Entropy: A devised opera, created by Improvisation Convergence Ensemble

March 28, 2024

Tuesday April 2, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Theatre Auditorium

Improvisation Convergence Ensemble (ICE) Roster

Music Director: Kathryn Ladano
Devising Stage Director & Dramaturge: Amanda Smith
Assistant Director: Nuha Yousuf
Technical Manager: Kieran Bates

Kieran Bates, guitar & voice (Echo Ensemble)
May Black, trombone
Zoe Bruneel, saxophone
Aaron Crowe, guitar
Andy Drummond, bass clarinet
Callum Drysdale, percussion/synthesizer
Grace Gardner, harp
Mara Hale, vibraphone
Grace Hall, flute
Nick Heath, saxophone
Matt Hinojosa, bass
MJ Johnson, flute
Lydia Lei, guzheng
Ethan Loney, saxophone
Andrew Lugowski, guitar
Britney Nutt, voice (Echo Ensemble)
Stephen Palma Ramirez, piano
Madelyn Peng, voice (Concordia)
Hannah Piercey, voice (Twin 2)
Camryn Ruthven, voice/percussion
Lisa Santoprete, piano
Sarah Storms, voice (Twin 1)
Khaleal Thompson, percussion
Elysha Vorstenbosch, harp & voice (Echo Ensemble)
Simon Van Hezewyk, trumpet & voice (Echo Ensemble)
Aaron Ye, saxophone & voice (Echo Ensemble)
Nuha Yousuf, voice (Entropy)
Kurtis Zantingh, guitar

Libretto Team

Kieran Bates
Andy Drummond
Amanda Smith
Sarah Storms
Elysha Vorstenbosch
Nuha Yousuf

Design Team

Madelyn Peng
Hannah Piercey
Amanda Smith
Sarah Storms
Nuha Yousuf

Synopsis

Scene 1: An Almost Empty Void

Entropy is first seen floating in a vast, empty sea of stillness. She grows tired and frustrated by the static void and becomes desperate for change. Entropy’s agitated attempts to move the world around her prove unsuccessful and with every unsatisfied push, the pressure inside of her builds and builds until she explodes.

Scene 2: A New World

A new world materializes as a set of twins discover Entropy in the wreckage of a star that exploded in the distance. They realize they have found a traveler, someone who is unfamiliar to their world but known for generating the new and unexpected. The three of them work to understand and communicate with each other until they find a radiating piece of debris, leftover from the explosion. The twins curiously reach for it and release a black hole, opening up a portal to the unknown. The twins convince Entropy, who has only just arrived in this new environment, to take their hands and see what is on the other side of this mysterious gateway.

Scene 3: The Black Hole

Entropy and the twins are lifted up and whirled about by the black hole.

Scene 4: On the Other Side

Entropy and the twins land on the other side of the black hole in a dark cave. Whispers and monstrous sounds grow in the pitch black, as glowing eyes open up around them. Suddenly, a voice pierces through the darkness, telling them of their impending fate. It seems as though all hope is lost, with no escape in sight, until a cleansing light washes everything away.

Scene 5: The Crystal Hall

The three characters find themselves in a beautiful and reverent crystal hall. They are met by Concordia, the goddess of harmony and protector of peace. She explains to them that an imbalance has been created by their travels and tells them to explain why they chose to leave where they came from. To maintain the calm of her world, Concordia givesEntropy and the twins an ultimatum: stay in the crystal hall to live for a time in peace and order, or leave at once without knowing what lies ahead.

About Devised Opera

Devising is a collaborative process used more commonly in theatre and contemporary dance than opera to create new works. The defining feature of devised creation is that it involves multiple group members who come together to create a performed piece through active participation. Devised performances often evolve through improvisation and become solidified into a coherent piece through the rehearsal process. Devising requires adaptability, openness to change, and immense creative generosity and shares much with music improvisation as a discipline.

When undertaking a devised project, the process and final piece are inevitably influenced by all the elements that come together to facilitate them, including, but not limited to, the team of collaborators, resources available (i.e., venue, equipment, instruments, support team, time), and emergent or initiating goal(s) of the project. Individual company members can offer proposals for the group to explore or simply be inspired by, which might come instantaneously in process. It may also be something they worked on or found on their own time and brought into rehearsal to share with the group. The more the team members offer proposals, the more they integrate themselves into the final product, regardless of if the exact ideas are kept for further development or merely serve to inform and inspire the process overall. As such, both the piece and the process become expressions of the practitioners and their environment.

The aim of devised opera is to have multiple individual perspectives influence the development of a piece, in part or in full, as a way to bring more people into the opera creation process. Finding ways to expand the authorship can have positive outcomes for the art form, such as lessening hierarchical control, and facilitating genuine inclusion in the stories told through opera.