American in Tent: Recent Episodes
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American in Tent
Exploring the art of the possible with podcasting, virtual visual, and live streaming while honouring sustainability.
Developed in 2021 during the lockdown we explored and developed spoken word performances created during the Edinburgh Festival - the biggest arts festival in the world.
Here we present a virtual spoken word venue featuring a diverse and inclusive collective of artists and performers.
"The American in Tent is a collective of American artists expressing their take on the American narrative more personally while mitigating the carbon footprint of global festivals. We honor diversity and positive inclusion while freely exploring everything that ails us. We welcome cultural exchange and seek to be part of a greater global awareness. Even in the darkest of times, the artist’s voice must be heard." Stephanie Vlahos
Whether attending a live theatre event or an art gallery, people value their engagement with art. It is the most succinct interface between what we experience in our world and how we process it.
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Mercury’s Wake, Series One: Before Chaos, Episode 2: The Paper Zoo
Imani joins Geoff in London for a unique theatre opportunity, only to be set back by the pandemic. But that’s not the only setback. When she emerges from the London Tube at Regent Street, Imani receives a phone message from America and learns that her mother is dying. Imani flies back to Connecticut to see her mother out, but not without bumping into a few extraordinary events that presage her future.
Actors:
Imani: Gwyneth Mackenzie
Marco: Jonathan Medina
Geoff: Kenny Ricci
Nurse: S Vlahos
Augusta: S Vlahos
Onstage Actor: S Vlahos
Imani’s Mother: Anindo Marshall
FX Sounds courtesy of Freesounds.com:
Marco’s Theme: FoolBoyMedia “new York jazz loop” 347848
Geoff’s Ringtone: jgreer “calling you”555699
Geoff Theme: anechoix “Game Music, jazz loops, jazz loop 3”
Mother Theme: Kai Hansen “Kalimba-song” 24515
Father Theme: cunningar807 “Sad Violin” 377258
Plane: tim.kahn “plane flyover takeoff”199263
Connecticut exterior: Allirog “crickets and whiny insect” 456821
London Taxi: Kyles “Uganda, communal taxi” 407104
Sound in empty theater: _isragallo_ “Silence_movie_theater” 514305
Footsteps: wolfdoctor “Lots of Footsteps” 555116
Keys: sKydran “Key Noises” 131437
Soap theme song: DDmyzik “Fairy Logo” 476707
Theme song for Paper Zoo: pogmothoin “hesitant mysterious glockenspiel tune” 401674
London Underground: InspectorJ “London Underground, arriving” 401989
Mango store: azumarill “Websters department store” 330543
Kennedy Airport arrivals: jjamespacap “car horns Morocco” 268015
Thunder and Rain: FlatHill “Rain and Thunder” 237729
Car driving up Hill: deathicated “South Africa” 137978
Oxygen Machine: Nixeno “hospital room” 417957
Screen Door: snardin42 “Screen Door Opening and Closing” 45643
Lawnmower” alinistcog “lawnmower–drone” 125784
Butterfly at screen window: Yuval “butterfly wings” 198818
Party: thorvandahl “Small Party Walla” 77003
News Theme: chimerical “Countdown News Intro” 107330
Mercury’s Wake, Series One: Before Chaos, Episode1: Things left for dead
Imani loses her father to cancer. She moves to New York City where she meets a rising Williamsburg art star. As a Greek African American woman, she reflects on her upbringing and young adult life in a world that easily combines prejudice with privilege. Things take a downward turn and Imani escapes a relationship already on the skids to join her British director friend Geoffrey in Provincetown as an assistant lighting designer on a premiere. Geoff offers Imani a fresh start.
Actors:
Imani’s Father: Peter Nikkos
Imani: Gwyneth Mackenzie
Marco: Jonathan Medina
Geoff: Kenny Ricci
Nurse: S Vlahos
Imani’s Mother: Anindo Marshall
“Je suis le petit homme que vous voyez” and “Girl, you got it goin’ on” written and sung by S Vlahos All Rights Reserved ©2020 svlahos
FX Sounds courtesy of Freesounds.com:
Marco’s Theme: FoolBoyMedia “new York jazz loop” 347848
Geoff’s Ringtone: jgreer “calling you”555699
Sound of the people: felix blume “market-in-africa” 173153
Geoff Theme: anechoix “Game Music, jazz loops, jazz loop 3”
Mother Theme: Kai Hansen “Kalimba-song” 24515
Father Theme: cunningar807 “Sad Violin” 377258
Childhood: Moonlight Dancer “Incy wincy spider” 201914
Plane: tim.kahn “plane flyover takeoff”199263
Highschool hallway: kyles “Crowd int high school hallyway light active”450442
Connecticut exterior: Allirog “crickets and whiny insect” 456821
Gallery Noise: dashe15 “noise_gallery” 584313
When the book JOHN K hit bookstores, it was an instant bestseller. It had originated, or rather, emerged on the internet where it found a willing fold in the millions who daily log on and surf the web for answers.
The JOHN K Website managed to link itself to the most far-flung internet and social media sites from Tracebook to WhoTube, not to mention the darknet. A genius hacker could not have infiltrated with such impact. Once the E-book went hardcover, its success was a foregone conclusion.
The book’s protagonist, John K. Mercury, a nobody citizen with all the right stuff, was on an uncertain mission to Mars, the details of which (whether fact or visceral fiction) fascinated or enraged. One thing is clear, anyone who read Mercury’s account hitched a disquieting ride into the ever-expanding and common unknown.
Mercury’s Wake, the journey continues.
Actors:
Mindi: Mia Michaud
JOHN K…
Bozzy: Jonathan Medina
Imani: Gwyneth Mackenzie
Candida/ AR Eyes: S Vlahos
Westerly: D. Bradley Jones
Rhea: Julie Fulton
Gunman/Matt: Kenny Ricci
Johnny: Brian Cali
“Je suis le petit homme” written and sung by S Vlahos, All Rights Reserved ©2020 svlahos, guitarist: Karel Kalef
Sound FX courtesy of Logic Loops
Listen up. Will you, like the seven strangers, become a disciple?
Mercury’s Wake is an extensive text/spoken word which introduces John K and seven characters wandering the universe of Caesars Palace, Las Vegas..
NEVER SAY NEVER UNLESS IT’S FOREVER ramps up emotions with skateboards and rap with a hook as it focuses on alienated youth as inspired by the Lost Boys in JM Barrie’s Peter Pan.
Part of the American (in)Tent Reach In Don’t Outreach program promoting the voice of youth, cuz the kids are alright. Directed and performed by youth artists, this program advocates cultural commonality out of current issues that deeply afflict younger generations. Never Say Never is written by S Vlahos with rap lyrics by Jack Zager.
“If you knew how lucky you are you would be more god than mortal.”
JOHN K
A trailer for the book Mercury’s Wake…searching for the divine in the preposterous.
"A Story About Reading A Book" has a representation of actors from across the United States, who bring its characters to life. It is an iPhone creation.
I was raped in New York City during my final week of college in 2013. This moment marked a rupture in my childhood freedom and forced the beginning of my autonomy as an adult.
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www.werglobal.show
In The Moon Room leaves us all with the question, how do we mindfully inspire future generations to do the right thing?
These are the stories about women and how their voices are better heard.
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A successful performance artist known as one of the infamous ‘NEA Four’ – along with Karen Finley, Tim Miller, and Holly Hughes – whose lawsuit against the National Endowment of the Arts achieved notoriety in the early 90’s.
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This is my beat poem introducing a Spoken Word universe about torn value systems, consumerist pursuits, celebrity overload, chatter, the disproportion, aliens among strangers, strangers among strangers, and an astronaut named John K Mercury hurtling toward Mars in search of meaning.
with Stephanie Vlahos and Wayne Peet and Blasto!
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www.werglobal.show
www.werglobal.show
Our Voices carry the emotional history of our lineage. It is a sonic map of our joy and pain–an identity carried across language, through the generations. Soprano and Sound Artist Micaela Tobin reflects upon the lineage of her voice through an intimate narration of aural memory and soundscape.
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The story of Cooperstown is an American story about the great American pastime–baseball. It speaks to the heart of Americans, how our passions easily and guilelessly blur or tear us apart.
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A series of spoken word performances telling the story of creation – the writer’s creation, where characters on the page become real.
"I am a witless forger of my fate, a fate that should have been about touching a life, providing someone insight into their humanity, reminding whomever that all of us are everything. We are all, we are…" John K
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www.werglobal.show
Dr. Bradley’s Fabulous Functional Narcissism…The Psychoanalytic Odyssey of a Once Glorified Chorus Boy regales us journey, with Jones applying a rapier wit to true tales of his early childhood as a budding theater queen, nearly ten years on Broadway in A Chorus Line, backstage life and excessive drug use, living through the AIDS pandemic, a murder and making his decision to pursue a new career. In the penultimate scene, he recounts his own 15 years of psychoanalysis in under seven minutes in tap shoes. Dr. Bradley’s memoir has played to SRO audiences in New York, Connecticut and Los Angeles, CA.
Join Stephanie Vlahos on a a stage director's process, exploring the story behind playwright Willy Holtzman's play "The First Mrs Rochester." It moves to unexpected places.
Players:
Jean: Natasha Detmer
Selma: Kate Mcclorey
Visit We Are - American [in] Tent at https://werglobal.show/
A virtual spoken word venue at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival featuring a diverse and inclusive collective of artists and performers.
This is about my family. It travels from West Point Mississippi to New Orleans Louisiana in the 1960s and 1970s to Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s to LA in the 1990s to the present.
Visit We Are - American [in] Tent at https://werglobal.show/
A virtual spoken word venue at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival featuring a diverse and inclusive collective of artists and performers.
Matthew Anchel explores gender identity, self-love through self-expression, and embracing all the different facets of our unique selves.
Visit We Are - American [in] Tent at https://werglobal.show/
A virtual spoken word venue at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival featuring a diverse and inclusive collective of artists and performers.
The Art of the Possible – the podcast as dramatic ruse for dramatic storytelling
“When artful expression went silent in Lockdown, overtaken by the angry volley of rhetoric on social media, stuff shifted.
Arguably, artists say what is recklessly expressed on social media with tools that are far more succinct, thought-provoking, and impactful – craft, the benefit of mentors, and the understanding of dramatic structure, of poetic metaphor and simile.
Visit We Are - American [in] Tent at https://werglobal.show/
A virtual spoken word venue at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival featuring a diverse and inclusive collective of artists and performers.