Overview
MORE OR LESS I AM is a music-theater piece drawn entirely from Walt Whitman’s 1855 “Song of Myself.” Conceived and directed by international director Karin Coonrod, who debuted at The Greene Space with The New Theater of Sound’s Alan Ayckbourn Reading Series, with original music by Colin Jacobsen, Kyle Sanna, Eric Jacobsen and Alex Sopp. MORE OR LESS I AM involves 16 performers including the Jacobsen Brothers (from The Knights and Brooklyn Rider), Kenny Rampton (of the Mingus Band), Michael Potts (taking a night off from Book of Mormon), Max Casella (from The Sopranos), Michael Rogers, Dietrice Bolden, Ayeje Feamster, Jorge Rubio, Giovanni Pucci, Carlton Taylor, Cheyanne Young, mezzo-soprano Sarah Heltzel along with several members of the audience.
MORE OR LESS I AM speaks-sings aloud our individual greatness and our great commonality. Like his contemporary Lincoln, Whitman takes the vision of America to a new level: a place we are still reaching for today. MORE OR LESS I AM vitalizes Whitman’s call to us, then and now, a declaration of interdependence, an awakening of the American consciousness, serving the community not only because it involves diverse artists, but also by its very challenge to our souls as New Yorkers, Americans and human beings.
Join us in the Greene Space for 55 intense minutes as we experience our fellow New Yorker, Walt Whitman, one of the roughs, the poet-laureate of the Americas.
About Compagnia de’ Colombari:
Celebrating the kinship of humankind alongside its diversity, Compagnia de’ Colombari is dedicated to the making of theater for a new century. Colombari believes that every place is a space for the sacred architecture of theatre. Colombari is dedicated to old and new works from a world of traditions and cultures that bring performers and audience together, transforming strangers into community.
The company is named after the Colombari – dovecotes – etched high into the cliffs on which Orvieto is poised. The dovecotes, networked one to another against the brutal elements, demonstrate a synergy between the individual and the collective.
Conceived and directed by Karin Coonrod
Original music by Colin Jacobsen, Kyle Sanna, and Eric Jacobsen
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director: Karin Coonrod
Sound Designer: Tony Geballe
Music Director: Paul Vasile
General Manager: Monica Risi
Production Manager: Regina Vorria
Stage Manager: Ashley Zednick
MUSICIANS (in alphabetical order):
Colin Jacobsen
Eric Jacobsen
Kenny Rampton
Kyle Sanna
Alex Sopp
PERFORMERS (in alphabetical order):
Dietrice Bolden
Max Casella
Ayeje Feamster
Sarah Heltzel
Michael Potts
Giovanni Pucci
Michael Rogers
Jorge Rubio
Carlton Taylor
Cheyanne Young