Thursday, September 11, 2008
The spirit of adventure will come alive through music, photographs and the writings of explorers on Saturday at the Lied Center.
“First Person: Stories From the Edge of the World” will include narration by NPR’s Neal Conan and actress Lily Knight, who has appeared on shows such as “Weeds” and “Big Love.” Ensemble Galilei will provide celtic-style music for the program. The music and narration will be set to photographs from National Geographic.
“It’s a strange, and I do think wonderful, combination of text and music and images,” Conan said.
The narration will feature memoirs, journals and letters from explorers such as Charles Darwin, Matthew Henson, Jacques Cousteau, Robert Ballard and George Mallory. The majority of the National Geographic photographs in the show were taken during the explorers’ expeditions.
Conan said one example was a photograph of Henson’s 1909 expedition to the North Pole. Henson wrote about the problems he encountered hitting open ice, and the image illustrates the treacherous ice.
The program was a collaboration of Conan, Ensemble Galilei and National Geographic. Carolyn Anderson Surrick, founder of Ensemble Galilei and viola da gamba player, said the ensemble and Conan wanted to do a project that would illustrate some of the characteristics of humanity.
“Our goal when we step on stage is to move people,” Surrick said.
National Geographic assigned a researcher to the project and provided Conan and Ensemble Galilei with hundreds of pages of explorers’ writing.
Six musicians from Ensemble Galilei worked with Conan to narrow the pieces of writing down and Surrick said they only chose pieces for the show that everyone felt passionate about using.
“It was really the goose bump test,” Conan said.
Conan said working on the production was challenging because he had to read to musical and visual cues rather than working on his own time.
“It’s sort of a three-part dance,” Conan said. “Everybody’s got to keep up with everybody else.”
Surrick said the responsibility of the musicians was to support the text with the right feel and tempo. Ensemble Galilei will play instruments such as fiddles, violins, Celtic harps, whistles, recorders and various percussion instruments on stage during the show.
“We have to choose the instrument that most clearly speaks to the heart of the text,” Surrick said.
Tim Van Leer, executive director of the Lied Center, said the audience would have the opportunity to learn from the explorers’ experiences.
“They’re bringing these things to life for us so we have a better understanding of the joys and sorrows these people dealt with,” Van Leer said.
Neal Conan and Ensemble Galilei have collaborated on one other project, “A Universe of Dreams,” which featured photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Conan said they were planning to work together again in the future.
“First Person: Stories From the Edge of the World” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for students range from $13 to $18.
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