BARTOK’S MONSTER
- Jay Kirk and the Daedalus Quartet
- Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, Department of English, Department of Music, Penn Live Arts, School of Arts & Sciences
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Project Support Grant
Avoid The Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Acts, by Jay Kirk (Harper Perennial).
BARTOK’S MONSTER will be a new, evening-length hybrid performance piece inspired by Jay Kirk’s book “Avoid the Day” that features the Daedalus Quartet performing the music of Bela Bartok while physical performers and a narrator explore Bartok’s sources, history, and nightmares. “Avoid the Day” is a narrative nonfiction book that centers on the mystery of a missing manuscript by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok and a surreal journey across the globe and to the outer reaches of the mind. BARTOK’S MONSTER will be devised during the Fall of 2023 through a series of cross-disciplinary workshops led by devised theater artists Dan Rothenberg (Pig Iron Theater Company) and Sebastienne Mundheim (White Box Theatre), and the Daedalus Quartet (University of Pennsylvania’s resident string quartet), who will perform the music of Bela Bartok live during the performance. The current vision for the performance includes the string quartet, a narrator, six actors/movement artists, lighting design, sound design, and staged sculptural elements. The premiere will take place in January 2024 in the Harold Prince Theatre (Annenberg Center) and will be presented by Penn Live Arts, Pig Iron theater, and Bowerbird.