Projections Design - To Be Heard: Shadows In America

Featuring music by Aaron Copeland, Joel Thompson and Florence Price

American Gothic Performing Arts Fesitval

Bridge View Center, Ottumwa IA

June 14, 2025

Directed by:  Dennis Willhoit

Lighting Design by: Mario Raymond

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This very unique music concert featured a collection of music compositions intended to have the audience reflect on the shadows and light of America.  Set with a modest orchestra, a small dance ensemble, and stirring voices, the show featured projected backgrounds that provided an extended narrative to support the music.

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I chose images and media that best highlighted the different pieces.  Appalachian Spring featured imagery of the Appalachian mountains and culture, including homes and furniture of the Shakers.  Ethiopia's Shadow In America displayed imagery of the arrival of the African slaves in America and the fusion of the native and acquired impulses.  Seven Last Words of the Unarmed highlights the last words of unarmed African Americans killed, and featured imagery of those individuals and the murals and art that arose in the tragedy.  A Lincoln Portrait showed images of Abraham Lincoln during early years of his life and finished with selected images from the Lincoln Memorial.