Tonight, the Martha Graham Dance Company previewed their work Clytemnestra at NYU’s Skirball Center. The show featured Fang-Yi Sheu in the title role, along with a phenomenal cast. I had the personal honor of creating the supertitles for the production.

From The Washington Post:

Most helpful to the audience is the addition of a few discreet surtitles to describe the action. At one point they offered a bit of unintentional comic relief, when the text read, “The women of Mycenae celebrate the victory over Troy,” and the women onstage grimaced, clawed the air and appeared to be in the grip of abdominal distress. But they know what we’ve forgotten: There is no conquering death. Tragedies don’t disappear; their ghosts catch up to you, sooner or later.

Janet Eilber, artistic director for the Martha Graham Dance Company, had the task of devising the text. Once she delivered the full text, I created the system to project them above the stage.

Typically, operas feature supertitles to help audiences understand what the performers are saying. The supertitles, in this instance, offered the audiences a chance to catch up with the narrative of the piece.

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The video above is Lamentation by Martha Graham, shot at Saratoga Performing Arts Center during a live performance.
It was a 2 camera shoot, taped and edited entirely for the web.

NOTE : This is a ROUGH VERSION, not the final version.

This is intended as a preview.

Choreographer: Martha Graham
Dancer: Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch
Music by: Zoltan Kodaly

Shot + Edited by: Jaki Levy