THE FORCE OF THINGS

Lock eyes with a tiger and we become superhuman survival machines: adrenaline soaked, hyper-alert, pulse and muscles primed to respond. Lock eyes with an atmospheric hole? Or a half-degree rise in seawater temperature? Our clarity collapses. Our tongues tie. Like our bodies weren’t built to process a threat so deceptively distant and unthinkably vast. 

This struggle to listen past the limits of our own bodies lies at the heart of the climate opera The Force of Things. Soundwaves too low for humans to hear saturate the audience. 80-foot instruments stretch like mammoth double basses throughout the space. 6 live performers and 32 subwoofers stage a full-bodied physical encounter with sound that asks without words or stories or maps: how do we learn to hear this risk? Where is the adrenaline we need?

CREATIVE TEAM

Ash Fure, Co-Creator and Composer

Adam Fure, Co-Creator and Scenic Architect

Kelley Shih, Lighting Design

Carlos Soto, Costume Design

Ross Karre, Creative Designer and Audio Technician

Violet Asmara Tafari, Production Manager and Stage Manager

Levy Lorenzo, Audio Design

Jacob Zedek, Associate Lighting Designer

Maciej Lewandowski, Technical Collaborator

Directed by Ash Fure and César Alvarez

Additional Costume Support by Laurie Churba, Bethany Padron, and Anna Winter

PERFORMERS 

Samita Sinha (custom instruments) 

Pyeng Threadgill (custom instruments) 

Ash Fure (custom instruments) 

Clara Warnaar (custom instruments) 

Levy Lorenzo (custom instruments)  

Lester St. Louis (custom instruments) 

FILM CREDITS

Shot at The Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College • January 2022

Ross Karre, Producer

Isabel Frye, Camera and Editing

FourTen Media

Kevin Eikenberg, Camera

Evan Chapman, Camera

Maciej Lewandowski, Audio Recording and Editing

Ryan Streber, Audio Mixing and Editing

Adam Fure and Ash Fure, Creative Direction and Production Collaboration

Film and Audio Documentation made possible through a Scholarly Innovation and Advancement Award funded by the Dartmouth Dean of Faculty.

CREDITS

American Premiere Co-Produced by Peak Performances, Alexander Kasser Theate at Montclair State University (New  Jersey). Ash Fure’s The Force of Things is made possible by generous commitments from the International  Contemporary Ensemble: First Page Program, University of Michigan Office of Research, Taubman  College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Dartmouth College Provost’s Office Seed Funding  Program, the Office of the President at Dartmouth College, the Neukom Institute for Computational  Science, Miller Theatre at Columbia University (New York City), and Internationales Musikinstitut  Darmstadt (IMD). This project was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program  support and/or endowment gifts from New Music USA project grants. With the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.