9:00am | Alyssandra Nighswonger just can’t stop right now.
Hot on the heels late September’s “Vaudeville Folk Spectacular” at the Art Theatre, Nighswonger has, with a little help from her friends1, programmed “Illuminary Interlude: a night of light, shadow, art and music” to take place this Thursday, November 18, from 5:00-11:00pm.
“My plan was to take October and do nothing, do absolutely nothing,” Nighswonger relates. “But I can’t do that.”
That’s partly because opportunity came knocking immediately after the Vaudeville Folk Spectacular, in yet another example of Long Beach synergy. To wit…
One of the participants in the Spectacular was the band Miniature Houses, whose first-ever show had taken place at the LBMA’s most recent After Dark event. De La Mora is a good friend of Sarajeva Vazquez, special events coordinator at the Long Beach Museum of Art. Vazquez was mightily impressed with the spectacular Spectacular, and so when De La Mora suggested a music event at the LBMA—which, for budgetary reasons, has been unable to host its usual fall After Dark event—Vazquez was more than receptive. De La Mora put Vazquez and Nighswonger in touch, and the rest is about to be history.
“I want it to be like the Vaudeville [Folk Spectacular], except dark and dreamy and mysterious,” Nighswonger relates, noting that attendees are encouraged to dress up in “black-and-white masquerade.” “[There will be] some good music that people may never have heard before, [a] twisted burlesque show [by Alive Theatre], [a] shadow-puppet show… I want them to get their faces painted, I want them to have shadow portraits of themselves done and enjoy the art show that Art Martinez is putting together […] with a glass of wine in hand, you know? And don’t forget the glowing labyrinth on the lawn! I just love painting a crazy idea in my head and having it actually happen.”
The shadow-puppet show she’s talking about is a 10-minute, wordless interpretation of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, replete with live actors, a live foley artist, and a live score by Alyssandra and the Daymakers.
Dicapria Del Carpio always had a yen to do shadow puppetry and a multimedia adaptation of Rhinoceros, so she jumped at the chance to take part in Illuminary Interlude. She explains that her adaption of Ionesco’s signature work will be about how technology turns us into metaphorical rhinoceroses, how “our heads are stuck in our cell phones and iPads [and eventually] get sucked into our monitors and screens.”
While the adaptation will be a comment on fighting complacency and the mundane, Del Carpio promises it will be “lighthearted, playful, less serious than the original.”
Regarding the contribution being coordinated by Martinez, Vazquez says, “This show features something we’ve never really done at the museum, which is bring in outside art that isn’t part of the museum exhibit.”
And while the LBMA has hosted music before (such as at the After Dark events), Vazquez hopes Illuminary Interlude is a harbinger of things to come. “Long Beach is full of talent,” Vazquez says of the city’s music scene. “We want musicians to [utilize the grounds] for practice or for shows.”
Speaking of music, closing the night will be Tiger Tank Euphoria, whose high-energy syncopated grooves, fast yet eminently melodic lead lines, and funk-fusion echoes have graced the LBMA grounds before. TTe will be augmented visually by fire-dance troupe Sirena Serpentina, a redux of the house-bringing-down collaboration that closed the Haiti benefit Carnival del Corazón on February 28 at Hancock University2.
While there is a suggested $10 donation to the event—all proceeds from which go to the artists—admission is free, as it is at the museum every Thursday.
“We want the community to know that the grounds are open on Thursday nights, and people are welcome to come visit us even if they’re not coming there to buy food or drinks,” says Vazquez. “They can just come and read on the lawn, hang out, bring their dogs…. We really want to open it up for community use, [for] people to come and feel a connection with the museum.” Food and beverages will be served at happy-hour prices. DJs begin spinning at 6:00pm.
For more on Illuminary Interlude, including schedule and the complete music-and-more lineup, visit their Facebook page.
Footnotes
1More than a little, actually.
2See video of that here.