Ciné
234 W. Hancock Street
Athens, GA 30601
Sat. April 18 at 7 pm
Sat. April 18 at 9 pm
Matinee Sun. April 19 at 4 pm
Highland Inn
Ballroom Lounge
644 N. Highland Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA 30306
Wed. April 22 at 9 pm
Featuring a nine-person team of cutting-edge artists from around the nation, Fahrenheit weaves film, live music, and storytelling into a stunning multimedia event. Presented with a live band, video manipulation, and two narrators, the show explores several themes inspired by Ray Bradbury’s classic sci-fi novel Fahrenheit 451: freedom of speech, the all-consuming power of the media, technology versus nature, and the idea of an endless war.
Fahrenheit unites the talents of film maker Eddie Whelan, talented actors Dan Bollinger and Laylage Courie, and the intrepid international indie-jazz ensemble, Kenosha Kid. Each team member is an extraordinary artist in their own field, and many lead similar productions, be it in Georgia, California or New York City.
Dan Nettles ~ Athens, GA ~ composition/guitar www.KenoshaKid.com
Jacob Wick ~ NY, NY ~ trumpet www.myspace.com/jacobwickmusic
Greg Sinibaldi ~ Seattle, WA ~ tenor/effects www.GregSinibaldi.com
Neal Fountain ~ Athens, GA ~ bass www.AllAboutJazz.com/php/article.php?id=4569
Aryeh Kobrinsky ~ NY, NY ~ acoustic bass www.myspace.com/Brinsk
Jeff Reilly ~ LA,CA ~ drums www.myspace.com/JeffReillyDrums
Eddie Whelan ~ Athens, GA ~ visuals www.EddieTheWheel.com
Laylage Courie ~ NY,NY ~ reader www.myspace.com/LuminousWork
Dan Bollinger ~ Athens, GA ~ reader www.DanBollinger.com
Says bandleader/composer/guitarist Dan Nettles:
“The music for Fahrenheit was written in the summer of 2007 after being commissioned to compose for a stage production of Fahrenheit 451 in Brunswick, Georgia. The fine folks down there at the Ritz Theatre produced the event as part of the NEA’s Big Read Initiative. Basically I read through the book, and pulled out scenes and characters that I felt drawn towards. Some songs were slow and beautiful, some were angry, a few even were just hilarious, but all the material had the same synthetic sci-fi sheen to them that really fascinated me. At the time, the music was only a small part of the show, and I knew that I wanted to revisit the whole thing again in a more abstract style of performance. When Eddie Whelan and I got together over the ICE Project Grant, the time had come! The nine or ten musical events became the centerpieces, and Eddie and I hammered out an outline for the whole show. Rather than providing a narrative, the scenes explore the general themes of the book: tyrannical destruction, freedom of speech, oppressive government, endless war, natural beauty, the media blitz, and the few people who keep the creative life alive. Eddie used the existing musical forms to put together images for each scene, and using ‘VJ’ technology, he actually improvises along with the band. I handed the basic text ideas over the fabulous Laylage Courie, who came back with a whole new dimension for the event by providing both concrete dialog and interesting internal events for each scene. The whole show lives in its own strange futuristic world… a fragile, crystalline place struggling to bring into balance mankind’s desire to homogenize the world with the inevitable chaotic nature of the human spirit.”
Says author/actor Laylage Courie:
“The most memorable part of Bradbury’s work for me was always the startling clarity of his imagery. Despite the great storytelling, the books read like prose-poems. Dan made a great framework for highlighting the beauty of the imagery – it captures the impressionistic emotions that are much bigger than the simple narrative.”
Fahrenheit is supported in part by a 2008-2009 ICE Project Grant.