Sean Hagerty

The last week has been a fast and furious mounting of a new show at 59E59 Theater.  I’ve found the three actresses of The Fall to Earth to be incredibly compelling as they discover more about each other and of Kenny, the son and brother of two of the characters. What starts as a light-hearted drama evolves into something darker and more serious as the facts emerge.

Joe Brancato, the director, has been a pleasure to work with as he’s distilled the play into its simplest, striking production elements. For my part, I did the music and sound design, scoring the scene transitions and providing some of the incendental sounds in the show. Mixing electric violin pizzicato with a three-part acoustic melody, touched by some underlying electronics, here is what I came up with:

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The show opens January 18th and plays through February 5th at 59E59 Theater, Studio B
(59 E 59th St. in Manhattan).

More info:
http://www.inproximitytheatre.org/
http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=44

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Songs have been percolating for the past few years about my family home in Dayton, OH. In 2009, my friend Ben Magnuson and I rushed to save my home from some vile people my father had rented it to. But the house was still full of our things– family pictures still on the walls, my bedroom as it was in highschool, our basement still full of four decades of junk, photos, clothes, and precious family history. We arrived late in the evening in Dayton to see the garage door close, the new tenants inside, and began planning our siege to save the house. So begins the song cycle called “554″, based on those events, which I’ll be premiering at Urban Stages.

Alongside me will be: Isaiah Singer (bass), Kirsten Jerme (cello), and Arvi Sreenivasan (drums), some extremely talented and sensitive players.

I’ll also be doing some solo looping pieces, and we’ll play some familiar tunes from the Freedom Haters canon.

Hope to see you.

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I’m excited to be performing once again with Andrew Nemr on Friday, November 11th at 8pm. We’re doing an interactive tap dance performance along with some violin looping action. Quite an interesting lineup of instrumentalists as well as Andrew’s tap troupe will take over the entire church. Not to be missed!

Here’s the blurb:

The Moving Beauty Series and AJN present

Andrew J. Nemr and Friends

For the first time, Andrew brings together an eclectic group of friends for an evening of duets and musical exploration. Be there for this world premiere.

Featuring

David Eggar
Sean Hagerty
Gregory Jones
Or Matias
Rossano Sportiello
Max ZT

Cats Paying Dues/CPD PLUS (http://www.catspayingdues.com/)

More guests to be announced!!!!

TICKETS: $10 (at the door, no advance sales)

Church for All Nations
417 West 57th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues)
New York, NY

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(photo by Rick Ochoa)

“Part of our mission is to get contemporary art into more accessible context,” says Zach Morris, director and choreographer of Steampunk. …
“People often say it’s like walking through a beautiful nightmare.”

(excerpt from NY Post – “Scare Tactics“)

The Steampunk Haunted House, playing through Oct 31st, has been a shockingly organic project to work on given its sprawling nature, weaving through three floors of the Abrons Art Center. I’ve particularly enjoyed putting together the sound system for the many environments , sleuthing through Abrons’ extensive inventory and cobbling together a handful of speakers from my personal collection. It’s been just the right combination of traditional theatrical sound design and DIY.

Zach Morris has really set the tone for working on this project– endlessly supportive, full of ideas, and constantly pushing the haunted house to be better and better.

The show is fascinatingly structured so that it’s impossible for audience members to see the same show twice. The performers move on separately timed loops in various parts of the theater that the audience carefully maneuvers through. There were sections of the show and certain rooms I had never even experienced until revisiting the show a few days ago as an audience member. The dancers enact sharp-edged renditions of characters from Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” engaging the audience with incredible conviction, moving with violent abandon and seductive empathy– both of which are strangely unnerving. Beautiful costumes and carefully lit environments help to further contextualize this dreamscape.

Here are some excerpts of the sound design, a collaboration with Isaiah:

“Stalker”

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“Clockroom”

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“Alice”

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For tickets and more information, please visit:
http://www.steampunkhauntedhouse.com

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Here in the 21st century, some of the rarest and most intriguing musical instruments are actually those from other eras. I recently finished sound designing and writing the music for  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Rachel Klein. The show takes place in the First Reformed Church on Bayard Street– an old Dutch church built in the 1812, complete with a magnificent pipe organ in the sanctuary. On my first reconnaissance mission for the project, I chanced upon meeting the musical director of the church– Ben Berman, a very nice fellow and vocal major at Rutgers. And to my surprise, here in the Randolph room of the church, was a beautiful harpsichord! I was suddenly enticed.

A few weeks later, Ben and I were recording some of my music:

Athenians – minor

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Faeries 2

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The next day, was Operation : Organ.
I decided to use a 3-mic setup, putting two of the microphones on either side of the sanctuary– approximately where the “ambient speakers” would end up.
We stepped through the songs, exploring the many wonderful timbres of this early stereophonic instrument. During the show, the organ sounds waft from up above as if the organ were actually being played.

Mechanicals

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Faerie Interlude

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Many thanks to Ben for all of his playing, and to the church for having so many great, high-quality instruments.
The show is part of the New Brunswick Theater Festival and is currently playing (until Sept. 10th), free to the public. The fabulous director, Rachel Klein, has put her own sexy, gothic spin to the show, and the actors are hilarious.

And to listen to and download music from the show, go HERE.

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