OVERCOAT
interactive visual art theatre project
based on the short story by Nicolay Gogol “The Overcoat”

project creator and artistic director – Oleg Liptsin

"Let me be.  Why do you offend me?" - and in these penetrating words rang other words: "I am your brother."  And the poor young man would bury his face in his hands, and many a time in his life he shuddered to see how much inhumanity there is in man, how much savage coarseness is concealed in refined, cultivated manners, and God! even in a man the world regards as noble and honorable...
                                                                  N.Gogol, "The Overcoat"             

                 “The Overcoat” by N. Gogol is considered as one of the greatest short stories ever written.  It is particularly valued for its unique humanistic qualities and compassionate attitude towards each and every human creature, even such underdog and social misfit as the main character Akaky Bashmachkin, treated by the author not as a nuisance, or a figure of fun, or an object of charity, but as a human being who has as much right to happiness as anyone else. This humanistic subject was never out-of-date in the course of the entire history, but it becomes particularly important in the 21^st century due to the inevitable technological expansion and economic globalization that takes over and diminishes the significance of individual life. 

                Challenged by the goal of creating contemporary images for the 19^th century text, we’re searching for the style that would integrate traditional and modern forms of performing arts and would allow to reveal the spirit of Gogol’s masterpiece in a way that it was never yet approached.  To create this style we’re planning to combine the following artistic elements:

-          live acting with the emphasis on movement and dance,

-          live narration with musical and singing elements,

-          shadow puppets theatre tradition,

-          remote controlled surrealistic robots,

-          new interactive video projection technique based on the cutting edge body-tracking software.
   
         Creators of this project find it really important for modern society to involve the advanced technological achievements of our digital-, nano- and IT-world into the body of art for it can help human beings survive their competition with machines as well as more decently face the challenge of further isolation, individualization, and globalization of life.
 Such integration of art and technology could: 
reduce alienation caused by an increasingly technological world,
help to attune technology to human needs,
help to discover innovative uses of technology that will benefit both sides – users and designers,
reflect, recognize and separate our illusions from our reality.

    The OVERCOAT project as it is presented in this description raises important issues regarding our addictive relationship with technologies and our future identity as human beings.  This art form intends to address many tangled moral and existential questions of our time, such as:  how far should we go in our technological absorption? When do we stop being human and become technological mechanisms? How can we adapt to the new cultural phenomenon where the technological and the biological are increasingly indistinguishable, where machines behave in an increasingly human way, and humans more mechanically? Through which mechanisms we as human beings can take control of the technological race instead of feeling that we are being borne along by a runaway horse?             

Participating artists and collaborators 

                This project is a joint effort of the following internationally acclaimed and local Bay Area artists and the companies they represent in order to create a stage product of a new quality that reflects our modern society’s beliefs and obsessions combined with some classical performing traditions:

         -   shadow puppets director and performer Larry Reed and his ShadowLight Productions (www.shadowlight.org) – will work on developing the mystical quality of Gogol’s world using the unique style of Mr. Reed’s shadow performances;

                      -      creator of surrealistic robots - Frank Garvey and his OMNI Circus (www.omnicircus.com) – will provide and manipulate the robotic creatures able not only to animate some objects and parts of the set, organizing the “phantasmagorical” environment, but also develop the interactive scenes between live actor and machine;

         
         -    video artist and software developer Kevin Quennesson (www.consciouscamera.com) – will adapt his newly invented body-tracking program to the needs of this production;


                                               -   actress and dance performer Ai-Cheng Ho, member of ITE – will represent on stage the main character – Akaky Bashmachkin;


     -          local costume designer Margarita Soyfertis – will recreate the historical 19^th century official Russian overcoats using contemporary fabrics, allowing these costumes to be involved in the modern dance and movement presentations;

            -  artistic director and founder of IT E Oleg Liptsin will direct and organize all parts of this project and carry it through the number of production steps towards the final integrating result. 

                        
                     Bios and other information on participating artists and companies can be seen at their websites.