A Rock Opera in 13 Parts
“I have been touched by voices many
A video of cherry blossoms light the stage, Lady Macbeth enters, and with a strum of her guitar, she starts to sing – thus the stage is set for the opening of Lady M choreographed by Jennifer Allen, music by Miss Murgatroid, and text by Drew Pisarra.
Allen was profoundly influenced by the feminist/historical fiction novels of Marion Zimmer Bradley. Bradley wrote such works as The Mists of Avalon & The Firebrand, which took famously maligned women throughout history and gave us “their side”. Similarly, Lady M, shifted the focus away from the traditionally male dominated classic and focused on the darkside of female obsession. The stories of witches and handmaidens took the place of knights and warlords, Macbeth morphed into Ziggy Stardust.
Lady M featured the gothic soundscapes of accordion player Miss Murgatroid, (a.k.a. Alicia J. Rose). Rose began her career as Miss Murgatroid in late 1989 after moving to San Francisco from her native Los Angeles, CA. Her first CD, “Methyl Ethyl Key Tones” (Worry Bird Disk #24), was featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 underground movie Freeway, directed by Matthew Bright.
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In the pitch black I’ve heard them call
My duty is clear I have been cast here
To rule the land, control them all!”
– from the song “Bloody Instructions”
from Lady M
Other artists and performers included: writer Drew Pisarra who wrote lyrics, spells and a monologue for Macbeth; Tal Yarden created a video “set” framing each scene with it’s own environment; Visual Artist Fritz Welch provided the set and throne from which Lady M reigned, costume designer Katrin Schnabl made 4 gowns layered one upon the other conveying the rise and fall of Lady M, and a core group of performers rounded out the cast: Juliette Mapp, Amy Cox, Paige Martin, Heather Kravas and Jen Mitas.
Support for this project was made possible with public funds from the Greater New York Development Fund-Department of Cultural Affairs. In Kings County the Decentralization Program is administered by The Brooklyn Arts Council. Inc. (BAC). Additional support for this project was provided by a grant from the Oregon Regional Arts and Culture Council, a 1999 Movement Research Artist's in Residence Award, and a working residency from the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA).
Lady M was performed to sold out audiences at New York's Galapagos in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and at the Hollywood Theater in Portland, Oregon.
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