The Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University will present the New York City premiere of My Coma Dreams at the Miller Theatre on the Columbia University campus for two performances on Saturday, March 2, 2013. Based on the personal experience of pianist/composer Fred Hersch, who survived a two-month medically induced coma, My Coma Dreams is an extraordinary jazz theater piece that explores the dividing line between life and death. The New Republic's David Hajdu called the piece "serious, profoundly moving and sometimes disturbing, a work of dream art as elegant as Stravinsky's 'Petit Concert' and as memorable as 'Yesterday.'"
My Coma Dreams is based on eight dreams and nightmares experienced by the Grammy-nominated jazz composer/pianist Fred Hersch (Leaves of Grass, Whirl) during a two-month AIDS-related coma in summer 2008. Hersch's dream stories have been shaped into a continuous narrative by Grammy Award-winning writer/director
Herschel Garfein (Elmer Gantry, the opera) that illuminates an extraordinary journey to the dividing line between life and death. Hersch leads a versatile ensemble of instrumentalists in music that captures all of the intensity and enigma of dreams. Actor
Michael Winther "a remarkable singing actor" (NY Times) (Songs from an Unmade Bed, Mamma Mia, 33 Variations) narrates, sings, and plays the dual roles of Fred and his partner, Scott. Animation artist Sarah Wickliffe contributes an evocative stream of visual imagery.
My Coma Dreams is a new hybrid theater propelled by music, words, song, and images in fluid and ever-changing combinations that allow for the temporal flow of narrative, as well as the timelessness of jazz improvisation. Haunting and lyrical, at times humorous and frightening, My Coma Dreams pushes the boundary of music and theater into a realm that is deeply personal and inescapably universal.
WHEN: Saturday, March 2, 2013. Performances at 3 and 8 p.m.
WHERE: Miller Theatre at Columbia University, 2960 Broadway (116(th) Street), NYC 10025
TICKETS: $20 with Columbia University ID, $45 General Public.Visit
www.millertheatre.com, or call
212-854-7799FURTHER INFORMATION:
My Coma Dreams -
www.mycomadreams.comFred Hersch -
www.fredhersch.comProgram in Narrative Medicine -
www.narrativemedicine.orgColumbia University Medical Center -
www.cumc.columbia.edu
