MƆɹNIŊ [MORNING//MOURNING]

mɔɹnɪŋ [Morning//Mourning]

COMPOSITION, LIBRETTO AND MUSIC DIRECTION BY
Gelsey Bell

DIRECTED BY
Tara Ahmadinejad

FEATURING
Gelsey Bell (ARI) – daxophone, accordion
Mia Pak (EL) – objects
Brian McCorkle (MAG) – synth, Sundrum, guitar
Aviva Jaye (KAI) – Celtic harp
Paul Pinto (SO) – metallophone, synth

MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT BY
Gelsey Bell, with the ensemble

LIGHTING DESIGN BY
Masha Tsimring

SOUND DESIGN BY
Hidenori Nakajo

STAGE MANAGED BY
Katie Scibelli

TOUR PRODUCED BY
ALC Management/Amanda Cooper

ARTIST STATEMENT

This piece was originally inspired by Alan Weisman’s book The World Without Us (2007), which began with the thought experiment: what would happen to the Earth if humans disappeared right now. I felt a range of emotions reading the book – from the expected anger and guilt at the destructive legacy of humans, to a profound hope and humbled awe at the colossal power, resilience, and adaptability of the planet and our fellow living beings. From this wellspring arose mɔɹnɪŋ (which, by the way, is how you spell the words “mourning” and “morning” for an American accent in the International Phonetic Alphabet). Of course, quite a bit has happened in the years since Weisman’s book first came out – for instance the world’s coral reefs are in much worse shape, the pandemic lockdown gave us a glimpse of other environmental possibilities, and the hole in the ozone has shrunk – so my research subsequently took me to many more inspirations from scientists, journalists, and creative writers. Some of the most impactful include: Peter Brannen’s The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions (2017), Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape (2021), Neil deGrasse Tyson’s podcast StarTalk, Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness (2015), N. K. Jemisin’s short story “On the Banks of the River Lex” from How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (2018), and Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy (2020). My research introduced me to so many strands of knowledge, theory, and inventive possibility that I could have filled days in the theater. mɔɹnɪŋ represents one theory among many of how things could go, omitting a wealth of detail and side plots. A focus on plutonium leaves uranium unspoken for. A dive into a possible future for octopuses ignores the conceivable adventures of elephants, butterflies, or mushrooms. Stories for another day and another opera...

I’ve always felt that this kind of story could not be told by a single individual and I am so thankful to the incredible community of people I have built the piece with, particularly the performers who put so much of themselves into every rehearsal and performance. They are all tremendous composers and songwriters in their own right and their original creative artistry has been present at every step of the development and arrangement process, and in their improvisations during the performance. This includes the past performers I worked with in the original production - Justin Hicks and Ashley Pérez Flanagan (who you can hear in the original cast album) - and during the workshop process: Marisa Tornello, Amber Gray, and Odeya Nini.

It is such an honor and joy to bring the piece to Yale and collectively imagine the future with you all.

- Gelsey Bell

Creative Team Bios 

GELSEY BELL | COMPOSER/CREATOR 

is a Brooklyn-based songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and scholar. She has been described by the New York Times as “one of New York’s most adventurous musicians” and “a charismatic and fiercely intelligent performer.” She is a core member of thingNY, Varispeed, and the Chutneys. She has received awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opera America, Herb Alpert/UCross, the Japan Foundation, and others. Recent residencies include HERE Arts Center, Pioneer Works, and the Kinosaki Arts Center in Japan. Her recent works include Cairns (2020), a soundwalk for Green-Wood Cemetery (included on the New York Times Best Theater of 2020 list); shuffleyamamba: Yamamba as a Bear (2021), a dance piece created with Yasuko Yokoshi; Meander (2021), a soundwalk created with Joseph White for Brooklyn Botanic Garden; Mouthful (2024), created with thingNY; and Skylighght (2019), created with saxophonist Erin Rogers. She has released multiple albums, including the recent original cast album of mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning], Heads Together, and Skylighght. Performance highlights also include Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway) and Ghost Quartet, Robert Ashley’s Foreign Experiences and Improvement, Darius Jones's Samesoul Maker, Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens, Gregory Whitehead’s On the Shore Dimly Seen, Alaina Ferris's The Lydian Gale Parr, and a great many of John King’s Micro-Operas. She has a PhD from New York University in Performance Studies, and is part-time faculty at the New School. gelseybell.com

