on quality. Our collaborators are all in-demand, respected professionals, who seem capable of turning water into wine. Like us, they are traveling on the OZET out of love. But we still need to raise $4500 to realize this common vision. We plan to distribute the money we raise in this campaign across our budget like this:
$1300 - Set
$200 - Costumes
$200 - Video
$200 - Sound
$100 - Lighting
$200 - Instrument rental
$1300 - Artists' honoraria
$600 - Rehearsal space
$400 - Press
WHAT WE WILL WE DO WITH ADDITIONAL MONEY WE RAISE
We hope we have budgeted correctly for what we'd like to achieve. Any additional funds will be kept with our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, to be put toward future OZET productions.
Team on This Campaign:
-
-
aaronmeicht
OZET co-creator
-
-
Fractured AtlasFiscal Sponsor