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POW Camp

The Who's Tommy

set and projections

About the Design

The stage is a bare multi-level scaffolding structure on which a few scenic properties are hung and removed as needed. In the center and nine feet from the floor sits a 7' diameter translucent tube representing the Bomber hull, the sewer, and a tunnel of the internal reality of Tommy.

Fluid movement is facilitated by the use of ramps, a fireman pole, climbing rungs and large properties and furniture that roll, unfold and swing to the fast paced scenes and tightly choreographed transitions.

A large projection screen hanging center stage along with sixteen TVs of various sizes display a mix of edited video, animation, archival footage and live video. The projected imagery begins with WW II and passes through the 50's and 60's. Location and era specific details are defined by the images but also elemental and symbolic images such as drifting smoke, curtains in a breeze, snow falling and sound waves reverberate with the cosmic aspects of the story. The wardrobe by which Tommy witnesses the murder has a mirror that when used in conjunction with the live camera generates dynamic optical effects.

Directed by Barry Bell
Technical Director - Alan Williamson
Costume - Josh Quinn
Lighting - Tucker Duncan
Sound - John Anderson
Music director - Leilani Mork
Band: Dane Magoon, Ryan Lake, Daniel Sessler , David Hess, Gabe Churray

Theatre VCU, Richmond VA
March, 2010


 

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.

Triple Crossing

projections

A new dance piece by Robbie Kinter

The video projections are made up of 100 photographic details from the present day Triple Crossing industrial area. The images shift and change in soft blurry movements creating an environment for the dance that is alive but does not take the attention away from the dancers. Images are projected on the back white wall: 18' x 24'.

This dance is named after and inspired by Richmond's unique junction where three Class I railroads cross at different levels on one spot. This area is now home to a canal, a flood wall, pedestrian walkways and a stacking of highway bridges. Triple Crossing lays just below the fall line of the James River creating extensive class III whitewater conditions within sight of skyscrapers. East of the fall line, known for its beauty and great fishing, was a significant location for the Powhatan Confederacy. At the bottom of the falls Christopher Newport erected a cross in 1607 becoming the first European in the region and because ocean going vessels can navigate all the way up the James to Richmond, this area became a center for slave trade.

Directed and Choreographed by Robbie Kinter
Dance trio
Eliza Diener-Brazelle
Burr Johnson
Kevin Jones


Dance trio:
Eliza Diener-Brazelle
Burr Johnson
Kevin Jones

Music by Rattlemouth:
Danny Finney-sax
Robbie Kinter-drums
Marc Langelier-bass
George Lowe-guitar


Grace Street Theatre, Richmond, VA
February 2010
The dance runs about 8 minutes.






 

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Roxie

CHICAGO

image projections

A musical by Kander and Ebb, and Bob Fosse

This lurid story of 1920 Chicago is a satire on celebrity criminals and the corruption of criminal justice. Filled with raucous music, brazen dancing and sensual drama, this rousing production was wonderfully choreographed and performed.

Video projections appeared during many of the numbers, Roxie, Razzle-Dazzle, We Both Reached For The Gun, Spinning newspaper headlines and other clips punctuated the dance moves and text.

To play the video files during showtime I made a custom application, which gave the projectionist the needed speed and flexibility to follow the fast paced dance and lighting changes.

Directed and Choreographed by Patti D'Beck

Set Design - Ron Keller
Lighting - Lou Szari
Image Projection - Tennessee Dixon
Costume - Keenan Quander
Technical Direction - Jeff Clevenger
Sound - Luke Focco

Theatre VCU, March, 2009
Richmond VA


 

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Queen Victoria

FUNNYHOUSE OF A NEGRO

animation and
image projections

This one-act play written by Adrienne Kennedy in 1960 was at the time defined as experimental theater. The play exudes the surrealistic qualities of a nightmare. It catches that moment in the USA when the struggle around issues of race and black identity was inflamed yet the ramifications were unknown. Ida Onyedike begins and ends her production with stage runners dressed in black latex slowly arranging the set. It proceeded from there as iconic characters meet each other in the house and mind of a suicidal young black woman named Sarah.

The images were meant to create a murkey but elegant interior with vestiges of a circus tent, and in contrast scenes of the Congo. The white bust of Queen Victoria, so important in her memory of her white mother, slowly changes location, and is concurrently played by an actress. There are many references to a mask from the Congo as representing the blackness of her father. Animated elements include falling heads in nooses, falling snow, window blinds, and slow moving transitons throughout the play until the end when Sarah has hung herself.

Directed by Ida Onyedike

Animation and Projections - Tennessee Dixon
Lighting - Joey Reynolds
Costume - Keenan Quander

Shafer Street Theatre at VCU, March, 2009
Richmond VA
Runtime - 60 minutes.


