PHANTOM LIMB (New York, NY)
Erik Sanko & Jessica Grindstaff, Co-Artistic Directors
www.phantomlimbcompany.com
www.eriksanko.com | www.jessicagrindstaff.com

69° SOUTH
Created and Developed by Phantom Limb
Conceived in Collaboration with Kronos Quartet
Music Composed by Erik Sanko
Performed by Kronos Quartet
Choreographed by Christopher Williams
Directed by Gia Forakis
Produced in Association with Beth Morrison Projects

Joining together some of today’s brightest multi-disciplinary collaborators, “69° SOUTH” is a series of dynamic tableau vivants inspired by Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Co-conceived by Phantom Limb and Kronos Quartet, this narrative installation-in-motion melds theatrical performance, puppetry, photography, and film with original contemporary music and an unconventional acoustic palette to create a stunning — and unprecedented — artistic and emotional journey.

Premiere on September 2011 at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

69˚S is a co-commission of the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, and The Arts Centre of Melbourne, Australia via residency development with the Victoria College of the Arts in October 2009.

THE FORTUNE TELLER
Created and Directed by Erik Sanko & Jessica Grindstaff
Original Music composed by Danny Elfman & Erik Sanko
Recorded Narration by Gavin Friday

The acclaimed creation of New York City puppet maker Erik Sanko and designer Jessica Grindstaff, this work features a grotesque array of 15 artfully handcrafted figures in a dark comic tale unfolding in a fantastic Victorian world. There seven characters representing the seven deadly sins convene at a dead millionaire’s estate to claim their inheritance as determined by a fortune teller. One by one, each is delivered what they have coming to them, but perhaps not what they are expecting—a brutal, but suitable, demise. Featuring the gravelly, recorded narration of Irish vocalist Gavin Friday and an eerie score by Sanko and Grammy-winning film composer Danny Elfman, this sinister puppet theater spectacle is a perverse, but gleeful morality tale for grown-ups.

Originally Developed and Produced at HERE Arts Center through the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) and the Dream Music Puppetry Program.

"A morality fable for grown-ups, evoking the familiar idioms of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton in a style you might term Victorian ghastly... the set, a regular wunderkammer, keeps opening up to reveal new sets and images, little Victorian dioramas... macabre and engaging."
- The New York Times