Now through October 27, 2007

 

Footloose Presents @ Shotwell Studios

 

D’Arc, woman on fire

Written & performed by Amanda Moody

Music Composed by Jay Cloidt

Direction and dramaturgy by Melissa Weaver

Cello performed by Elaine Kreston

Produced by Mary Alice Fry and Agapé Performance Group

 

D’Arc, woman on fire

 

The award-winning team that brought you “Serial Murderess” strikes again, with their new music-theater work, “D’Arc, woman on fire.” Now, writer/performer Amanda Moody and director Melissa Weaver team with the humor and eclectic dynamism of composer Jay Cloidt, and cellist Elaine Kreston, known for her sumptuous, edgy playing.

D’Arc offers a surreal inquiry into the costs of dreams, lived and unlived. Weaving the threads of the Dark Ages with our own dark times, “D’Arc” depicts a present-day intercession by Saint Joan of Arc. Fixated on letters from her daughter who vanished while working abroad in a war-torn region, Joanne’s bizarre visions are revealed through the cold flame of her television set. Answering her grief, Saint Joan burns through this TV twilight. Relating tales of her own battles and trials, Joan teases and admonishes Joanne, disrupts her obsessions, and challenges her to listen anew to the call of her own life.

Jay Cloidt’s haunting music drives this D’Arc night of the soul. Integrating Moody’s mercurial vocalizations with acoustic and processed cello, the composition features original songs, underscoring, and sound design. His composition spans 14th century hymns, post-Romanticism, aggressive electronic music and heart-thumping gospel to evoke the strange dream of Joanne’s and Joan’s collision-course.