Remote Announces Artistic Team For Mixed-Reality Performance Piece Inspired By Ntozake Shange's Novel, LILIANE

Remote Theater, an award-winning theater collective born at the start of the pandemic, today announced the artistic team for a mixed-reality piece (using augmented and virtual reality) inspired by late Obie-award winning playwright Ntozake Shange's coming of age novel, Liliane. It is also the first day of the production's Kickstarter campaign where it seeks to raise funds to offset the costs required for this production. The production - titled Your Mind, Girls, is the First Battleground For Freedom - is set to launch in early 2024 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"We view this production as an important next step in the execution of our original mission - to explore new media formats, new voices, and new audiences," said Giovanni Rodriguez, co-founder/Artistic Director at Remote. "This particular production is particularly exciting as it also helps us to address a number of highly-debated social issues, including the impact of technology on how we perceive the world. In past productions, we have explored a wide range of social issues, including the pandemic, racial bias, mental health, the January 6 insurrection, and the fall of Roe v. Wade. In the next year, we will look deeper at mental health and climate change.

"Audiences are already engaging with entertainment and games online and in immersive environments," said Hope Hutman, writer/designer/producer. "There is an opportunity, with this same technology, to create more complex stories - stories with a memorable protagonist, stories that explore the human experience."

The Creative Team

Margaret Laurena Kemp - Director http://www.mlkemp.space/

Margaret is an actor, a multidisciplinary performing artist, writer, and teaching artist, and Associate Professor of Theatre & Dance at UC Davis. She trained at The George Washington University at The Shakespeare Theatre and has a B.S. in Interdepartmental Studies from the School of Speech at Northwestern University. She is also the Director of Creative Projects and an Advisory Group member for the nonprofit Fitzmaurice Institute, as well as a Master Teacher and Lead Trainer for the Fitzmaurice Voicework Teacher Certification Program. She has performed at Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Yale Repertory, South Coast Repertory, La Mama Theatre (Melbourne, Australia), Theatre of Changes (Athens, Greece), Red Pear Theatre (Antibes, France), and The Magnet Theatre (Cape Town, South Africa).

Mark Heller - Creative Coding and Mixed-Reality http://www.hellarstudios.com/

Mark Hellar is a creative technologist working with artists such as Lynn Hershman, and Jenny Holzer and for cultural institutions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond and the owner of Hellar Studios LLC. He specializes in innovative digital media and software-based solutions for multimedia artists and the institutions that support their work, emphasizing developing systems and best practices for exhibition, documentation, and long-term preservation.

Zachary James Watkins - Composer & Sound Design https://zacharyjameswatkins.com/

Zachary James Watkins studied composition with Janice Giteck, Jarrad Powell, Robin Holcomb and Jovino Santos Neto at Cornish College. In 2006, Zachary received an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College where he studied with Chris Brown, Fred Frith, Alvin Curran and Pauline Oliveros. Zachary has received commissions from Cornish College of The Arts, The Microscores Project, the Beam Foundation, sfsound, The Living Earth Show, Kronos Quartet and the Seattle Chamber Players among others. His 2006 composition Suite for String Quartet was awarded the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for Composition and has subsequently been performed at the Lab's 25th Anniversary Celebration, the Labor Sonor Series at Kule in Berlin Germany and in Seattle Wa, and as part of the 2nd Annual Town Hall New Music Marathon featuring violist Eyvind Kang. Zachary has performed in numerous festivals across the United States, Mexico and Europe. Zachary releases music on the labels Sige, Cassauna, Confront (UK), The Tapeworm and Touch (UK). Novembre Magazine (DE), ITCH (ZA). Walrus Press and the New York Miniature Ensemble have published his writings and scores. Zachary has been an artist in resident at the Espy Foundation, Djerassi, the Headlands Center for The Arts and the Amant Foundation (Italy).

Hope Hutman - Creative Producer, Writer, Interaction Design https://www.hopehutman.com/

Hope Hutman (she, her, they) is an Oakland, CA-based artist whose installations and performances explore how technology affects culture and the impact technology has on our understanding of what it means to be human. Hutman uses various media -- including transmedia, streaming, games, VR, AR, and code - to create immersive experiences. While their work has always been concerned with identity and how technology can both connect and disconnect us from each other; more and more the work explores what it means to be human in an increasingly technology-saturated world. Hutman has presented their work publicly since 2012. Their work has been shown at Philly Tech week, Field of Inquiry: Body Politic Edition Installations, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA), The Williamstown Theater Festival and on Twitch.tv. Their interactive movie installation (Not So) Silent Movie is part of the permanent collection at NC State.

Using Ntozake Shange's novel Liliane as a launching point, Your Mind, Girls, is the First Battleground for Freedom is a non-linear journey spanning 100+ years. This project takes an original approach to Shange's novel by creating an immersive experience that juxtaposes Liliane's past and future to explore what it means to be human in an increasingly technology-saturated world. Liliane's life, presented as digital memory objects, is told as Shange wrote it - through Liliane's own storytelling and storytelling by her friends, relatives, and lovers, and in conversations she has with her psychoanalyst. These memories from the 1960s and 1970s are contrasted with Liliane's life in 2078, a time when all reality is an immersive virtual reality created by brands and government agencies.

The installation is unique in its use of immersive technology and its approach to exploring what is lost and gained in this digital-dominated society.

"Our hope is that the story is a catalyst for each of us to ask ourselves the question: If we can construct our reality, what kind of reality do we want to create?" said Hutman.

Born during the pandemic, with an eye trained on the future, Remote Theater is a collective of artists exploring the boundaries of new technologies for storytelling. We're committed to developing and reimagining great dramatic works and finding global audiences for them. Artists we have worked with include Obie-award winning playwright Naomi Wallace, writer/librettist/TV producer Billy Aronson (the originator of the concept for RENT), and playwrights Eugenie Chan, Anthony Clarvoe, Anita Gonzalez, Lynne Kaufman, Ellen McLaughlin, Tanya Shaffer, Herbert Siguenza, Michael Gene Sullivan, and Caridad Svich. In 2021, Remote was honored by the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (BATCC) for "its distinguished work online while live theater was closed during the pandemic."

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