TARA AHMADINEJAD | DIRECTOR 

is an Obie-award winning director and co-founder of the live arts collective Piehole. She has directed and co-authored boundary-pushing live art for theaters, galleries, and digital spaces. Recent Piehole works: Disclaimer (Drama League Award Nominee, upcoming at CAP UCLA), which premiered at The Public/Under the Radar, and Christmas Mountain, a window-based hybrid media installation at WNYC’s The Greene Space. Other recent directing includes Grief Hotel by Liza Birkenmeier (Clubbed Thumb/The Public, Drama League Award nominee, Obie Award); Sarah Einspanier’s Lunch Bunch (Clubbed Thumb/PlayCo), and digital collaborations with Satoko Ichihara (Japan Society), Eliza Bent (New Georges), and Scarlett Kim (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). NYTW Usual Suspect; New Georges Affiliated Artist; MFA in Directing, Columbia University.

MIA PAK | PERFORMER 

Mia Pak is a performer, singer-songwriter, and passionate climate advocate based in Brooklyn, New York. Recent Off-Broadway credits include Three Houses (Signature Theatre), Suffs (The Public Theater), Your Own Personal Exegesis (LCT3), and In The Green (LCT3). She releases music under the name “miamiamia” and will be releasing a full album this fall titled All Too Much. Living in a time of climate anxiety and fear, Mia is deeply honored to be a part of a piece that meditates on grief and celebrates this abundant, extraordinary planet we call home. Thank you to Gelsey for writing this gift of a show. Represented by Nicolosi & Co Talent Agency. IG: @miajpak and @miamiamusic

BRIAN McCORKLE | PERFORMER 

is a composer, performer, and digital artist. McCorkle was the co-Director of Panoply Performance Laboratory (PPL) for over a decade and is a founding member of Varispeed Collective. A professional musician from a very young age, McCorkle plays many instruments across genres. As a composer McCorkle has written music for 6 original operas with PPL, several scores for theater, dance, installation, and performance art. McCorkle has performed with Joan La Barbara, Robert Ashley, Joseph Keckler, Anais Maviel, International Contemporary Ensemble, and many many others, at venues like Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim, the Kitchen, ZKM, Meinblau Projecktraum, Roulette, Issue Project Room, to name a few. Residencies include Yaddo, LMCC, Momenta Art, Harvestworks, and many more - McCorkle has been a visiting artist at University of Michigan, University of Kentucky, and Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, lecturing and engaging with students. McCorkle holds degrees in Comparative Literature, Music, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics.

AVIVA JAYE | PERFORMER

is a multi-disciplinary artist & performer primarily creating music, wielding voice, keys, harp, guitar & ukulele. She combines acoustic & electronic elements to unlock a portal for listeners to venture, exploring the dimensions of empathy, self-awareness, social justice & Afrofuturism. Her work includes theatre, dance, paper arts & poetry. Recent projects include Lydian Gale Parr (Target Margin), An Incomplete List musical by Dante Green (Prism Fest 2024),  mɔɹnɪŋ [Morning//Mourning] premiere (PROTOTYPE), Samesoul Maker (Roulette), Colored School No. 3 (National Sawdust) & We Can Change the Country by Darius Jones (Roulette); musical guest for Creative Mornings; featured artist for Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit; Oracular Recall by Ben Holbrook (The Motor Company); composer for the play LORDES (New Ohio Theater); music direction & performance for “Four Questions”, a Pride production (LaMama); featured artist at The Public’s Civic Salon series & Artist-In-Residence at Guildhall (East Hampton). Aviva is a band member performing & recording with Arthur Moon, Dessa, Echo Bloom & Raia Was.

linktr.ee/avivajaye

PAUL PINTO | PERFORMER 

creates and performs multi-disciplinary opera-theater, installation and performance. Sometimes with his longtime friends thingNY and Varispeed. And sometimes alone in his bedroom. Some highlights include Patriots with Jeffrey Young, Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King, the cyclorama video installation Whiteness with Kameron Neal, an ongoing re-arrangement of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives, and his first opera Thomas Paine in Violence. He sang and danced on Broadway in Dave Malloy's Great Comet of 1812, and created many tiny performances during the pandemic for Zoom, headphones and the U.S. mail. He’s currently creating a hypermasculine monodrama Mano a Mano, directed by Kristin Marting. A child of immigrants, born and raised in Richmond Hill, Queens, Paul now proudly calls Jersey City his home, because that's where his wife, child, dog and vegetable garden are. pfpinto.com

