Accidental Nostalgia

Concept and Music by Cynthia Hopkins

Directed by DJ Mendel

Choreographed by Jordana Che Toback

Award winning operetta detailing the pros and cons of amnesia as told by Cameron Seymore, a fictitious pop star from the 1970′s.

I immediately fell in love with the soft quality inherent in Cynthia’s natural way of moving and was excited by the prospect of designing movement for her that would add to her character’s story. She already had some moves she had sketched for herself and all that was needed was a nip and tuck for the first showing at The Whitney. For the workshop at MASS MoCA, I did more research and a little more actual musical staging. She said she had been looking at country line dancing and The Singing Detective and there were old vaudeville references already in the script. I looked at old USO images, pictures of my grandmother dancing as well as the quality of dancers from old movie musical numbers. From the original 42nd Street to The Red Shoes to Busby Berkeley, I discovered a sort-of laissez-faire dance quality in the performers that I brought into the mix for Cynthia’s movement style. When D.J. Mendel came on board as the director, he had very specific ideas about where each number should take place in space and so the dances went through another evolutionary development.
Performed at St Ann’s Warehouse, The New Hazlett Theater@The Andy Warhol Museum, Ohio State University, The Cullen Theater, The Arden Theater/Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, The Southern Theater@Walker Arts Center, St. Ann’s Warehouse full production, On the Boards, Seattle, Perishable Theater, RI, MASS MoCA, The Whitney Altria, Nyc, and AS220, RI

PRESS LIST:

CULTURE BLOT – March 2004
FLAVOR PILL.NET NYC – #198
THE NEW YORK TIMES – March 2004 – An Operetta has Alt-Country Flavor”- Randy Kennedy
SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER-June 5, 2004
Review by R.M. Cambell
THE VILLAGE VOICE – April 2004 – “Road to Morocco” – Daniel Mufson
BROOKLYN PAPERS – April 2004 – Review by Paulanne Simmons
SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER-May 28, 2004
Preview by Joe Adcock THEATRE FORUM -International Theatre Journal
Summer/Fall 2005 by Judy Bauerlein
PERFORMING ARTS JOURNAL – September 2005 “La Belle Indifference”
by Patricia Coleman
TIME OUT-Jan 13, 2005 – Review by Adam Feldman
THE NEW YORK TIMES-January 10, 2005 – “Avant-Garde with a twang” by Jason Zinoman