GRIFTER’S Gambit is an operatic, tragi-comic video/sound installation, surrounding the audience in a multi-sensory experience.

GRIFTER’S Gambit: A black box of 4 walls (20’ x 20’+) of projected, high-octane color kaleidoscopic videos light the room in concert with a 28:33-minute vocal composition I created from studio recordings of two vocalists I directed to sing my 16-page libretto. 

The libretto testifies to & lampoons archetypes, contemporary & historical references to the human condition. It satirizes human foibles that bring us repeatedly into conflict. In vibrant color-patterned costumes, filmed dancers are projected onto a sculptural element. The sculpture is in contrast to pulsating video wall projections. The dancers animate their patterned costumes against the energetic videos. Color & movement clash & collide. Posing & vogue-ing to insinuating lyrics, dancers  occasionally perform Fosse-esque, burlesque moves. Periodically vocalists sing the text, while parodying recognizable melodies known for their wit, such as “Cabaret’s Mein Herr”, “Hey Big Spender” and “Money, that’s What I Want”.

Singers are directed to play with the lyrics, by riffing on & incorporating a variety of vocal styles such as operatic, Elizabethan, country & pop formats. With humor & irony, they sing about the absurd situation humanity finds itself in. We experience the collision of personal, social & political desire, pressures that constantly jockey for power & influence.

GRIFTER’S Gambit fosters awareness through levity.