Touring Artists

Mairi Campbell’s PULSE

Scottish actress/musician’s new one woman show. PULSE is the first piece in Campbells’s new developing dramatic trilogy and part of the Serious Play-Edinburgh Fringe Performance Exchange. Toured to the Valley in December 2017.

PULSE is the story of one woman’s journey to find herself.  Through music, theatre, poetry, movement, with a blend of art, skill, and vitality, Campbell weaves a carefully detailed story of her relationship with music and her culture. Pulse is the life-force; it is that part of the human spirit that transcends being contained in boundaries. From the first moment of this dramatic journey, the award-winning Scottish performer’s bare and unabashed honesty captivates you, and every time she plays the viola and sings, an unspoken sense of universal belonging inundates the room.

MAIRI CAMPBELL is a gifted Scottish performer who resides in Edinburgh, receiving critical attention for her remarkable singing, powerful viola concerts and unique one-woman theatre productions. Her music, which combines voice, and viola, has a rooted quality, encompassing wide-ranging interests from Scottish dance music to soundings and improvisations. Mairi’s voice has been heard worldwide thanks to her version of Auld Lang Syne, in collaboration with David Francis, being used in the pivotal New Year’s Eve scene of the blockbuster movie Sex and the City. Her portfolio encompasses concerts, theatre productions and education work. In 2019, Mairi was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame.  (www.mairicampbell.scot)

MAIRI CAMPBELL’S HOUSE CONCERTS - presented Fall 2019 by Serious Play in Montague & Northampton

Part of the Serious Play-Edinburgh Fringe Performance Exchange.

Also shared performance process techniques & musical improvisation workshop in the Serious Play Eastworks Studio.

*We had intended to present her newest theatre production, AULD LANG SYNGE, here in spring 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic struck. 

We are currently working to bring Campbell’s latest productions: AULD LANG SYNE & LIVING STONE, to the Valley in the near future.

Jonny Rodgers’ CINDERTALK

Toured to the Valley March, 2019 & presented at the Northampton Community Arts Trust Complex.

After originally seeing musician Jonny Rodgers perform at the Antenna Cloud Farm, Gill MA., Serious Play presented performances of CINDERTALK, at APE@Hawley. Jonny is now collaborating with Serious Play, composing new music for our devised production MOVING WATER to premiere in 2021.

CINDERTALK

 A stunning demonstration of what can be done with Tuned Wine Glasses (NYTimes)

Armed with an array of 19 tuned wine glasses, guitar, and sophisticated electronics, Jonny’s performances can range between bare-bones intimate folk songs performed on glass, to lush theatre filling compositions layered in real-time, and can turn from one extreme to the other on a dime.  Bringing a classical music sensibility to bear on the world of folk and post-rock, Rodgers’ unique voice and songs feel both familiar and exploratory.  He is known for breaking the fourth wall in performances, weaving audiences into his compositions in unusual ways through minimalist classical compositions that invite the audience to co-create as an integral element.  Rodgers’ virtuosic musicianship on glass, in service to songs that dig into the emotional core of life, makes for an unforgettable experience.  

JONNY RODGERS hails from Oregon and is a renowned tuned glass musician, composer and performer.  He toured for years as an indie musician, writing songs that blend neoclassical, indie-folk and electronic music. Jonny’s recent composing commissions and performances include: “Who Is In The Room?” for The Echo Society, FAMILY, “Practicing Awe” at Grace Farms with Guggenheim fellow Andrea Miller & Gallim Dance and The Yale Voxtet, The Ferus Festival at National Sawdust, Brooklyn, with Sxip Shirey, “Under The Overpass” for Austin’s EAST festival with Dance Waterloo, NYC’s Ecstatic Music Festival, and The Counter Current Festival in Houston. Jonny’s recent film work includes composing for or performing on the films: Bono and Eugene Peterson, The Psalms, Don Jon, The Brothers Bloom, The Day I Saw Your Heart, My Brother Jack, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, and Season Three of Mr. Robot. Jonny has partnered with, and composed for, many brands including: New York Life, Cointreau, The Atlantic, Toyota, Issey Miyake, Sur La Table, Persil, Optimum, and Pepto Bismol. He is composing and creating the soundscape and music for MOVING WATER. He shares with the ensemble his exploratory work with the new techniques in PLAYTRONICA, creating sounds through water and other set elements.  (www.cindertalk.com) 

Jessica Litwak’s THE WALL

Toured to the Valley & presented by Serious Play in the Arts Trust/APE@Hawley - April 2019

Serious Play discovered Litwak’s new original production at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018 / Part of the Edinburgh Fringe Performance Exchange.

THE WALL - The wall in this piece is both real & metaphoric, separating: Jews from Arabs- Israelis from Palestinians. Litwak knows first-hand the perspective from both sides, spinning a tale of hope and crushed dreams, faith and failure, and above all the unrelenting search for justice. This outstanding performance uses poetry, humor, and diverse puppet characters created by Litwak to give voice to an impossible problem that can only be survived through increased humanity, paradoxical curiosity, and artful expression. As a Jewish artist with important relationships in Palestine and Israel, Litwak has a unique perspective on the Occupation. She grapples with deeply felt paradoxes of heart & heritage, east & west, men & women, and justice & peace.

JESSICA LITWAK is a NYC based, award-winning playwright, actor and drama therapist. She is the Artistic Director of the H.E.A.T Collective and holds a BFA in acting, an MFA/ Columbia University in playwriting,& a PhD in Theatre for Social Change. Past productions of her plays have been produced off-Broadway in New York, at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and in theaters in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, and developed at the Lark NYC. As an actress, Litwak was in the companies of the Guthrie Theater and the Actors Studio.  She is the founder of Artists Rise Up New York.  Her work has been published by Theatre Communications Group, Applause Books, Smith and Krause, No Passport Press, HowlRound, TCG, and The New York Times. She is a core member of Theatre Without Borders and a Fulbright Scholar. She works extensively in The Middle East, Central Europe, and the UK. She is based in NYC and California. (www.jessicalitwak.org.)