Projects
HORIZON
Horizon is, among some other things, a tale of one theologian’s crisis
of faith, not over his religious convictions, but over the character of
his service to those ideals. Reinhart Poole has been asked to leave the
seminary where he teaches ‘ethics’. His teaching methods are Socratic
and exciting, drawing from the Bible surprising insights and provocative
questions. It is just these insights and questions that have landed him
in trouble with the stolid, self-righteous, or simply ignorant powers
of his day.
MORE OF THE HORIZON >>
 Orpheus
X (2006)
American Repertory Theatre (http://www.amrep.org/orpheusx/)
After the wild success of Highway Ulysses, composer and performer Rinde
Eckert and director Robert Woodruff are joining forces to create another
world premiere - A new riff on the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
The famous singer Orpheus has locked himself up in his recording studio,
where he dreams of rescuing the poet Eurydice from the underworld. Eurydice,
meanwhile, is welcomed to the afterlife by the Queen of the Dead, who
offers her something she could never have in the world above.
Rinde Eckert, John Kelly, Suzan Hanson.
For booking information on ORPHEUS X contact:
Micocci Productions, LLC
Telephone: 212.874.2030
Fax: 212.874.1175
Email: staff@micocci.com
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An Idiot Divine (2001)
"With an assortment of musical instruments and his otherworldly voice,
Rinde Eckert channels two 'edjits'. The first is a murderer doing time
in prison, who teaches himself how to play the accordion and dowse for
water. The second is harder to pin down: he speaks with a brogue, dresses
like an Indian guru, plays a horn, a guitar, and various bells and whistles
beautifully, and discourses amusingly on the individual personalities
of his five fingers. With these talents, and his ability to perform one-man
duets, Eckert elevates incoherence to a poignant clarity."
The New Yorker
"The line between man and music curves, squiggles, blurs and dissolves
in An Idiot Divine, Rinde Eckert's inspired set of performance pieces.
Eckert is an instinctive showman who preens his considerable skills with
contagious enjoyment. The idea of an instrument as something that is passively
played upon takes on a swirl of shades of meaning: mechanical, cosmic,
anatomical and psychological. Therein lies the essential premise and the
great joy of Mr. Eckert's work. The music is everywhere, just waiting
to be tapped, with results that may be beautiful or ungainly. This remarkable
performer has the humility to acknowledge his own human awkwardness as
well as his divine grace. How indeed, Mr. Eckert seems to be asking with
equal parts earnestness and irony, do you separate the singer from the
song? "
New York Times
View New York Times Review
for "An Idiot Divine"
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 Slow
Fire (1998)
Slow Fire gives us a glimpse into the thoughts of one man in isolation.
Through operatic aria, speech, frenzied falsetto and declamatory incantations,
his language vacillates between common clichés and poetic soliloquy.
The first of three works in the "American Trilogy," Slow Fire conjures
up the imbalances and dark passions lurking behind the "normal" veneer
of middle-class American life. Writer and performer Rinde Eckert plays
'Bob,' a man caught between the American dream of success and consumerism
and the alienating psychoses of contemporary urban living. Although the
action takes place all in one weekend, Bob's story unfolds through memories
and fragmentary thoughts; only at the end are his deadly secrets finally
revealed. Bob's life balances precariously on the banality of day-to-day
practicalities and the intricacies of a disturbed psyche. Through his
reminiscences we hear the voice of Bob's father, who conjures up an old-fashioned
rural wisdom and reverence for land, clashing with Bob's urban consumerism.
Haunted by paranoia, he sleeps with the lights on and panics when he hears
a knock on the door; Bob also has the ability to transform ordinary objects
(a cardboard tube, a flashlight) into personal, mystical totems.
"A rare piece of music theater, a tour de force of intellectual and emotional
artistry. It is, to put it simply, a masterpiece"
- San Francisco Chronicle
"Outrageously funny, often scary, ingeniously constructed and consistently
communicative...a monodrama made monumental...firmly places Dresher in
the forefront of a new breed of American composers".
- San Francisco Examiner
http://www.dresherensemble.org/newmusictheater/slowfire.html
For booking information on SLOW FIRE contact:
Bernstein Artists, Inc.
phone 718-623-1214
email: BernsArts@aol.com
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