Against the urgent, experimental laptop music of Holly Herndon, Annie-B Parson’s Big Dance Theater explores a story of five sisters in 1980, gathered in their childhood Los Angeles home. A mix of theater, dance, and spoken opera, the mythic, piercing Mood Room is set during early Reaganism, when Americans were urged to spend and shop rather than actively participate in civic society. In the physical and metaphorical mood room, the all-female cast dives into a deep self-indulgent bubble, retreating from their responsibilities as participants in the larger world. Referencing multiple texts, including Chekhov’s Three Sisters and soap operas, The Mood Room is a mirror for being and nothingness, angst and regret, class and navel-gazing.

PERFORMANCES

Out There Festival, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
February 8-10, 2023

BAM in association with The Kitchen WORLD PREMIERE
November 30 – December 5 2021
New York City, NY

ARTISTIC TEAM

Conceived, directed, and choreographed by Annie-B Parson
Music by Holly Herndon

Based upon the play “FIVE SISTERS” by Guy de COINTET (1982) with some additional text from Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1901)

Performed and co-created with: Elizabeth DeMent, Theda Hammel, Kate Moran, Myssi Robinson and Michelle Sui*

Sound Design and re-composition by Mark degli Antoni
Set Design by Lauren Machen
Lighting Design by Joe Levasseur
Video Design by Keith Skretch
Lead Costume Design by Samantha Mcelrath
Co-Costume Design by Baille Younkman

*Creative process included original cast members Brittany Engel-Adams, Jennie MaryTai Liu, and Tina Satter.

The Mood Room is produced by Big Dance Theater and co-commissioned by The Kitchen, BAM, Carolina Performing Arts/UNC Chapel Hill, the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN) with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Wexner Arts Center.

The Mood Room was created with residency support from Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts’ Caroline Hearst Choreographer in Residency Program, the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Orlando, FL), the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and BAM.

Photos by Julieta Cervantes & Baranova