April 2010 to present
Loose ensemble performing the compositional work of Joshua Dumas.
Orchestral-ish music for theatre, dance, opera, film, etc. Generally informed by an interest in combining synthesizers, drone, and broken electronics, with traditional instrumentation. Works range from studies for solo piano to sixteen piece chamber orchestra.
Shawn Reddy
October 2009 to present
Eiren’s music comes from her childhood in the wooded hills of Western Massachusetts, where her bohemian parents took her to art galleries, hash parties and Shaker barns filled with drying herbs. These influences have resulted in her unusual lyricism, strong songcraft and the faint shock of surprise as the shy quiet of her lap steel guitar meets her longing voice. Her songs are tiny anthems for that moment when you think you might drown, and, failing to swim, you unexpectedly begin to fly.
Eiren Caffall - lap steel, vox, songs, words
Ari Bolles - upright, vox
Lawrence Peters - drums, vox
Joshua Dumas- guitar, vox
February 2012 to present
Coming Spring 2012
A dancefilm by Fannie Hungerford and Joshua Dumas
Inspired by the photography of Francesca Woodman
Starring Nicole Morford, with Elizabeth Bergman, Sarah carusona, Emily Hinkler, Mareva Minerbi, Jennifer Pray, Samuel Summer, Alicia Weidner.
Cinematography: Kaitlyn Busbee, Alex Richard, Joshua Dumas
Production assistance: Katie Hargrave
Choreography: Fannie Hungerford, music: Joshua Dumas
Keith B. Evans
December 2009 to present
A podcast. Joshua Dumas reads poems that he likes, set to original compositions.
Selections range from through-out the twentieth century, featuring poems by Matthew Dickman, Li-Young Lee, Mary Oliver, David Wojahn, Katie Ford and more.
February 2012 to March 2012
A multi-artist installation created and curated by Katie Hargrave in the Porch Gallery at the University of Iowa. Joshua Dumas and Carl Sweets collaborated to create this photographic triptych for the show.
Lindsay Verstegen
January 2012 to February 2012
Inspired by the work of Tony Schwartz, I Am Saying This Right Now is a mix of memories, scenes, and sound art exploring the human compulsion to document our lives.
Conceived and edited by: Kaitlin Byrd.
Directed by: Paul Kastner & Kim Miller.
Written by: Sid Branca, Kaitlin Byrd, Jeff Duhigg, Joshua Dumas, James Dunn, Paul Kastner, Brian Michael Lucas, Layne Manzer, Sara McCarthy, Ian Miller, Lindsay Verstegen, Andrea Wallace, and Jessica Wright Buha.
Listen to excerpts of Joshua Dumas’ score here.
Joshua Dumas
July 2011 to September 2011
Well. I broke my leg. And had to cancel a summer’s worth of fantastic projects. So, in hopes of staying sane while I spent twelve weeks laid-up, I asked some friends to choose some duets. I arranged and recorded their picks, and had them come by and record vocals. I basically used whatever I could reach from my couch, or crutch or crawl to.
Features duets with Sophia Hamilton, Julia Miller, Lindsay Verstegen, Thomas Comerford, Katy Albert, Ruby Des Jardins, Eiren Caffall, Casey Meehan, Christy LeMaster, Jason Eckerson, Katy Collins.
Jerzy Rose
June 2011 to June 2011
Jerzy Rose‘s first feature film, which premiered at the Chicago Underground Film Festival, winning both the Audience Choice and the Made in Chicago awards.
Starring Jared Larson, Mike Lopez, Lyra Hill, Emily Irvine, Halle Butler, Chris Sullivan. Cinematography by Lori Felker. Music by Joshua Dumas. Written and directed by Jerzy Rose.
A university has found the leg bone of Amelia Earhart. A high school science teacher travels to the underworld to bring back his girlfriend. Animals are arranging themselves into concentric circles. Assumptions are made and hearts are broken.
