DESCRIPTION:
COLOMBINE'S PARADISE THEATRE
Composed by Amy Beth Kirsten
Directed and Designed by Mark DeChiazza
Produced/ Performed by eighth blackbird

"[Colombine's Paradise Theater is] wildly imaginative ... a tour de force ...
It's a darkly beautiful love story that's steeped in myth yet utterly modern."
Washington Post

Lingering in a world between death and life, torn between desire and truth, Colombine is caught in a haunted loop. The possessive Harlequin and the lovelorn Pierrot orbit around her in a fight for both her heart and soul. Composer and Guggenheim Fellow Amy Beth Kirsten's fragile, seductive music has been described as "torrential and haunting." The six musicians of multi-Grammy­-winning ensemble eighth blackbird play, speak, sing, whisper, growl and mime, breathing theatrical life into the commedia dell'arte characters of Colombine's Paradise Theatre, a musical tale of love and death, dream and delusion. Preceding Kirsten's work is a first half that spans three centuries but is unified in its passionate attention to the themes of heart and breath.

As a curtain­-raiser to this love­-haunted show, eighth blackbird presents a set of love songs through the ages, from Machaut's courtly love and Monteverdi's "little death" to early American folk ballads.

14/15 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago 9/12, 7:30p (MORE INFO HERE: .mcachicago.org/event/eighth-blackbird-heart-and-breath-2/)

Miller Theater in NYC 9/18, 8p (MORE INFO HERE: millertheatre.com/events/heart-breath)