Robert Adams completes residency at MassMoCA with grant awarded by BRIC Arts Media to design operetta and exhibition Cassandra

Associate Professor Robert Adams completed his residency at MassMoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) with a grant awarded by BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn to develop the stage and set-design for an operetta and exhibition called, Cassandra.

Cassandra is a spin on the ancient mythological character displaced in a 21st century therapist’s office on the last day of her life. Cassandra will debut in Brooklyn in April, 2014.

The creative team consisting of actor Helga Davis (current lead in Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson’s opera, Einstein on the Beach), Italian dancer and choreographer Massimiliano Balduzzi, and videographer Masha Froliak, was awarded a BRIC House Fireworks Residency and performing arts grant to complete the work.

Actor Helga Davis has been working with a special focus on developing the actions, movement, sounds and narratives for Cassandra while dancer Massimiliano Balduzzi has choreographed several studies staged in the city with video artist Masha Froliak who is documenting their work. London-based composer Donnacha Dennehy has written four extracts that have begun to establish the tonal variation and range for the work. Musicians Dom Bouffard of Emperors of Rome, and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler of Kronos Quartet are generating the voices of the mind – the noise that we seemingly all share. Celeste Twigg Adams, an emerging 16 year-old actor plays the role of the Therapist across from Davis.

Adams is designing the stage set and objects, while conceptualizing the organizational structure for the operetta and exhibition.

The creative team recently completed a residency at MassMoCA. Further residencies are scheduled for Ann Arbor, The Watermill Center and Park Avenue Armory.

Helga Davis as Cassandra on the left, with Celeste Twigg Adams as the Therapist during movement exercises at MassMoCA.