ABOUT THIS EVENT
The frontier between a lecture and a performance is anything but rigid. Equal parts earnest and nihilist, Dreams, and why not? consciously and continuously breaks the border between reality and fiction, between facts and fabrications, both musical and performative. Starting from a simple presentation of musical instruments and their possibilities, things drift toward a world where songs last one second, the instruments merge with the body, and the lecturer loses control over the lecture.
About Beyond This Point:
Beyond This Point (BTP) is a percussion-based collaborative ensemble that aims to engage diverse audiences through intersections across artistic mediums. BTP presents programs that synthesize musical performance with theater, movement, media/film, sculpture, social justice, and environmentalism, among others. Using everything from amplified match sticks, to a rice-spilling pendulum, to slats of reclaimed wood triggering 5000 LEDs, Beyond This Point strives to develop a truly interdisciplinary performance practice, believe that a mix of media and art forms speaks directly and powerfully to our current context.
Most recently, Beyond This Point premiered their original light-based production LIT in 2022 and performed their original production Reclaimed Timber as part of the 2021 Ear Taxi Festival and the Chicago Park District's Nights Out in the Parks programming.
About François Sarhan:
François Sarhan is a French composer and director whose works have been presented at international festivals, including Musica (Strasbourg), Donaueschingen, Ars Musica (Brussels), Maerzmusik (Berlin), and Borealis (Bergen). Sarhan is noted for creating his own music-theatre and multimedia works in which he himself often performs.
About Jennifer Torrence:
Jennifer Torrence is an Oslo-based percussionist, performer, artistic researcher, curator, and teacher specializing in contemporary music. She has performed in diverse settings in twenty-five countries across four continents and is currently a member of Pinquins and a percussion teacher at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Jennifer’s current season includes collaborations with composers such as Øyvind Torvund, Viola Yip, and Simon Løffler among others, and appearances at Darmstadt Festival, Ultima Festival, Donaueschingen Festival, ECLAT Festival, and others.
Artist Links: www.beyondthispoint.org
Content Advisory
Steppenwolf does not offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person. If you have any questions about content, age-appropriateness or stage effects (such as strobe lights or theatrical fog) that might have a bearing on patron comfort, please contact the box office at 312-335-1650.