The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) will host the Middle East premiere of The Storyville Mosquito by returning artist and world-renowned scratch DJ, music producer, and award-winning graphic novelist Kid Koala on May 12-13 at 7pm.
Co-commissioned by The Arts Center, The Storyville Mosquito is the story of a young mosquito who leaves his small town in the country to seek fame and fortune in the big city and fulfill his dream of playing in one of the greatest jazz bands of all time at Sid Villa’s Music Hall.
The live animated graphic novel will be performed, filmed, and scored in real time. A team of performers, musicians, foley artists, and technicians cinematically bring the characters to life using miniature sets, puppets, multiple cameras, and screens. The puppets tell the story accompanied by an original music soundtrack featuring a trio of musicians and Kid Koala on turntables, keyboards, and electronics.
Executive Artistic Director at The Arts Center at NYUAD Bill Bragin said: “Kid Koala’s show is magically playful, as you watch an animated film being made in real time, in a moving performance full of emotion, craft, and art that welcomes the entire family. As with his previous show for The Arts Center, Nufonia Must Fall, it is complicated to describe The Storyville Mosquito verbally, but the second you see it, you get it. Kid Koala brings such a joyous and open energy, and brilliant sense of innovation and inventiveness to NYU Abu Dhabi, and we are thrilled to finally premiere this piece that we co-commissioned after a two-year pause due to the pandemic.”
The Storyville Mosquito speaks to the themes of honesty, improvisation, inner voice, style, and collaboration. It is the follow-up to Kid Koala’s hugely successfulNufonia Must Fall live performance, which debuted at The Arts Center in 2017. This premiere, which further develops Kid’s skills as a composer, writer, and director, is long awaited. In March 2020, Kid Koala was poised to fly to the UAE when the extent of the pandemic became clear.
Kid Koala added: “I am delighted to finally get the chance to debut The Storyville Mosquito. In March 2020, my team and I were so excited by the prospect of unveiling this show at NYUAD and obviously the rest is history. I thank The Arts Center for their patience and support in helping to make this happen. We now look forward to kicking off our world tour of the production at NYUAD’s beautiful Red Theater. We had such a wonderful time at the Arts Center for the Gulf premiere of Nufonia Must Fall in 2017 and have been eagerly anticipating our return. I can promise the UAE audience that The Storyville Mosquito will be worth the wait. Come join us and bring the family!”
Event:The Storyville Mosquito by Kid Koala
Date: May 12 and 13 at 7pm
Venue: The Red Theater, The Arts Center
Admission: AED100
Reservation details: Attendees must present a ‘Green’ status on AlHosn app.
Visit here for booking details
BIOGRAPHIES
Eric San, a.k.a Kid Koala, is a world-renowned scratch DJ, music producer, and award-winning graphic novelist. He has released six solo albums, four on Ninja Tune: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (2000), Some of My Best Friends Are DJs (2003), Your Mom’s Favorite DJ (2006) and 12 bit Blues (2012) and two on Arts & Crafts. He has published two graphic novels: Nufonia Must Fall (2003) and Space Cadet (2011). He has been involved in collaborations such as Gorillaz, Deltron 3030, and The Slew. Kid Koala has toured with Radiohead, the Beastie Boys, Money Mark, A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Shadow, and The Preservation. More information about Kid Koala can be found here.
Corinne Merrell creates work as a production designer for film, stop motion animation and theater. Her handcrafted sets create environments and spaces for storytelling. She was head stop motion art director on the animated feature The Little Prince, directed by Mark Osborne. She was also production designer on the National Film Board’s The Fruit Huntersby award winning director Yung Chang. Her collaborations with director Kara Blake continue to explore the use of miniatures in film, and Illusions, a 2015 commission for the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal and Gryphon Trio, brought their film work to the stage. She worked on Wong Kar Wai’s My Blueberry Nights and Mary Stewart Masterson’s The Cake Eaters. Theatre credits include Broadway Design for Stage and Film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is a faculty member in the Department of Theater at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.
Patrick Martel is a puppeteer, puppet designer, set designer and theater director. He has collaborated with a number of companies, including the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Monlove and 4Darts. He enjoyed a 25-year-long collaboration with Théâtre de l’Avant-Pays, where he designed over a dozen productions, many of which he also performed in. With this company, he directed and designed sets and puppets for Mémoire de Lou. In 2004, The Arlyn Award Society awarded him a commendation for his puppet design work on À nous deux!. Since 2000, he has taught at Université du Québec à Montréal, to BA students and for the post-graduate diploma in contemporary puppet theatre. His first collaboration with Kid Koala was as puppet designer, puppet technical designer and puppeteer for Nufonia Must Fall.
AJ Korkidakis is a Montreal-based digital media artist who jumps between filmmaking, photography, animation, and design among other mediums. His films have played at international festivals including TIFF and Just for Laughs, and have won him awards at the YoungCuts Film festival, as well as being broadcast across North America. He is an oft collaborator of many noted Montreal musicians on video and animation projects. His design work ranges from poster design to creating organizations’ entire visual identities, which has led to him illustrating a cover for the New Internationalist. He has begun creating work with a focus on interaction, whether it be through physical installations, or digital applications and loves to explore the blurring lines between traditional and new media.
Vid Cousins has had the privilege of composing, arranging, producing and recording for ensembles including Afiara Quartet (Young Canadians Musicians Award winners), Kronos Quartet (Grammy Award winners), Bell Orchestre (Juno Award winners), and the Sevens Project Ensemble including members of Arcade Fire, Stars, and The Patrick Watson Band. His awards include a GAMIQ award for Best Electronic Album with Kid Koala’s 12 bit Blues, an IPPY Gold Medal for Space Cadet, and an Oscar shortlisting for the film Requiem For Romance by Jonathan Ng. Vid utilizes his Monkey Puzzle Studio facility for his various composition, recording and mix projects, which has also proven to be a great environment to produce cinematic remixes for a diverse range of artists, including Grammy nominated Beast, Trixie Whitley and Bell Orchestre.
Ryhna Thompson has been a founder, president, producer and artist manager in the cultural and creative industries for the last two decades. Under the banner of her company Envision Management & Production, she has worked with boundary-breaking artists such as Kid Koala, Bell Orchestre and Amon Tobin amongst many others. Her artists have opened tours for Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Jack Johnson and performed in venues such as Madison Square Gardens and Hollywood Bowl. She has assembled and managed tours on five continents and overseen dozens of record releases. Always thinking outside the box, Ryhna has frequently worked with artists to conceive, produce, and manage projects in the realm where music intersects with film, animation, theatre, literature, and interactivity. Projects have been brought to life with Mass MoCA, Luminato Festival, and the National Film Board of Canada to name a few great organizations. Always keen to contribute to her communities, Ryhna served for many years as President of the Music Managers Forum Canada.
