Melody Bates and 5th Wall Studio present All the Birds of the World

Melody Bates, in partnership with 5th Wall Studio, presents All the Birds of the World, part of her Enchanted Islands project, on Thursday, April 4 and Friday, April 5 at 7pm, and Saturday, April 6 at 2pm, 4:30pm, and 7pm at 5th Wall Studio, North 4th Street #7, Brooklyn, NY. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/all-the-birds-of-the-world-tickets-849937866037.

Every thousand years, all of the Great Birds of the world gather to perform a secret, sacred ritual that keeps the music of the spheres--and all life with it--humming smoothly. But this year something is wrong...and a tiny unlikely hero is the only hope of saving everything.

Think of it as Faerie Queen Story Hour. Written as part of her Enchanted Islands project, Melody Bates' original fairy tale, All the Birds of the World, brings Phoenix, Roc, Thunderbird, Hugin and Muninn, and many more to vibrant life in a lyrical, high-spirited tale of magic and heroic adventure. This virtuoso feat of live storytelling features an incredible couture costume created by Jennifer Paar, in an all-new staging that includes aerial design by 5th Wall Studio. Directed by Nicki Miller, with rigging coordinator Benjamin E. Oyzon and lighting design by Gwyneth Larsen, All the Birds of the World is a dazzling and transportative experience, suitable for audiences of all ages.

"It's thrilling to bring All the Birds of the World to life with this extraordinary team. We're combining visual, aural, and embodied storytelling to create something beautiful, joyful, and unique that I can't wait to share with an audience. I think we're making something folks have never experienced before.” - Melody Bates

Written and performed by Melody Bates

Direction and choreography by Nicki Miller

Costumes by Jennifer Paar

Aerial Design by 5th Wall Studio

Aerial Rigging Coordinator Benjamin E. Oyzon

Stage Management by Rachel Radenberg

Lighting Design by Gwyneth Larsen

Wig Design by Jonathan Amaro

Aerial Coaching by Gwyneth Larsen and Rebecca Magazine of 5th Wall Studios

All the Birds of the World is part of Enchanted Islands, a living art story project created by writer-performer Melody Bates in collaboration with costume artist Jennifer Paar and Maine sculptor Peter Beerits. The July 2023 debut of this innovative project took place on Deer Isle, Maine, and featured three tales written and performed by Bates, in extraordinary couture costumes created by Paar, with sculptural elements created by Beerits. For more info, visit https://melodybates.wixsite.com/enchantedislands.

About the Artists

Melody Bates (she/ they) is a native Oregonian actor and writer based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. She is a queer femme creatrix whose award-winning work includes the plays Avalon and R & J & Z. As an actor, she has performed at The Public Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, La MaMa E.T.C., The New Ohio Theater, IRT, A.R.T Boston, Theatre des Amandiers (Paris), Cankarjev Dom (Ljubljana), and the Metropolitan Opera, where she has recently worked with directors Simon McBurney, Bartlett Sher, and David McVicar. TV and film work includes Law & Order SVU, PBS Great Performances, and the indie feature Ask For Jane. Melody’s play R & J & Z, called “boisterous and splendid” by the NY Times, is available from Original Works Publishing and continues to be produced around the country. The NYIT Awards have recognized her with acting, writing, ensemble, and original music awards. She was featured in Jody Christopherson’s Necessary Exposure: The Female Playwright Projectand was a finalist for the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright award. Avalon, her site-specific collaboration with Peter Beerits and Jennifer Paar, received the state of Maine’s 2020 Innovation & Creativity Award.

Jennifer Paar (she/ her) has been working in New York and regionally as a costume designer for over 20 years. In New York, she has worked extensively with the Obie-Award winning Keen Company, having designed sixteen shows with them including: Year of Magical Thinking, Ordinary Days, Tick, Tick...Boom, and Alphabetical Order. Other New York credits include Othello (New Place Players), Transatlantica (Operating Theater), Futurity, The Musical (Joe’s Pub), Every Day Above Ground with SaBooge Theatre (PS 122) and Thrill Me (York Theatre). Regional credits include Sense & Sensibility, Baskerville (Cape Playhouse), On Golden Pond (Bucks County Playhouse), Glengarry Glen Ross (Asolo Rep), The Tempest, Elizabeth Rex, Much Ado about Nothing (Opera House Arts), and Rabbit Hole (Premiere Stages). Jennifer is the Costume Shop Supervisor in the Graduate Design program at New York Universty. She is also the Co-Founder of The Costume Studio, a non-profit organization that provides space and supplies for costume designers working on non-profit productions in NYC.

Nicki Miller (she/her) is a transdisciplinary theatre maker, aerialist, visual artist, performer and movement educator. Her mission is to reconnect bodies, minds, and environments through theatrical encounters. Her performance work lives at the intersection of science and mysticism, metabolizing personal, cultural, and ecological narratives through multimedia forms. She was co-founding artistic director of Only Child Aerial Theatre (with Kendall Rileigh 2012-2021) and has worked as a specialist integrating aerial arts into theatre, opera, and dance productions since 2010. Residencies include Cirkus Cirkör (Sweden), the 2016/17 New Victory LabWorks Program, the Santa Barbara Floor to Air Festival, Toronto Circus Sessions, and 5th Wall Studio, among others. Nicki holds an undergraduate degree in Drama from Syracuse University and is an MFA candidate in Theatre at Sarah Lawrence College.

About 5th Wall Studio

5th Wall Studio comes out of a long history of Flying theater choreography, direction, and creation. 5th Wall is informed by years of performing in theater, circus and dance across world stages, stunts in film and television, martial arts and in national level gymnastics. 5th Wall creates intimate performances as with the show Breaking Surface; and coach, train & choreograph flying theater as in Julie Taymor’s Midsummer Nights Dream. 5th Wall also collaborates with artists or event designers to develop work like Count Basie's Annual Gala, Target's Fall Into Fashion campaign, and others. 5th Wall loves teaching the skills and techniques their team has developed, performed, and trained, and regularly brings in like-minded teachers of exceptional caliber to enrich the community. 5th Wall’s style is a unique blend of acrobatic movement, flying dance-theater and strength-training that flows and continually evolves.

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