Studio Visits are evening-length hybrid performance events, offering audiences a multi-angled view of the featured artist and their craft. Each Studio Visit includes an introduction by the artist, a presentation of new work-in-process, a critical response essay by a guest artist, and a Q&A. The guest artist for this Studio Visit is Andrew Friedman.

Electric Lucifer is a new electronic rock opera based on electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack’s albums of the same title (1970 and 1978). This live performance work is a wild religious fantasia about suffering and redemption created by artist and director Jim Findlay with musical arrangements and additional original music by composer Philip White and a stellar group of collaborators including performer Okwui Okpokwasili, video designer Jeff Sugg, and the spirit of Bruce Haack (1931-1988). This performance is developed with the support and agreement of his estate, run by Bruce’s friend Ted Pandel.

Jim Findlay is a creator, director, performer and designer of theater, opera and live music events. He has collaborated with many established artists including The Wooster Group, Ralph Lemon, Stew and Heidi Rodewald, David Byrne as well as a really long list contemporaries including Radiohole, Cynthia Hopkins, Aaron Landsman, Mallory Catlett, Daniel Fish, RIdge Theater, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Elevator Repair Service. Throughout his career, Jim has created original works, first as a founding member of the experimental collective Collapsable Giraffe and since 2009 as an independent artist. His recent works include “Botanica”, a performance about our weird relationship with plants, “Dream of the Red Chamber”, presented as a public art project in the middle of Times Square for an audience sleeping through our 13 hour overnight performance, and “Vine of the Dead: 11 ritual gestures” a personal seance performance for skeptics.

Collaborating Artists:
written, directed and designed by Jim Findlay
music and lyrics by Bruce Haack
arrangements and additional original music by Philip White
based on Bruce Haack’s “The Electric Lucifer Book I” (1970) and “Book II” (1978)
Collaborators: Seth Braley, Enver Chakartash, Nikki Colange, Jake Denney, Robert M. Johanson, Okwui Okpokwasili, Maurina Lioce, Jeff Sugg, Masha Tsimring

Andrew Friedman received his Ph.D. in Theatre from the CUNY Graduate Center and is an Assistant Professor of Theatre History at Ball State University in Indiana. He has published widely on contemporary performance and is a founding member of the theatre collective, Riot Group.

Upcoming
Electric Lucifer will premiere at The Kitchen in January 2018.

jimfindlaynyc.com

Electric Lucifer is a Creative Capital project. It is funded in part by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, PS122 and the Nancy Quinn Fund. Electric Lucifer was developed in residencies at Mount Tremper Arts and the Collapsable Hole. Produced by Collapsable Giraffe and Joel Bassin.