Listen to selections from the score.
January 2011 to May 2011
The Telling of the Bees is abstract dance-theatre piece exploring the story of Claire, a woman trapped in a distracting world of screens, cell phones and status updates – and whose home is infiltrated by a swarm of honeybees. Claire’s fate and the fate of the bees are ultimately tied together, as the bees confront, interrupt, aggravate, guide and care for Claire through her everyday life.
Created by Michelle Milne, with Lindsay Nance, Joshua Dumas, and Ben Jacobs. Music by Joshua Dumas, excerpts available here.
Marianna Milhorat
April 2011 to April 2011
The City in Which is an expanded cinema project based on Chicago poet Li-Young Lee’s “The City In Which I Love You”.
Joshua Dumas and Christy LeMaster distributed fresh rolls of 16mm film to a dozen experimental filmmakers, asking them to respond to the poem and to their own experience of living and making in Chicago. The resulting footage is spliced into a combined short accompanied by a live reading of the poem by Joshua, a performance built from and informed by the filmmakers’ images.
March 2011 to March 2011
Handmade book of photographs of projections on people.
Features portraits of Katy Albert, David Amaral, Edward Crouse, Carolyn Faber, Scott Foley, Nicole Ripley, Christy LeMaster, Julia Miller, Nathaniel Parks, Vanessa Reilly-Bates, Max Wirt, Seth Vanek, Shira Zisook.
Photographs and bookbinding by Joshua Dumas, camera operation by Kirk Bravender.
Lindsay Verstegen
February 2011 to February 2011
Light Waves & Their Uses is a new semi-opera based on the life of Albert Michelson. The original production was created and directed by David Amaral, created and composed by Joshua Dumas, and assistant directed by Max Wirt.
It was developed, devised, and performed by Daiva Bhandari, Ruth Bistrow, Katy Collins, Anthony DeMarco, Nicole Ripley, Jon Stutzman, and Lindsay Verstegen.
Produced by New Beast Theatre Works, with High Concept Laboratories, at the Building Stage in winter 2011.
Listen to selections from the score.
Joshua Dumas
February 2011
A video series.
Joshua Dumas makes short videos of himself performing in landscapes, rooms, or situations that influence the performance and contextualize the songs’ meanings. Locations thus far include a blizzard, a bubble machine, and a library’s grand hall. Songs are selections from Dumas’ back catalog, from bands like Notes & Scratches and Townline Road.
Jeremy Bessoff
January 2011
Jeremy Bessoff’s experimental stop motion animation western.
Featuring music by Joshua Dumas, Keith Kusterer, Tom McGettrick, Tom Santiago, and Sally Timms.
The tragic-comic “Red Rider’s Lament” employs vintage plastic cowboys and construction paper sets to explore the enactment of masculinity in the Old West. The Rider enters the fold just as the West’s dust is settling. His haphazard wanderings cause him to confront manifest destiny and the changes it renders to the landscape and its inhabitants.
Jeremy Bessoff
October 2010
Moon Far Ocean Deep is a new play created and performed by Theatre Run. Members of the ensemble from Switzerland, UK, New York and Chicago worked for ten months via Skype, email, video and audio posts, to conceive and develop this new work. Then after a three-week intensive rehearsal period the company presented the show in a workshop performance at High Concept Labs.
Directed by Molly Feingold. Starring Martine Eichenberger, Sophie Fletcher, Marc Frost, Alex Lane and Anne Sorce. Lights by Josh Nelson. Video by Rand Sevilla. Music/Sound by Joshua Dumas.
Anika Balaconis
July 2010 to July 2010
Jason Eckerson and Anika Balaconis and I met up at Mark Temelko and Tina Post’s farm in upstate New York. We set up a tent and built a make-shift music space. We spent our days working outside and in the evenings we played songs and recorded them. Anika made some brushes for the drums out of pine needles, we had a big bonfire, we sang with cicadas and crickets and birds.