GCPW History

George Coates Performance Works

GCPW History (Partial List)

*1995 The Bandwidth Addict Performance Works, SF, CA

*1994 Nowhere NowHere Artsphere Theatre, Tokyo, Japan

*1993 Box Conspiracy Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC

*1992 The Desert Music: A Live Sho Performance Works, SF, CA Steve Reich - Composer, Charles Rose - Scenic Design

* - documentation videotapes on file at Lincoln Center Library of Performing Arts, NYC

1991 Invisible Site: A Virtual Sho SIGGRAPH '91, Las Vegas, NV

1990-91 The Architecture of Catastrophic Change Performance Works, SF, CA

1989 Right Mind American Conservatory Theatre, SF, CA

1987 Actual Sho Theatre Der Welt, Stuttgart, Germany Pepsico Summerfare SUNY Purchase, NY Kennedy Center Opera House, Wash, DC

1985-86 RARE AREA Kaai Festival, Brussels, Belgium Marc Ream - Composer, Jerome Sirlin - Scenic Design

1983 Seehear American Music Theatre Festival, Philadelphia, PA Paul Dresher - Composer, Jerome Sirlin - Scenic Design

1982 Are/Are Theatre Artaud, SF, CA

1981-82 The Way of How Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival, NY, NY Lift Festival, London, UK Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, Minn

1977 "2019 Blake" International New Theatre Festival, Baltimore, Md International Creative Workshop of Mime, Wroclaw, Poland Leonard Pitt - principle performer

1976 Dropouts Berkeley Stage Company, Berkeley, CA

Box Conspiracy: An Interactive Sho

at Performance Works

Box Conspiracy premiered in San Francisco at the Performance Works theater on November 10, 1993, and was commissioned for presentation at the Spoleto Festival USA in May of 1994.

This dramatization of one family's life in the not-too-distant future features a variety of characters adjusting to the upheavals of the digitization of information in a world of 5,000 channels.

In Box Conspiracy a recently unemployed product designer, Derek Hornsby, attempts to invent a portable digital disorganizer. However, business is slow getting started and financial pressures lead Derek to sell his family's interactive home shopping records to a market research firm eager to find an ideal test market family.

Director George Coates describes A Box Conspiracy as a live comic musical that satirizes both technology enthusiasts and phobics. Says Coates, "The Information Superhighway is coming and we are being 'sold' on it, like it or not. Box Conspiracy is a cultural impact report."

Produced with the cooperation of numerous Silicon Valley technology companies through the theater's SMARTS (Science Meets the Arts) program, Box Conspiracy: An Interactive Sho is a live multimedia theatrical production. The audience wears 3-D glasses, enabling them to experience 'On Demand Services' that are delivered over the new high speed data highway directly into their suburban home from out of a vast TV screen. The production places interactive technology in a theatre setting allowing performing artists to manipulate graphics and text live during the performance.

The Desert Music: A Live Sho

at Performance Works

The Desert Music: A Live Sho, presented in the fall and winter of 1992, was set to the music of Steve Reich with lyrics by William Carlos Williams. In this production of The Desert Music D.B. Cooper, who in 1971 skyjacked a commercial airliner, parachutes out over wilderness terrain in the western United States, and disappears with $200,000. The San Francisco Chamber Singers under the direction of Sue Bohlin, and the Performance Works Dance Ensemble performing the choreography of Arturo Fernandez were featured in this world premiere performance.

Invisible Site: A Virtual Sho

at Performance Works

INVISIBLE SITE: A VIRTUAL SHO WAS PRESENTED IN THE WINTER OF 1991 AND RAN INTO THE SPRING OF 1992. A MAJOR NEW MUSIC THEATER PRODUCTION, WITH AN ORIGINAL SCORE BY MARC REAM, INVISIBLE SITE IS A FUTURISTIC TALE LOOSELY BASED ON THE THEME OF EXILE, INVOLVING A VIRTUAL LOVERS' TRYST THAT IS DISRUPTED BY AN ANARCHIST HACKER. PERFORMERS INCLUDED TENOR AURELIO VISCARRA, SOPRANO SUSAN VOLKAN, AND ACTORS ERIN-KATE WHITCOMB AND ROBERT KEEFE. AUDIENCE MEMBERS WORE 3-D GLASSES; SCENIC PROJECTIONS WERE CREATED THROUGH A COLLABORATION OF MANY ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS, FILMMAKERS, VIDEOGRAPHERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND COMPUTER ARTISTS AND PROGRAMMERS.