 

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Scene from 'Life Passages' - In the rain

SHADOW PLAY

2d animation
and light properties

A theatrical production by
David S. Leong, Gary C. Hopper and Leland Faulkner

Light, shadows, puppetry, sculpture, photography, illusion, animation, choreography and an original musical score, Shadow Play delves into humorous and beautiful and marvelous wordless stories about shadow and light.

I created various animated segments of the show all of which were scaled to the actors and moved on que with them.

For the act called Life Passages I designed a line drawn kinetic environment to match the wire head shadow characters, with elements such as seating, doors, confetti, trees, birds and blowing leaves. Other examples include : animated lines for a tic tac toe game between two actors painting on the screen, 4 window scenes showing the mysterious and interconnected goings-on in the apartment house, and stars first appearing at the actors fingertip then burst into a moving starfield.

See video of Shadowplay at VCUTV

Written and Directed by David S. Leong, Gary C. Hopper and Leland Faulkner

Technical Direction - Jeff Clevenger
2d Animation - Tennessee Dixon
3d Animation - Devon James Langston
Composer - Michael Keck
Lighting -Lou Szari
Costume - Toni-Leslie James and K. Stone
Set Design - Ron Keller
Cast: Nick Aliff, Nicole Blackwelder, Nicole Carter, Gabrielle Cauchon,
Andrew Donnelly, Zach Jesse, Bryan Lamorena, Maggie Marlin,
Charley Raintree, Phil Reid, Dallas Tolentino

Premiered in 2008 at the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts
Richmond VA
Runtime - 90 minutes.

 

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Pre-show

WELL

set design

A play by Lisa Kron

While illness and wellness are central to the play, it is equally about the process and the failure of art making. It is about the postulations between mother and daughter, and the childhood memory of a racially integrated neighborhood in Michigan in the 1960's. The setting is the theater in which it is being performed.

On one side of the stage is Lisa's open performance space where her scenes are assembled and dispersed by 4 hired actors. Lisa's space includes corrugated metal rolling doors upstage, 5 lights hanging near the floor, and 6 oversized alluminum cubes. Surfaces are glossy and colors are cool. The materials reflect light and generate sounds.

In contrast Ann's place is homey with warm tones, well worn and cluttered. "The effect should be as if Lisa has plucked her mother out of her house, shaken of all she could and then plopped her down onto the stage along with everything that stuck."

The design accommodates the humorous derailing of Lisa's planned performance. Backstage is part of the play. At one point Lisa, in search of her actors, opens the corrugated doors to the actors in the changing area complaining about the play.

LISTEN: Review of Well by John Porter for NPR on WCVE

WELL
By Lisa Kron
Directed by Keri Wormald

Scene Design - Tennessee Dixon
Technical Direction - Bruce Rennie
Lighting - Lynn Hartman
Costume - Lynn Hopper
Cast: Joshua Boone, Molly Hood, Jenny Hundley, Katrinah Lewis, Steve Perigard and Jody Strickler

Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn 2009
Richmond VA
Runtime - 139 minutes.

 

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Projected image for nursery scene actI

The Cherry Orchard

image projection
and set design

I have designed an open stage with a (32x12) projection screen upstage. 8 (8x4 ft.) translucent panels diffuse the light and imagery and can be reconfigured for each act. They turn 360 degrees and can be placed in various parts of the stage. For each act a few period pieces of furniture and objects remain as relics of their recent and affluent past. The lower deck rolls open and under the man deck to reveal an old well with stones.

The projected scenes may appear as still images but are moving through subtle transitions and discreet animations. The estate home is shown a collage of rooms. Details and areas of the rooms will be be emphasized or subdued according to the script. The comic aspect of the play will be punctuated by visual puns, that you may see or not, as in a haunted funhouse.

PLAY VIDEO CLIP

6 min sunrise - (quicktime) 1400kb

The Cherry Orchard
By Anton Chekov


Set Design and Images for Projection


 

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scenes in the early morning

Backtide
at the Altar

cd and
multimedia performance

Backtide at the Altar is a written text and a 24 hour interactive work created for installation and performance.

The story ingredients consists of an ensemble of characters in a mythic world mixed with persons and events in history. Animation, sound, texts and behaviors are all in some way influenced or directed by the time of day. Elements of the work also respond to improvised factors, light/sound levels and viewer input.

Featured on the video Evolving traditions: artists working in New Media - A documentary by Seth Thompson focusing on four artists working in new media: Mark Amerika, Tennessee Rice Dixon, Toni Dove. and the Troika Ranch theater company.


.................see more about BackTide...............

55 minute portion presented in '98 at Roulette, NYC
in the Mixology Festival 5/98 with:
Lynn Book - performer and stage direction
Katherine O'Sullivan - reading
Joe Melhado - technical assistance

Funding contributions from:
Experimental Television Center Ltd.
and NYFA.  

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Able Flint over Sugar Creek, a 100 year explosion sent him of reeling into the expanse of his objective...

