Presented By:
Manual Cinema
MANUAL CINEMA is a performance collective, design studio, and film/ video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality.
To date Manual Cinema has been presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Kennedy Center (DC), La Monnaie-DeMunt (Brussels), The Noorderzon Festival (Netherlands), The Kimmel Center (DC) The O, Miami Poetry Festival, The Tehran International Puppet Festival (Iran), Davies Symphony Hall (SF), The Ace Hotel Theater (LA) and elsewhere around the world. They have collaborated with StoryCorps (NYC), Erratica (London), The Belgian Royal Opera (Brussels) Hubbard Street Dance (Chicago), Pop-Up Magazine (SF), Nu Deco Ensemble (Miami), NYTimes best-selling author Reif Larsen (NYC), and three time Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird (Chicago).
Director:
Drew Dir
Sound Design and Original Score:
Kyle Vegter and Ben Kauffman
Designers:
Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, and Julia Miller
Manual Cinema
MANUAL CINEMA is a performance collective, design studio, and film/ video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality.
To date Manual Cinema has been presented by The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Kennedy Center (DC), La Monnaie-DeMunt (Brussels), The Noorderzon Festival (Netherlands), The Kimmel Center (DC) The O, Miami Poetry Festival, The Tehran International Puppet Festival (Iran), Davies Symphony Hall (SF), The Ace Hotel Theater (LA) and elsewhere around the world. They have collaborated with StoryCorps (NYC), Erratica (London), The Belgian Royal Opera (Brussels) Hubbard Street Dance (Chicago), Pop-Up Magazine (SF), Nu Deco Ensemble (Miami), NYTimes best-selling author Reif Larsen (NYC), and three time Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird (Chicago).
Presented by
Funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies.
“Like nothing you have seen before”
A “mesmerizing hour of theater, a collision of fired-up imagination and deftly deployed low technology”
“In the nimble hands of Manual Cinema, the story is as precise as it is poetic — and utterly open in its execution.”
— WBUR
“entirely unique and mesmerizing experience”
“a beautiful and haunting visual symphony”
“the level of originality, craftsmanship and visual artistry on display are breathtaking”
— Edge Media Network
“Ada/Ava is an impressive theatrical feat that finds a new, and invigorating, way of telling a story on stage.”
— ArtFuse
“an enthralling experience”
“a fascinating amalgam of high art and modest technology”
“an incredibly original use of visuals to tell a simple story”
— South Shore Critic
“astonishing”
“it is the creativity, artistry, and imagination of this troupe, using simple and primitive tools, that allow us to suspend disbelief”
— The White Rhino Report
“One of the great pleasures of being a theater reviewer in Boston is getting to see productions that push the boundaries of traditional theater, and nobody serves up such a mind-blowing amalgamation of cool stuff as ArtsEmerson, which continues to amaze with its latest offering, Ava/Ada.”
— The Theater Mirror
“…a brilliant mix of hi-fi and lo-fi”
— Mike Wade, The Scottish Times, August 2016
“. . . this Chicago troupe is conjuring phantasms to die for in an unclassifiable story of spectral beauty…”
— Ben Brantley, New York Times Critics' Pick June, 2015
“Manual Cinema is talent incarnate”
— Helen Shaw, Critics' Pick Time Out New York June, 2015
“. . . DIY work that’s anything but rustic and simple.”
— Monica Westin, Flavorpill Editor's Pick
“Cinematic, lyrical, poignant, psychological. Fantastic.”
— @OPIETASANIMI, TWITTER
“Once again I’m saying, ‘I have never seen something like that before!’ Thanks ArtsEmerson”
— @Y2000K, TWITTER
“Whoa. Ada/Ava at Artsemerson is absolute beauty. Catch this masterpiece.”
— @KHEMINGWAY, TWITTER
“. . . extraordinary technical sophistication—a rich quadraphonic sound design, cinematic transitions. . . the overall effect is gentle, lovely, fascinating.”
— TONY ADLER, CHICAGO READER