SEASON 32 | September and october 2020
The VORTEX Odyssey &
The VORTEX Odyssey: Underworld
The VORTEX presents a whole new experience with a drive-thru performance installation quest: The VORTEX Odyssey. For 2 weeks only, October 1-10, 2020, the resilient artists of The VORTEX are using safety and distancing while creating something LIVE that we all need so much right now. We join together to offer an artistic journey through contactless installations over the two weekends when Austin would have normally been bustling with Austin City Limits Music Festival.
These urgent, unashamed performances view stories and characters from The Odyssey through an anti-racist, post-apocalyptic lens. We lift up the crucial themes of our shifting age: Black Lives Matter, Systemic Racism, Grand Uprising, Pandemic, and Climate Crisis. As we drive-thru the Manor Road IBIZ district, viewing the performance installations from the safety of our cars, we are guided by Athena and challenged by Poseidon. We must try to resist the seductive powers of Calypso, Circe, and the Sirens. We might be captured and eaten by the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis or the giant one-eyed Cyclops. With our family units/quarantine mates, we are the Voyagers, traveling from island to island on a journey with a puzzle component that will finally bring us home.
The live drive-thru event will be complimented by a unique virtual component providing broad access to an extraordinary online experience. The VORTEX Odyssey: Underworld allows our friends from around the country and around the world to be able to share in the magic of the Quest, while keeping The VORTEX alive from afar. In addition to being able to experience The VORTEX Odyssey Drive-thru experience through a virtual lens, we invite our virtual Voyagers into the under realm of the Gods. Let Charon guide you to Tartarus, the Asphodel Meadows, and the Elysian Fields where you will meet heroes, challenges, and even join Persephone’s Feast. Composed of pre-recorded and live experiences, audience members will interact with a rotating cast of VORTEX luminaries, of both local and national renown.
Announcing the lineup!
Live performers:
September 25th -
Ginger Snaps (Persephone)
Olivia Jimenez (Tiresias)
La Fenice (Cerberus)
September 26th -
Mattie Barber-Bockelman (Persephone)
Olivia Jimenez (Tiresias)
La Fenice (Cerberus)
October 2nd -
Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens (Persephone)
Marisa Pisano (Tiresias)
Indigo Shift (Cerberus)
October 3rd -
Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens (Persephone)
Linda Nenno (Tiresias)
PGraph (Cerberus)
October 9th -
World Famous *BOB* (Persephone)
CB (Tiresias)
PGraph (Cerberus)
October 10th -
World Famous *BOB* (Persephone)
CB (Tiresias)
Prima Doñas (Cerberus)
With original content by Eva Suter, Jésus I. Valles, Mick D’arcy, Laura Ray, Melissa Vogt, Mindy Rast-Keenan, Nia & Ness, Laura Freeman, Key Hole (Heather Barfield, Kevin Welch, François Mineuax), Rudy Ramirez, Jennifer Jennings, Blaise Ricin, Melissa Swanepole, Coco Lectric, Diana Guizado, David DeMaris, Abigail Lucas, Shannon Grounds, and more!
The VORTEX, established in 1988 and a home for the arts on Manor Road since 1994, has been closed since March 16, 2020. The Butterfly Bar is now offering Curbside Cocktails. www.Butterflybaraustin.com Patrizi’s has remained open for Take Out. www.Patrizis.com Curbside Cocktails to go and bottles of wine are great, but they are not enough to keep us alive with the prospect of the year ahead. We are deeply grateful to our many generous donors who have contributed during 18 weeks of streaming content on YouTube and Facebook Live. The VORTEX Odyssey is the journey that we are all on right now, in trying to survive until we can finally come “home” to The VORTEX. The VORTEX Odyssey is part of our grand fundraising initiative to keep The VORTEX alive through this unprecedented crisis and emerge as an even more essential Green New Theatre and educational Open Space.
The VORTEX Odyssey is being created and manifested in a collaborative style that has a part of the company from inception. Back in 1991, The VORTEX created Metamorpheus, a deconstructed exploration of Orpheus’s story conceived and directed by Sean T.C. O’Malley with each section of the story manifested by small teams of artists, all funded with our first-ever TCA-grant. The lacey elm tree that is now towering over the front of The VORTEX warehouse was a tiny seedling in a pot in a theatrical ritual as part of that collaborative performance. Artistic Collaboration, Mythology, and a tree that will stand long after we are gone--- foundational. More recently, Performance Park offered viewers a multi-layered Tarot experience with game and puzzle components. The VORTEX Odyssey will combine our innovation and skill with the hope and resilience that we all need in these challenging times.
The VORTEX Odyssey’s drive-thru performance installations are creative collaborations from small artistic teams of professional writers, composers, directors, designers, choreographers, performers, and stage managers. The VORTEX Odyssey currently has more than 60 artistic collaborators.
Production:
Artistic Director: Bonnie Cullum. Managing Director: Melissa Vogt. Director of Finance: Krystle Cline. Production Manager: Teresa Cruz. Box Office Manager: Alex Cogburn.
Direction:
The VORTEX Odyssey is conceived and directed by Bonnie Cullum with Directors Teresa Cruz, Laura J. Khalil, Clarissa Smith, Jeremy Rashad Brown, Karen Jambon, Andreá Smith, Will Douglas, and Jennifer Jennings.
Creators and Directors of Virtual Edition: Rudy Ramirez, Melissa Vogt, and Dillon Yruegas.
Writers and Composers:
Ebony Stewart, Krysta Gonzales, Jeremy Rashad Brown, Reina Hardy, Johann Mahler, Sergio R. Samayoa, Kellee Fuller, Malyssa Quiles, Sarah Saltwick, Content Love Knowles, Ali Stuckey, Trey Deason, David DeMaris, Tyler Mabry, and Chad Salvata.
Featured Performers:
Allegra Jade Fox, Tiffany Nicely-Williams, Faith Anderson, Oktavea Williams, Hayley Armstrong, Marliza Mendez, Michael Galvan, Blaise Ricin, Luis Ordaz, Barbara Mojico, Emily Christine Smith, Laura Freeman, Kami Cooper, and Anderson Dear.
Supporting Performers:
Mindy Keenan, Patricia Wappner, Steven Fay, Trey Deason, Alex Cogburn, Laura J. Khalil, Katherine Schroeder, Lori Navarrete.
Installation Managers:
Suzanne Smith, Vikki Schwarz, Pixie Avent, Content Love Knowles, Jennifer Rogers, Monica Kurtz, Eryn Gettys, Ali Stuckey, Jelena Stojiljkovic Rhines, Tyler Ortega, Johann Mahler.
Design:
Sound Engineering: Johann Mahler, David DeMaris.
Choreographers: Toni Bravo, Coco Lectric, Sandie Donzica.
Installation Design: Ann Marie Gordon, Megan Kemp.
Lighting Design: Patrick Anthony, Rachel Atkinson.
Costume Design: Pam Fletcher Friday, Aaron Flynn, Coco Lectric, Aaron Kubacak, Jessi Rose.
Mask Design and Construction: Melissa Vogt, Jennifer Davis, Connor Hopkins,
Ann Marie Gordon. Jelena Stojiljkovic Rhines.
Installation Construction: Teresa Cruz, Alex Cogburn, Kenny Gall, Chris Hejl, WebsterLove, Valoneecia Tobert, Ann Marie Gordon, Megan Kemp.
Liaisons with Deaf communities: Tim Ervin, Monica Kurtz
Photography and Video: Jose Lozano, Errich Petersen, Kenny Gall.