Brass Ring
directed by Tomi Tsunoda
developed & performed by
The Apophenia

Wed/Thurs/Sat @ 8:30pm
Sundays @ 4pm
$15

The Apophenia is a new Soundpainting* performance ensemble that combines live music, choreography, text, video, and structured improvisation to create both narrative and non-narrative performance compositions. Members include Elsa Carette, Derya Derman, Julie Katz, Jes Levine*, Mark Lindberg, Morgan Murphey, Doug Paulson*, Tomi Tsunoda, and Fred Urfer. *appears courtesy of Actors' Equity Association

Brass Ring is a collection of fragments from the last 30 years of our cultural conscience, composed into kaleidoscopic stories using both rehearsed material and live composition. Pulling from sources such as news stories, interviews, viral videos, public service announcements, children’s television programming, social experiments, and office handbooks, Brass Ring examines how goals are created, how those goals evolve as we grow older, and the consequences of achieving them.

*Soundpainting is the multi-disciplinary sign language used for live composition, created by New York composer Walter Thompson.  To date, Soundpainting comprises more than 800 gestures and is being used by hundreds of professional artists worldwide for the live composition of music, theater, dance, and visual art.

What the press has said about Tomi Tsunoda:

…there are wonderful moments in which the Soundpainters and their subjects seem to be bound together by the process on an intimate level.
Backstage on A Mouthful of Birds, 2007

…this is a perfect way to illustrate and enhance Churchill and Lan’s story, as the audience watches the Soundpainters control the musicians while the demons control the possessed characters.
Off-Off Online on A Mouthful of Birds, 2007

There seems to be no end to Tsunoda's inventiveness… Carlstrom’s highly unusual ideas seemingly could not have fallen into better hands than Tsunoda's.
Off-Off Online on Bunnies: Part One, 2005

Tsunoda’s vision of a postmodern historical tabloid story hits right on the mark.
NYTheatre.com on Bunnies: Part One, 2005

While a sober consideration of the political and practical problems that exposed the nation to 9/11 may not get one's heart pounding the way yelling at a smug Republican does, the show was by far the more important and thoughtful demonstration.
TheNation.com on Testify: Episode One, 2004

Tomi M. Tsunoda takes on some of the more absurd scenes of Billy’s last two character changes, and manages to keep the chaos onstage firmly grounded in the conflict that began the play in the prologues.
Show Business Weekly on The Great God Brown, 2001

It's an absolutely terrific production, with talent bursting out all over.
New York Times on Heartbreak of the Last Handwriting, 2000