JULIA FREY
Deviser
Casual FreyDay
Irreverent socio-political theater with an abiding love of visual and musical experimentation.
Casual FreyDay is the devising partnership of Julia Frey and Sam Day Harmet. We strive to follow in the footsteps of great experimental satirists like Bertolt Brecht and the Muppets, developing work that incorporates new media technology into narratives that wrestle with sociopolitical and existential concerns in a humorous, musical, and often absurd manner. Our collaboration has led us to performances at Ars Nova, the Jalopy Theater, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the Brooklyn Museum, and several projects at Brooklyn College, where we met as students at the Performance and Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) M.F.A. program.
We create self-contained multimedia shows. We devise every part of our productions, writing the scripts, songs, and scores together. We collaborate in designing, programming, and running our video, sound, and lighting, integrating it into the devising process. In devised theater, performers are often responsible for generating words and movement; we challenge ourselves to devise every element, from concept to execution, infusing it with our research and dramaturgy. We relish playing with the uncomfortable complexities and dilemmas of our strange twenty-first century while embracing a decidedly twenty-first century process.
Excerpt from A People’s History of Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley’s influence extends well past the Bay Area, affecting global markets, international labor practices, and technological advancement. But as that technology advances, are society’s structures shifting, growing, or crumbling? Can we still have a synth-pop dance party in the face of these realities? Our multimedia production had a techno-futurist gaze toward our current tech industry, blending wry social commentary, audio-visual experimentation, and an original soundtrack suited to MTV circa 1982.
Highlights from Containertopia
A comical vaudeville-inspired show about the tiny living movement, its attractiveness and environmental promise, but also concurrent issues of affordability, access, and gentrification. The production featured Weimar-era cabaret tunes, original music, and a transformable micro-apartment set. We carried out extensive research about the local housing landscapes to create a satirical revue that was multifaceted in its perspective and eager to confront the messy complexities of how we house ourselves.
New Paradise Laboratories
New Paradise Laboratories is an experimental performance ensemble that explores radical means of expression to bend and reshape conventional ideas of theatre.
We imagine theatre as visionary experience. We use a variety of creative strategies including company-devising techniques, cross-media design elements, and site-specific installation. Our pieces value sudden inspiration, paradigm shifts, and shocks to the system.
The collaborative environment of our working process influences the content of our pieces. We support an artist-as-entrepreneur model in our organizational structure. The artists we work with over time tend to be multidisciplinary in their interests: designers, writers, and producers, as well as actors. These ideas are central to our outreach and educational initiatives.
Excerpt from The Adults
"Unflinching as a theater company willing to experiment with high-wire concepts, kinetic visuals, cinematic sound design, integrating ‘physical theater’ and character choreography to conjure fantastical stage worlds that challenge safe theater conventions."
Huffington Post
Trailer for 27
"It's gorgeous, heartbreaking, funny, and terrifying all at once...the cast's explosive athletics, make for a hypnotic visit with martyred rock royalty."
Philadelphia Inquirer
Teen Wolf/Teen Wolf Too
Performance collaboration with poet/visual artist
at Mt. Tremper Arts Festival
Other appearances in Huffman's work:
Verse Chorus Verse
at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
Oscillations (For a Minute There I Lost Myself)
at the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC
Some Editing and
Some Theme Music
Co-creator of multimedia production conceived by
for FringeNYC and New Orleans Fringe Festival
"Part 'vlog,' part commentary, part documentary, some editing and some theme music features quirky, playfully thoughtful performances by its three talented co-creators."
CurtainUp