About the Show
RAID 2.0/MYRMIDON is a staged song cycle about the ways in which video games and virtual realities, including mass multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), help individuals who have experienced trauma to re-engage and re-establish trust in the “real” world.
Written and composed by Alaina Ferris and directed by Sarah Hughes, Raid 2.0/Myrmidon follows a team of avatars (Alaina Ferris, Jessie Shelton, Lizzie Hagstedt, Lacy Rose) as they prepare for dungeon raids, defeat dragons, return to their guild hall, and prepare again. The avatars’ movement, choreographed by Coco Karol, is inspired by early MMORPGs released in the late 1990s, as well as the movement of traditional French court dances.
About the Artists
ALAINA FERRIS is a composer and music educator located in Brooklyn, New York. She has most recently composed for, music directed, and performed in: Joshua William Gelb's The Black Crook (Abrons Arts Center), Mac Wellman's The Offending Gesture, directed by Meghan Finn (The Connelly Theater & Prelude Festival), Mia Rovegno's Nothin’s Gonna Change My World (The Barge Museum, Dixon Place, NaCl), Scott Adkins's The Kioskers, directed by Mia Rovegno (St. Ann’s Warehouse's Labapalooza Festival). She performed in Temporary Distortion's six-hour durational music installation, My Voice Has an Echo In It (Watermill Center, Via Festival, Stereolux, Exit Festival). She is currently developing The Keeners with playwright William Burke, which has residencies at University Settlement in March and North American Cultural Laboratory this summer.
LACY ROSE is a classically trained vocalist, composer, poet, and performer born and bred in Texas who now lives in Brooklyn. While living in Texas she sang professionally with Texas Early Music Project and Austin Baroque Orchestra, as well as putting on countless parlor concerts at the Sekrit Theater. Since moving to New York she has performed in such works as Mac Wellman’s The Offending Gesture, Pedro Reyes’s Doomocracy, and William Burke’s Keeners. She regularly collaborates and performs with dancer/choreographer Coco Karol and theater composer/poet Alaina Ferris, along with other New York based artists. As a composer she creates modern day art songs regaling listeners with tales of magic, myth, tragic and eternal love. She recently completed a three movement EP entitled Mizzi which explores the inner life and personhood of Gustav Klimt's muse, Maria Zimmermann. Lacyrosemusic.com
JESSIE SHELTON is a multidisciplinary artist and actor based in NYC. She was born to musician parents in Minneapolis, MN and began studying violin just before her 4th birthday. As she continued her classical studies, she discovered the world of dance and trained for many years at the Minnesota Dance Theatre and School, under the direction of Lise Houlton, until her discovery of theatre in 8th grade. From there, the rest is history. She spent a few years training and performing at The Children's Theatre Company before her acceptance to Carnegie Mellon University, where she received her BFA in Acting/Musical Theatre. Following her senior year, she moved to NYC and has been keeping busy ever since. She typically splits her time between workshopping everything she can get her hands on, writing music, playing violin, dancing, reading, singing, making funny voices, and asking lots. of. questions.
LIZZIE HAGSTEDT is an actor/singer/musician/composer. Credits include: Sweet Charity starring Sutton Foster (New Group – bass), Southern Comfort (Public Theater, Barrington Stage, & CAP21 – Storyteller, bass), Sweeney Todd (National tour – standby for Lovett & Pirelli), The Black Crook (Abrons Arts – Count Wolfenstein, et al.), and Taming of the Shrew (Virginia Stage – Gremio & Tranio). As a composer, she is a member of the BMI Workshop and is presently writing, give or take, four musicals.
SARAH HUGHES is a director and producer of theater and new media. Her work embraces limitation, values accidental discoveries, and is deeply collaborative. With Graham Sack and Sensorium she has created several Virtual Reality companion pieces for New York Theatre Workshop, The New York Times, and Penguin Random House. Sarah's work has been seen at Abrons Arts Center, The Brick, The Bushwick Starr, The Segal Center, PEN World Voices, Columbia University, Signature Theater, BAM Next Wave, The Flea, Prelude, and CATCH. She is the Co-Artistic Producer of Target Margin Theater and co-teaches a class on Contemporary Theater at Dartmouth College. She is a member of the 2016-17 Civilians R&D Lab and the 2016-17 New Georges Jam.
COCO KAROL is a New York based dancer, teacher, and artist who makes cross-disciplinary performance work. She holds a BFA in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA from Hollins University. As a dancer, Karol has had the privilege of working for Misnomer Dance Theater, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance Company, and Christopher Williams, as well as being a part of projects by Christy O'Harris, Bill Young, Jose Navas, and Steven Petronio. Karol has created work with musicians including Bjork, Ryan Lott (Son Lux), Koh Ohtera, Luna Cholong Kang, Daniel Carter, Minna Rhee Choi, and Ear to Mind collective; and visual artists including photographer Steven Sebring, sculptor Eve Bailey, architect Marcos Zotes, stereoscopic artist Gerald Marks, videographer Azmi Mert Erdem, and designer Louda Larrain. Her work has been shown internationally as well as across New York at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, BAX, Ibeam, Spectrum, D.U.M.B.O Under the Bridge Arts Festival, New York Studio Gallery, Galapagos, Death By Audio, and curated by AUNTS. She has taught movement workshops in San Francisco to musicians of the Magik*Magik Orchestra, in Istanbul about movement and social movement, and in Roanoke investigating non-verbal communication and gestures of care.