My good friend, most talented artist, opera singer and performer, Lucia Neare, has created a magical piece entitled Lullaby Carriage. I am honored to be part of the performance piece, which was performed October 21st in a park set next to a river in Duvall WA. The performance was spectacular, nothing short of magical. All due to Lucia's seamless, dreamy and sophisticated vision of a night blessing through white light, kindness, story telling, star-gazing, horse drawn bed-carriage rides--accompanied by her beautiful voice singing lullabies.
Below is an article printed just before the performance in Duvall on the 21st.
Lullaby Carriage is being performed again on Halloween evening on Vashon Island, WA. If you can make it, it's definitely worth the trip. Simply enchanting!
I will add photos as soon as I have some.
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Lullaby Carriage Performance Dates:
Saturday, October 21st, 2006. 5:30 pm, McCormick Park, at the intersection of Main Street NE and NE Stephens Street in downtown Duvall, WA
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006, 5:00pm Vashon Market (Vashon Hwy SW & Bank Road, Vashon, WA
Created and Designed by Lucia Neare
Directed by Cathy Madden
Music Direction by Matt Goodrich
Choreography by Abby Enson, Monica Gilliam, Aiko Kinoshita, & Shoko Zama
Presented by City of Light Productions & the site-specific/2006 King County Performance Network Supported by 4Culture, The Duvall Cultural Commission, and Vashon Allied Arts
Lullaby Carriage is presented by Duvall Cultural Commission and by Vashon Allied Arts in partnership with Vashon Chamber of Commerce, as part of 4Culture's SITE-SPECIFIC/2006 King County Performance Network.
SITE-SPECIFIC/2006 King County Performance Network is funded through 4Culture's King County Lodging Tax Fund, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Sweet dreams!!
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NEWSPAPER ARTICLE before we performed in Duvall:
http://www.rivercurrentnews.com/paper/RCN-21/RCN-21-Web.pdf
(See page 9)
‘Lullaby Carriage’ – Dreamscapes from the City of Light By Carolyn Butler
Before movies, television, or video games, the nighttime sky was a screen on which human imagination projected stories about deities, animals and moral tales. Nature arranged the stars in the heavens, but it was humans who invented the constellations, perhaps wanting to impose order on the chaos of the night sky. Like a panoramic picture book, the sky still beckons us to gaze and dream. Inspired by the iconic images of the horse and chariot and the mythology of the night sky, performing and visual artist Lucia Neare has created “Lullaby Carriage,” a mobile performance which offers audience members passage in horse-drawn canopy beds that have “windows” for star-gazing.
On Saturday, October 21, beginning at 5:30 p.m., “Lullaby Carriage” makes its debut in a free public performance in Duvall’s McCormick Park. For one night only, the park will be transformed into a mythical City of Light, a dreamscape of twilight, memory, and imagination.
Adopted at birth, Lucia Neare didn’t know that she came from an extremely artistic family. But the classically trained soprano, says, “I started singing just after leaving the womb and never stopped.” She grew up performing, singing in jazz clubs at age twelve, performing in bands and musical theater during her high school years, and studying singing, sculpture and religion at Mount Holyoke College. Her interest in the Karnatic vocal tradition of south India led her to live and study in India. “I like making a lot of sound. Being able to ring all my bones is just so satisfying. It’s a gift I love sharing,” Lucia says. In addition to singing, she also has a passion for making things, especially big spectacles involving music, theater and performance. “Lullaby Carriage” grew out of a series of dreams. Lucia describes the dreams as being almost like visions. In the dreams were images of beds on wheels, horses, women in white Victorian clothing, dancing and a City of Light. Haunted by these images, unable either to let go of them or to understand them, she decided to talk about them. “I have a lot of artistic resources, a group of artists who meet and discuss ideas,” Lucia says. “We call ourselves the ‘Idea Gang’ and we call what we do ‘Soul - Sized Art.’ I always wanted to create a circus, something so big that’s not about money or corporations, that’s just about offering this little vision.” And thus, “Lullaby Carriage” was born.
“Lullaby Carriage” is a celebration of night, the stars and their relationship to the heavens. Lucia did extensive research into various cultural mythologies about the night and the sky and the stars. She discovered that the constellation Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, is a seasonal sign common to many civilizations and closely associated with this time of year. The characters of the seven mothers in “Lullaby Carriage” are personifications of the Seven Sisters in the constellation Pleiades.
Dressed in white, they represent idealized motherhood through a Victorian sensibility. These “mothers” attend to the riders in the beds, singing lullabies, reading bedtime stories, and offering bedtime snacks. The canopy beds are drawn by majestic Shire horses from High Bridge Shires in Monroe.
John Erskine, owner of High Bridge Shires, has been a valuable consultant on the project. “John,” Lucia says, “is like the original horseman. He speaks horse. ‘Lullaby Carriage’ wouldn’t be happening without him. He said ‘yes’to all my ideas. He also grounded them and made them possible.” John introduced Lucia to Fall City residents Wayne Buckner and Marcy Anderson, who are the drivers for the show. A project on the scale of “Lullaby Carriage” requires collaboration among many artists. Director Cathy Madden, music director Matt Goodrich, technical director David Verkade, costume designer Patrick Rogers, puppet-master Rob D’Arc, and choreographers Abby Enson, Monica Gilliam, Aiko Kinoshita, and Skoko Zama are all artists with whom Lucia has had long-term artistic relationships. Asked about the collaborative process, Lucia says, “The collaboration has been monstrously easy for a work of this size.” All the artists share a common language and what Lucia describes as “an attentiveness to my vision. They really stayed true to the vision (of the City of Light) and found the vision in themselves. That invites them to make it their own.” One team of artist friends joined Lucia for two days of “carriage-raising.” Others helped her fabricate the seven-foot by ten-foot beds that will carry audience members on their journey through the City of Light. Lucia expresses her appreciation to 4Culture and the Site-Specific King County Performance Network for their sponsorship of “Lullaby Carriage.” She also acknowledges the Duvall Cultural Commission for inviting her to premiere “Lullaby Carriage” in Duvall.
“McCormick Park is a really magical place.” She thanks Jodell Egbert of Bella Umbrella, a local business dedicated to the artisan craft of making umbrellas and parasols, for her generous support of “Lullaby Carriage.”
Jodell is providing all the white umbrellas for the show. Reflecting on what she hopes the audience will take away from the performance, Lucia says, “I hope it will inspire other people to do their big dream, whatever it is. I hope to inspire other people to live big.”
Adding another magical element to the evening, a meteor shower is predicted for October 21. The new moon will provide a perfect backdrop for viewing nature’s celestial fireworks. Dress warmly, climb aboard and be whisked away on a nighttime journey on the “Lullaby Carriage.” McCormick Park is located at the intersection of Main Street NE and NE Stephens Street in Duvall.
For more information call 425.788.2983 or visit www. duvallwa.gov and click on the Site-Specific logo
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