Make/Believe

Make/Believe was the second evening-length project I worked on with tEEth. Angelle and Phillip started improvising April 2011. By May 2011 they had decided that the project:
1) would involve cables as integral dramatic elements
2) would use fetish as an overarching structure including elements of domination and control
With that information in hand I produced my first concept sketch:

By August there was a great deal of choreographic material and a cast of dancers rehearsing it regularly. I would frequently sit in on rehearsals and make various sketches, etc. Here is a sketch from August:

And two more from December:

In December we had a residency at On the Boards in Seattle where we were able to put many of the ideas on stage. I was able to fit most of the light design into the mOuth for our runs–the mOuth was where I discovered how effective the spotlight was as a transition into Shannon’s solo. We premiered Make/Believe in two parts:
1) Portland January 26-28 as part of White Bird’s Uncaged series.
2) Seattle March 1-3 as part of On the Board’s regular season.

This is the light plot from Lincoln Hall. Approximately 150 instruments in unique channels.

Press

To see more media from Make/Believe, please visit tEEth’s website.

“[A] lighting designer with a razor-edge eye . . . tEEth delivers powerful, complex work with Make/Believe.”
http://seattledances.blogspot.com/2012/03/grit-in-teeth-makebelieve-shows-its.html

‎”Make/Believe is a succession of gorgeous images . . . it contains more excitement in its hour-long duration than any five theatrical performances from around town and unlike much material around town, it also has the nerve–and the skill–to dare be about something. Seattle should always be so lucky.”
http://www.seattlestar.net/2012/03/owilley/in-the-land-of-makebelieve-teeth-bring-their-magic-to-on-the-boards/

‎”Make/Believe’s visually sparse but aurally complex style takes us through a series of sometimes highly sexualized interludes. Kraft’s industrial-noise score and Alex Gagne-Hawes’ dramatic lighting effects partner equally to create an intense environment from which it is impossible to escape, even if we wanted to . . . Gagne-Hawes’ lighting is shockingly bright when it needs to be, shadowy and mysterious when the scene calls for that effect. Whether Gagne-Hawes is creating huge intersecting circles of light or a remarkable diamond-shaped prison-box for the dancers projected partly on the floor and partly on the back black curtain, he conveys the emotional essence of the sequence at hand.”
http://crosscut.com/2012/03/02/dance/22020/Portland-troupe-marries-dance-and-oral-fixation/

‎”The technical side of the production is stellar. Alex Gagne-Hawes’s lighting includes extraordinarily sharp focus and extreme shuttering . . . accessible without pandering, moving both intellectually and emotionally, and playing here for far too short a run.”
http://thesunbreak.com/2012/03/02/teeth-packs-an-emotional-wallop-at-on-the-boards/