Kentucky Cantata

In this multidisciplinary performance, actors and musicians share the stage to tell the story of a young actress who leaves her rural Kentucky home for New York, where she is raped in a parking lot. The play depicts a mother’s emotional battle as her daughter leaves home, a father’s passionate support for his child, and a young woman’s determination to follow her dream. Her naive ambition collides with the struggle of an illegally immigrated Egyptian cab driver.

Kentucky Cantata explores a new and innovative style of performance practice that forges a deeper connection between the musical and theatrical arts. In this production, the actors and musicians collaborate as equals by sharing the stage and delivering a dialogue in which each voice is balanced. The text is never sung. The artists, instead, accentuate each line by allowing the musical material to interlace with the natural flow and rhythm of speech: the musical aesthetic complements the text. The production requires the performers to be engaged in each others’ art forms. Like the players in a chamber music ensemble, the actors respond in their pace and articulation of the text to the musical material. The musicians in turn inhabit the stage as physical presences and perform in support of the actor. Together, the actor and musician create a unique dialogue that is visually and aurally enhanced and extends the artistic potential of both art forms.