SUNWATCHER
LIVE at Ancram Opera House
Showings: May 27-29, Friday, Saturday at 8p, Sunday at 3p
Creative Movement Workshop with the SUNWATCHER Team: Saturday, May 28, 10am-12pm
Click HERE for a digital playbill.
Photo by Suzu Sakai
A Noh-inspired musical
Music By Tidtaya Sinutoke
Book and Lyrics by Isabella Dawis
Directed by Nana Dakin
An experimental chamber musical inspired by classical Noh theatre, SUNWATCHER intertwines the story of two women -- the astronomer and “hidden figure” Hisako Koyama (1916-1997), and the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu.
Hisako was a self-taught solar observer who drew the sun in painstaking detail every day for 40 years, a landmark achievement that ranks among the likes of Galileo. SUNWATCHER celebrates this underrecognized Asian woman in science and her extraordinary dedication to ordinary observation.
Photo by Suzu Sakai
In World War II Tokyo, despite the threat of firebombing from the US, Hisako looks through her telescope every day and sketches the spots on the sun’s surface. Her observations lead her to the sun goddess Amaterasu, a powerful deity besieged by her violent brother. Hisako’s experience of war collides with creation mythology, as both goddess and mortal are tested by tragedy and despair.
Meet the Production Team
Tidtaya Sinutoke (ฑิตยา สินุธก) is a Thailand born, NYC-based composer. Composition credits include HALF THE SKY (The 5th Avenue Theatre's First Draft Commission & 20/21 Digital Season, Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Richard Rodgers Award finalist); SUNWATCHER (The Civilians R&D Group, Weston Playhouse's Songs for Today, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Global Forms Festival); and DEAR MR. C (NYFA’s City Artist Corps Grants, Polyphone Festival). She was awarded the 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, the 2020 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, the 2021 International Theatremaker Award and the 2021 Fred Ebb Award. Her works have been supported by the American Opera Project, Composer-Librettist Studio at New Dramatists, Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Johnny Mercer Writers Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, EtM Con Edison Composer-in-Residence, MTF's Makers Cohort, and the Kurt Weill Foundation. A proud member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, Maestra, MUSE, and Thai Theatre Foundation. MFA: NYU. tidtayasinutoke.com
Isabella Dawis is a Filipina-American playwright and performer. As a librettist and lyricist, she is the recipient of the 2022 Kleban Prize, the 2021 Fred Ebb Award, and the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award. Isabella currently holds a 2021-23 Composers and the Voice Fellowship with the American Opera Project. Her musicals written with composer Tidtaya Sinutoke include HALF THE SKY (5th Avenue Theatre Digital Radio Play/First Draft Commission, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Theater Mu's New Eyes Festival, Theater Latté Da's NEXT Festival) and SUNWATCHER (Civilians' R&D Group, Goodspeed’s Writers Grove, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Tofte Lake Center). Isabella’s writing has been supported by the Primary Stages Rockwell Scholarship, the Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya Songbook, Musical Theatre Factory, Coalition of Asian American Leaders, and more. B.M. summa cum laude, piano performance, University of Minnesota, with vocal study at New England Conservatory. isabelladawis.com
Nana Dakin is a queer Thai-American director of new work, classics and devised performance based in NYC. Her work pursues social equity by examining the way culture is constructed and unsettling dormant biases. Upcoming: LOST COAST (The Playwrights Realm INK’D Festival) and MAMMELEPHANT (Superhero Clubhouse/122CC). Recent: PASSAGE (University of North Carolina School of the Arts), SORRY/NOT SORRY (Ars Nova ANT Fest), SUNWATCHER (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Global Forms Festival, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Civilians FINDINGS Series), LOVE LETTER TO A SEED (Clubbed Thumb Winterworks), WHITE PEARL (Royal Court Theatre), an all-women and non-binary production of Shakespeare’s RICHARD III (Lenfest Center for the Arts). She has developed new work at Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYTW, The Song Collective, The Tank and Columbia University’s International Play Reading Festival. MFA Theatre Directing: Columbia University. www.nanadakin.com
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