SONG OF MYSELF to Open at Capital Fringe 2014

Posted on: April 12th, 2014 by
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Walt_Whitman_-_Brady-Handy_restoredThe Sanctuary Theatre’s Performing Knowledge Project presents the world premiere of Song of Myself: The Whitman Project, an interdisciplinary poetry-in-performance piece that fuses Walt Whitman’s famous American epic with film, music, and photograph.

The Song of Myself opens on Thursday, July 10, 2014, at 9:15 at Caos of F Street, as part of the 2014 Capital Fringe Festival.  The show then runs four more times on July 13, 20, 23, and 26.  Check performingknowledge.org for details.

Robert Michael Oliver adapted the one-man performance piece from Whitman’s 1855 American classic.  With the aid of an Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, hecrafted the sixty-page poem into a visceral 75 minutes.  Original musical compositions by Matt “SwampGuinee” Miller, John McGrath, and Doug Fraser combine with historic and contemporary photographs by Franc Rosario to bring this pre-Civil War celebration of the American spirit to life.

michaeloliver-500x334Oliver embodies the multi-dimension persona of Whitman’s famous poem, taking the audience on a wild ride through the poem’s many American landscapes.  He was last seen at the Fringe in 2011 when he presented the world premiere of Embodying Poe that gave flesh and voice to seven of Edgar Allan Poe’s more mystical poems.  In that show Oliver was called “a master artist” whose performance gave audiences a “spine-tingling entertainment.”  Although a poet-performer, who can also be seen performing his own poems at various venues around town, his most well known performance is in the award-winning comedic web-series Cap South, where Oliver plays the ferociously grumpy fixer Bushwick.

The creative team for The Whitman Project includes the previously mentioned musicians Matt “Swamp Guinea” Miller, John McGrath, and Doug Fraser, as well as photographer Francisco Rosario of Pyramid Arts Center, sound designer Elliot Lanes, and costume designer Elizabeth Bruce.  The videographer Chad Lawrence, who has worked with Oliver previously, is creating the various montages that accompany the live action on stage.  A host of other photographers, whose works now reside in the public domain, have also contributed to the film’s scenography.

For more information, please visit The Performing Knowledge website at performingknowledge.org or contact [email protected] or 202-529-3143CapitalFringeLogo_JPG.


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