Jon Scoville – Guest for 8/31/10

Music composer, dance accompanist,  Jon Scoville  came into the KZSC radio station for Artists on Art on the last day of August, 2010.  Jon is a local artist and collaborator, partner, spouse, with our own internationally acclaimed choreographer, stage director, dancer, teacher, Tandy Beal.  The list goes on.

We talked about his latest theatrical performance musical contribution that will be opening Friday, September 10, 2010 at the new Cabrillo Crocker Theater, The HereAfterHere, A Self Guided Trip Through Eternity.  This is the second rendition of this piece that was first performed in October 2007 at the West End Studio Theatre.

Premieres September 10-12, 2010 at the Cabrillo Theater

HereAfterHere: a self-guided tour of eternity, directed by Tandy Beal, asks the perennial question: “What happens after we die?” Dante, Blake, The Bible, the Qu’ran, Milton—even the New Yorker cartoonists—all celebrate the human capacity to envision a place where no one has ever gone and then returned to tell all to Oprah or Letterman. So we proceed, imagining the unimaginable. This full-length work mixes the poetic, the comic, the mysterious and the chimerical. Tandy weaves together her skills in dance, theatre, circus and visual narrative with Jon Scoville’s original music. The show creates a rich mosaic of post-mortem maps, a network of ideas and images, a kinetic and conceptual palette of illusions and metaphors focused on life’s afterstages.

As a grand experiment in art and social engagement, Beal invites us to join, in several ways, a conversation about the question of an afterlife: the performance, the community’s participation in a website, video interviews of the audience’s reflections, a symposium, and a post-concert discussion. Some of the questions addressed are: Where is the hereafter located? Why is it so exclusionary? How do we get in? And what’s the price of admission?

Events for the HereAfterHere:
August 16: HereAfterHere: The Multi Media Experience—a panel with video artists Denise Gallant, Ben Jaffe, Bruce G. Lee, Nada Miljkovic and Tandy Beal at Digital Media Factory 7:30 FREE

August 24: Bookshop Santa Cruz book discussion on Sukie Miller’s Afterdeath and release of Jon Scoville’s new CD of HereAfterHere. 7:30 FREE

September 10-12: Opening of HereAfterHere: a self- guided tour of eternity. Cabrillo Crocker Theatre, Aptos, CA. Tickets Here

September 10: HereAfterHere Benefit tickets for Hospice of Santa Cruz County. Call 831-430-3082. 7:30. $50

September 11: Cultural Views of an Afterlife. Symposium with Lama Tharchin, Deacon Patrick Conway, Rabbi Paula Marcus, Nancy Abrams (author The View from the Center of the Universe) 3pm FREE

Participate in the HereAfterHere Project. View other people’s thoughts or tell us what you think happens after death.

Jon’s music available on Albert’s Bicycle Music.

Two recently released cds showcase Jon’s work in different settings: Pirouette Park, a high energy rhythm-driven album designed specifically for dance classes (or for cleaning up your house) and The Night of the Living Composers, a compilation of pieces written for Santa Cruz’s New Music Works. This album includes Jon’s score for the Man Ray film, Les Mystères du Château du Dé, a whimsical evocation of one of the surrealist artist’s choicest cinematic explorations.

Currently Jon is working on an album, Music for Circuses and Sideshows, a reprise of his work with Tandy and her circus adventures. An additional album is in the works which will be in collaboration with jazz piano wizard Art Lande. Titled Lullabies for Adults, it will be occupationally-insomniac-specific: sleepytime music for chess players, truck drivers, cowgirls, Presbyterians, milkmen (and milkwomen), tightrope walkers, and more. Stay tuned.

Below is a Twitvid we took right before the show: