Protest songs from across the generations.
Teens. The TEAM. Baby Boomers.
Two nights only.
Primer for a Failed Superpower is a concert featuring a three-generation ensemble of teenagers, the TEAM, and Baby Boomers playing iconic protest songs that have celebrated and questioned what it means to be an American throughout our country’s past and present, and that exercise the muscles in our hearts and lungs for the challenges ahead.
Primer began with a question we were asked at a talkback in London, way back in 2009: “How are Americans dealing with the fact that you're not going to be a superpower anymore?” The question has only become more prescient as we’ve developed the piece over the last 5 years, and never more so than now. To respond, we’ve radically expanded the voices making and performing in this project with us:
We’ve commissioned an incredible group of composers to create the set list–Heather Christian (Mission Drift), Justin Ellington (Fetch Clay Make Man), Jack Fuller (Ruse, Blown Away), Orion Stephanie Johnstone (I’ll Never Love Again), Amy León (Something Melancholy), Martha Redbone & Aaron Whitby (Bone Hill), Stew & Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange), and Yva Las Vegass (I Was Born In A Place Of Sunshine And The Smell Of Ripe Mangoes).
Leading our Primer creative team are Director Rachel Chavkin, Music Supervisor Orion Stephanie Johnstone, and Associate Director Zhailon Levingston. Our Music Director is Nehemiah Luckett, Matt Hubbs is on sound, Jake Heinrichs is on lights, Stivo Arnoczy is on video, Nick Vaughan is designing the stage, and Brenda Abbandandolo is making sure everyone looks and feels like a rockstar.
And our three-generation band is comprised of 15 teenagers, 9 Baby Boomers, the TEAM and fellow Xennial (we guess?) performers and musicians from across New York City and as far away as Long Island, the Hudson Valley, and TEXAS. There will be 33 humans on stage--some veteran performers, and some taking the stage for the first time.
"In singing together, as in life, I think we are all served best by each individual fully singing out and shining their individual strength and story as fully as possible, and also having this deep listening and consciousness of the whole. Not independence or dependence, but interdependence." - Primer Music Supervisor Stephanie Ryan Johnstone
Why We Need Your Help
This is the project no one thought we’d be able to pull off: it's the biggest thing we’ve ever undertaken, it’s unlike anything we’ve ever made, and it’s finally happening.
We've received extraordinary support from Creative Capital, the Jerome Foundation, the NEA, NYSCA, and other institutional supporters, and thanks to one exceedingly generous donor, EVERY DOLLAR YOU GIVE TO THIS CAMPAIGN WILL BE MATCHED. Hitting our $10k goal = $20k raised for the project = our budget gap is closed.
Your donation will go toward:
-
a living wage for our performers and collaborators
- providing childcare during rehearsals for our artists
- renting sound equipment and the beautiful auditorium at Roulette
- providing food and refreshments to feed our multigenerational band
- filming a high-quality short film about the making of the show
INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT FROM YOU is the only way we can finish it right. Every dollar helps hit our goal.
Other Ways You Can Help
Spread the word! Bring a friend (or 5)! Bring your grandma, or your daughter, or your next door neighbor.
primerforafailedsuperpower.org
