This work is in-development. To be premiered in April 2024 followed by SE Queensland season in Redlands, Toowoomba and Brisbane.
Piano Room is a piano recital with a difference.
The audience and pianist are immersed in a multi-speaker soundscape of augmented piano, real-world sounds, pre-recorded love-story that dramaticises the relationship between human, urban, and nature as a seduction, argument, battle, and conversation.
This truly interdisciplinary work is created by acclaimed playwright Merlynn Tong, award-winning concert pianist Roger Cui, and composer/sound artist/artistic director Corrina Bonshek.
Piano Room will be a 60minute work for an intimate audience seated close to the pianist.
It suits presentation in black box, galleries and halls with a flat floor or retractable seating, OR a concert hall stage with audience seated on stage with the pianist.
The lighting is minimal (t’s devised for dark space). With sound tech provided by touring artists in partnership with sound art specialist TonePacer (four speaker PA with subwoofers/haptic speakers for visceral / tactile experience).
Writer, voice actor, co-creator: Merlynn Tong
Pianist: Roger Cui
Concept, composer, sound-art, collaborative direction: Dr Corrina Bonshek.
Design: Tiffany Beckwith-Skinner
Stage 1 development at HOTA – Home of the Arts 2022 with support from the Regional Arts Development Fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland, and TonePacer.
Stage 2 development in September 2023 to April 2024 with support from Redland Performing Arts Centre and TonePacer.
Piano Room is available for presentation in Australia from June 2024, and internationally from 2025. Please get in touch with producer Corrina Bonshek for more information and to start a conversation.
