“Adventures,” by Bill and Fred Productions Submitted photo by Michael Schoch
“Carnelian” by Lex Brown followed by “Adventures” by Bill and Fred Productions will be presented beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25, and Saturday, Aug. 26, at at Celebration Barn in South Paris.
“Carnelian,” created by Lex Brown Submitted photo by Bob Sweeney
This double-billed evening will begin with a live performance of the New York Times Critic’s Pick “Carnelian,” a new musical that confronts a fictitious and imminent global disaster told through eight songs in which each character contends with their own definition of power, written and co-composed by Lex Brown and co-composed by Samuel Beebe.
Brown is a multimedia artist whose work blends poetry and science fiction to create existential narratives about the Information Age. Her work involves many art forms, such as sculpture, film, installation, live performance, and painting. Contemplating spiritual experience through humor and satire, her work has been exhibited at prestigious institutions, such as MIT List Center, the High Line, New Museum, and the Kitchen. Brown received her undergraduate degree from Princeton and an MFA in sculpture from Yale. She was a 2021 United States Artist Fellow, and her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, New Yorker, Artforum, and Art in America.
The evening continues with “Adventures,” a show that combines circus, choreography, and comedy to take the audience on a journey with Bill and Fred. Like all comic duos, Bill and Fred are a perfectly unlikely pair: They can be the best of friends and the most heated of rivals. They find common ground as quickly as they lose touch. Likewise, their adventures are susceptible to the absurd. Utilizing their various skills, creators and performers Luisa Schmitz (Bill) and Elysia McMullen (Fred) take us with them for an adventure through the absurdity of friendship.
Bill and Fred creators Luisa Schmitz and Elysia McMullen met while studying dance in the Netherlands, and Bill and Fred Productions was founded in 2020. Schmitz is from Switzerland and has worked in the circus art scene with Circus Chnopf. McMullen is from the island of Eire and, similar to Schmitz, she has spent a lot of her time working with several dance and circus companies.
Tickets for the evening are general admission and are pay-what-you-can, starting at $5 with a recommended ticket price of $20. The theater lobby opens at 7 p.m. To purchase tickets in advance, visit events.humanitix.com/carnelian-and-adventures-fb8bmjux.
Celebration Barn, located just off Route 117 at 190 Stock Farm Rd., South Paris, is Maine’s center for physical theater training and performance. The Barn’s mission is to create opportunities for artists to hone their craft and share their work. By bringing art-making and community-building together, we serve those who are committed to reimagining the theater and the world beyond. For more information, visit celebrationbarn.com or call 207-743-8452
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