ABLE FLINT
ABEL FLINT

multimedia performance
and text

Able Flint-Abel Flint looks at real estate through the life and times of Able Flint, a fictional character, and Abel Flint, an American priest from the 1700's and author of 'A Treatise on Geometry and Trigonometry' for surveyors. This exploration is realized through moving imagery of Midwestern flatlands, old documents, tools and diagrams of measurement, settlers and land development through the century running off into nighttime horizons and undulating lights. These montages and sound recordings create a period authentic yet transcendental experience.

The performance includes projected interactive imagery, live video and text input, text to speech narration, ambient sound, archived folk music and live performance by Jeno Menyhart on electric guitar.

PLAY VIDEO CLIP

see video at Roulette TV

Created in 2001-02
Music developed and performed by Hungarian rock artist Jeno Menyhart
taped at DCTV in NYC as apart of Roulette TV Broadcast Performances '02
Aired in 03 on channel 56 Manhattan cable television

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animation of old Korean poem about the moon in May

Dong Dong
__________

Touching the Moons

animated and
interative image
projections

Dong Dong - Touching the Moons, the Korean-English title of an interactive music, dance and image performance directed by Jin Hi Kim.

The project interweaves traditional Asian performing art forms with digital media and real-time processing. The performers, the visuals, the sounds, the stage area, are all 'wired' and capable of spontaneous or predetermined interplay with each other. The large scale projections of animated scenes respond to environmental sensor data and are directly activated by dance movements, electric kumongo and lighting. Each scene is distinct in character as it concentrates on the satellite moons of one planet as observed in our solar system as well as myth and poetry.

PLAY VIDEO CLIPS

-dv1 - (quicktime) 1200kb

-dv2 - (quicktime) 800kb

Composed and directed by Jin Hi Kim
Tennessee Dixon - interactive projection and animation
Alex Noyes - sound engineering/MAX programming
Tony Giovennetti - lighting
Samir Chatterjee & Kwon-Soon - musicians
Sin Cha Hong, Yin Mei, Parul Shah and others - dance

Performance Venues:
The John F Kennedy Center -Washington DC Oct '02
The Kuss Auditorium -Springfield, Ohio, presented by and the Korea Society in Oct '02.
The Kitchen -NYC, '01
Mass MOCA '00 North Adams, Mass

Awarded the Wolff Ebermann Prize '01.
 

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eye

NOMAD

interative image
projections

Large scale interactive image projections for a new dance work by dancer/choreographer Yin Mei.

(photos from performance are off color and dull compared to actual show)

Directed and Choreographed by Yin Mei

Lighting - Lea Shoo
Projections - Tennessee Dixon
Music - Willaim Parker and Ralph Samuelson

Workshop performances at Danspace, NY '02.


 

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conversation

acCount

cd-rom
installation

acCount is a story/conversation on cd-rom, aspects of which change with mouse activity and to the viewer's voice input via a microphone.

The dream-like animated scenes depict the memory/story being reconstituted by two people as they recollected a night spent together. Sound and pictures fade in and out and a text unfolds revealing their own personal twist on the situation. Viewer input alters the words of the written conversation and the mood which can range from a conflictual to harmonious exchange between the two.
Runtime is about 20 minutes.

Essay by Alan Sondheim [ jennifer ] - This essay currently posted at rhizome.org was published in an earlier format in Aporia, a zine edited by Ryan Whyte in Toronto.

acCount was first made in 1998, reworked and presented 98-01 at the following:
NY Museum of Contemporary Art,'01
NY Expo of Short Film and Video
Stephen Gang Gallery, NYC
Harvestworks, NYC.
 

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conversation

ScruTiny
in the
Great Round

cd-rom

ScruTiny in the Great Round is an interactive collage on cd-rom that has received numerous awards since its publication in 1995.
The story has a dream-like sensibility as it follows a male and a female, each portrayed in various stages of transformations, as they the encounter each other and the mystery of the body and spirit. Each scene is a painted animated landscape embedded with symbols, artifacts, poetry and sounds from cultures and religions around the world.

The cd-rom is based on the limited edition artist book ScruTiny in the Great Round by Dixon published in 1993 by Granary Books in NYC.

SEE DEMO

(SHOCKWAVE) movie at ScruTiny website

Articles to read: HypertextNow and SALON

Co-creator Jim Gasperini.
Sound contributions by Charlie Morrow.
poem by Kim Lyons

Distributed internationally in German, French, English and Japanese editions.
First published in 95 by Calliope Media
Macmillan Interactive Publishing, England
EuroVideo Bildprogramm GmbH
Synergy Interactive, Tokyo

WIndows and Mac OS

-- In North America
Distributed on-line by
Organa
Agence TOPO
Wigged

ScruTiny is in the unique postion
of being a groundbreaker - art in a new medium -
it makes you look at computers in a different way.
-Bernard Yee, Paper Magazine, March, 1996

In a market crowded with mindlessness,
a title mindful of thought.
-Newsweek, December 18, 1995