Darling Song Cycle / Cordelia December 9, 2012

An evening of new music performance featuring compositions by Bay Area composers Edward Schocker and Suki O'Kane

The Darling Song Cycle is a new work of original songs by Edward Schocker and Greg Giovanni. Inspired by the humorous relationships of The Darling Family in the story Peter Pan, this work experiments with new storytelling approaches that expand theatrical and musical vocabularies.

The Darlings:
Mrs. Darling: Tako Oda (voice)
Mr. Darling: Tomoko Schocker (voice)
Child: Sarah Willner (violin)
Child: Sean Carson (bass)
Child: Edward Schocker (guitar)

The Darling Song Cycle was created with the support of the East Bay Community Foundation's East Bay Fund for Artists and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

Cordelia is based on Shakespeare's King Lear, told from the point of view of Lear's daughter Cordelia, a Japanese phantasmal Noh warrior. The work will be performed by an acoustic double-trio of Polly
Moller and Steve Adams (flutes/chanter), Anna Wray and Nava Dunkelman (piccolo snares), Suki O'Kane and Joy Sue Hutchinson (sruti boxes) with Mantra Plonsey (voice).**

Both works were composed for Theatre of Yugen as part of larger cycles: the Darling Song Cycle is a set of musical interludes for Yugen's production of Greg Giovanni's A Minor Cycle, five plays adapting classic folk narratives and children's literature. Cordelia is a composition for one of 17 plays by Erik Ehn, collected as Soulographie, the durational performance event looking at 20th century America from the point of view of its relationship to genocides.

About Theatre of Yugen
Founded in 1978, Theatre of Yugen is an experimental ensemble dedicated to the pursuit of the intangible essence called yugen through its exploration of dramatic and literary classics and the crafting of new works of world theater. Our investigation stems from a discipline of Japanese theatrical aesthetics - primarily the classical forms of Noh drama and Kyogen comedy. Through training, creating, presenting, collaborating and performing we aim to foster intercultural understanding and keep theatrical discipline vital. Yu - deep, quiet, other worldly gen - subtle, profound, dark

Links
Edward Schocker: http://edwardschocker.com
Suki O'Kane: http://sukiokane.com/
A Minor Cycle: http://www.theatreofyugen.org/?spec=53
Cordelia: http://www.theatreofyugen.org/?spec=55
Soulographie: http://www.soulographie.org/