MASHA TSIMRING | LIGHTING DESIGNER

Masha Tsimring (Lighting Designer) Off Broadway: Six Characters (LCT3); Staff Meal (Playwrights Horizons); Grief Hotel (Clubbed Thumb); Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Playwrights Horizons/Abrons Art Center); Terce (PROTOTYPE); Self Portraits (Bushwick Starr); Montag (Soho Rep). Regional: English (Barrington Stage Company); Eternal Life, Part 1 (The Wilma); The Appointment (Lightning Rod Special); Vietgone (Guthrie); Tick Tick…Boom! (Portland Center Stage); Dance/Opera: Me. You. We. They. (LA Dance Project); Deepe Darknesse (Lisa Fagan/Lena Engelstein); The Hunt (Miller Theater); Rodelinda (Hudson Hall); Der Freischütz (Wolf Trap Opera). She is a proud member of USA829. More info at www.mashald.com. 

HIDENORI NAKAJO | SOUND DESIGNER

A New York-based award-winning sound designer. Off Broadway & NYC: Molly Sweeney (Irish Rep), Still (Colt Coeur), The Life & Slimes of Marc Summers (New World Stages), The Creeps (Playhouse 46), OCTET (Signature, Obie Award, Drama Desk nom., Lucille Lortel nom., Henry Hewes Design Awards nom.), Autumn Royal (Irish Rep, Drama Desk nom., Henry Hewes Design Awards nom.), mɔːnɪŋ [morning// mourning] by Gelsey Bell (PROTOTYPE Festival), Dodi & Diana (Colt Coeur), Regional: The Subject Was Roses (Bay Street Theatre),  OCTET (Berkeley Rep), Moby Dick (A.R.T., Elliot Norton Award), Guys & Dolls (Guthrie), Still (Dorset Theatre Festival), Other World (Delaware Theater Company), Hold These Truths (People’s Light), Into the Burrow, A Peter Rabbit Tale (Alliance, GA), A Gift of Love with Adam McKnight (Alliance, GA). Broadway Associate: Camelot, The Kite Runner, The Front Page. Broadway Assistant: The Lightning Thief, Be More Chill, Allegiance, Gigi. Tour Associate: The Kite Runner (North American Tour), My Fair Lady (NE Tour). Music Composition: he recently made international theatre debut as composer for New Renaissance In Paris -Pyramid of 1989 in Tokyo Japan.

KATIE SCIBELLI | TOURING STAGE MANAGER 

Katie Scibelli is a Stage Manager and designer/technician from Staten Island, NY. Management credits include The How and the Why with Good Egg Theater, the 2023 TYA tour of Ellis Island: Gateway to a Dream with Sundog Theatre, and the last three annual Night of Covenant House Stars galas for Covenant House International, in addition to various other plays, musicals, workshops, and virtual productions with En Garde Arts, thisIZZit Productions, Ghostlight Players, Son of Semele, Camarillo Skyway Playhouse, and The Tank. As a Scenic Assistant/Draftsman, she has worked with Arizona Theatre Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, En Garde Arts, and HERE, among others. She holds a BA in Drama from Vassar College.
 

The mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] world premiere production was presented at the 2023 PROTOTYPE Festival, and was commissioned, developed and produced by HERE Arts Center through the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP). The development of mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

SPECIAL THANKS:

Thank You: Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Justin Hicks, Kristin Marting, Amanda Szeglowski, PROTOTYPE Festival, Wednesday Sue Derrico, Aoife Hough, Allie Posner, Josh Northcutt, Steven Brenman, Alena Thomas, Sam Morreale, Mona Damian, Aliza Simons // Henry Street Studio, Christina Tang, Yulanda Yo-Rong Shieh, Annie Hoeg, Susanne Houstle, Kelton DuMont, Dave Malloy, Irondale Arts Center, Culture Lab NYC, Edjo Wheeler + Tanis Sirois, and Jeffrey Wood; and of course Jennifer Harrison Newman, Rob Chikar, Daria Marie Walcott, Chris Norris, and the Schwarzman Center and Peabody Museum staff!