Powerhouse

Inspired by the films City Lights and An American in Paris, Powerhouse is an original wordless dance-theatre stage cartoon with direction by co-creator Mark Lonergan and musical staging and choreography by co-creator Antoinette Dipietropolo for Parallel Exit. The piece features music recorded by New York jazz ensemble the Raymond Scott Orchestrette, and the cast features Jeffrey Alewine, Hayden Blake, Andrea Burghart, Jackie Cutburth, Reed Davis, Katrina Denney, Tim Dolan, Spencer Howard, Jennifer Kaeppel, Anna Kaiser, Ryan Kasprzak, Kristin Kendall, Steve Konopelski, Megan Loomis, Alison Mahoney, Tim McGarrigal, Coreen Quagliano, Jenny Savage, Alison Solomon, and Christina Wolfe.

Continuing the company’s pursuit of what The Village Voice has dubbed “quotidian comic ballet,” Powerhouse is a whimsical silent narrative that tells the story of a year in the life of a young architect in New York. Powerhouse is set to the exhilarating and animated jazz of American composer Raymond Scott whose vivid and eccentric compositions in the 1930s and 40s earned him the nickname “The Gertrude Stein of Dada Jazz.” The title track, “Powerhouse,” is one of Scott’s most recognized compositions, used in countless Warner Bros. and contemporary cartoons, and is reflected in the choreography for the piece, which matches his hairpin turns and stop-on-a-dime musical shifts often within the same musical phrase.