Cloud City Presents IN A SEA OF FACES

IN A SEA OF FACES: A New Folk Opera by Jahn Sood will be presented at Cloud City, an alternative arts space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 85 N. 1st St, running September 15-22, 2016. The piece is made up of folk songs and movement and is a celebration of oral tradition, family and life near the ocean.

In A Sea of Faces tells the story of an isolated island community and a family who lives there. Long ago, foreign ships came to the island and introduced its people to grandiose ideas and desires, and the promise of opportunity abroad. Myth and idealism about far away places developed from the stories, and ultimately draw Jacob, the father, away from his family and home. The family longs for his return, and as they wait the people of the island relate the legends of the island in folk songs and rhyming verse.

The production is directed by Katie Melby, Vocal Arranged, Music Directed and Orchestrated by Max Mamon. The cast features nine actors plus a six-piece band including: Meghan McGeary*, Andrew Lynch, Ashkon Davaran*, Mary Kate Morrissey*, Mélissa Smith, Phoenix Gonzalez, Andrew Simon, Elias Wygodny, Jeremy Yaddaw, Mike Preen, Eli Zoller, Tim Wendt, Nate Lesser, Max Mamon and Jahn Sood.

The label "Folk Opera" does not refer to classical opera, but instead the story telling style established by Brecht (Three Penny Opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogony), and Gershwin (Porgy and Bess), the deliberately Brechtian Kander & Ebb musicals Cabaret and Chicago or the Rock Opera's Rent, Tommy, Passing Strange; all are examples of theatre pieces that use folk music, rock & roll, colloquial language and third person narrative to tell the audience a story, usually with a subversive social perspective.

WRITER Jahn Sood creates in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. His folk operas include: The Disappearing Man, In A Sea of Faces (words/music), musicals: Vital Signs and With You Always (with Max Mamon), The Last Words of Dutch Shultz (with Pat Irwin). He was a founding member of Ezra Furman & the Harpoons and toured nationally with the group. He also worked as a guitarist, audio engineer and assistant to composer Pat Irwin (of the B-52's) on the scores of AMC's Feed the Beast, Showtime's Nurse Jackie, HBO's Bored to Death and several feature films. He is a graduate of NYU Tisch (Graduate Musical Theater Writing) and Tufts University, and a proud member of the Dramatist's Guild of America, ASCAP and AFM Local 802. When he isn't writing, Jahn records rock bands, musicals, audio books and film scores. (jahnsood.com)

DIRECTOR Katie Melby is a Lecoq-trained theatre artist based in Brooklyn. Recent credits include Basil Twist's Rite of Spring at Lincoln Center, Mabou Mine's La Davina Caricaturaat La Mama, The Cat Who Went to Heaven at BAM, The Chilean tour of Chris Green's Firebird, and Jessica Scott's Ship of Fools at HERE Art Center. She also co-directed and starred in BREAD Arts Collective's Rise and Fall, a Brecht-Bacchanallian party show that played over the past three years. She recently directed BREAD's The Great American Casket Company a roving, immersive show that ran at Greenwood Cemetery in June. Katie is a co-founder and producer/curator at Cloud City, a multi-disciplinary art space in Brooklyn and co-founder/Artistic Director of 3 Sticks, a physical theatre company that she runs with her partner composer/performer Andrew Lynch. Their work has been presented by Ars Nova, Columbia Stages, One Arm Red, Governors Island Art Fair, and Dixon Place.

CLOUD CITY is an art and performance space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Cloud City previously hosted Jahn Sood's The Disappearing Man in January 2014. www.cloudcity.nyc

Running time is approx. 100 minutes with one intermission. Rated "PG-13" for allusions to violence, sex and drinking in the songs.

Tickets: $18, General Admission. Tickets available at www.jahnsood.com.

Photo Credit: Peter Logue

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