Ikaros

“a meditation on humankind’s eternal desire to take wing.”

San Diego Union-Tribune

“The Point Loma Pause as Art… Exquisite visual imagery, every-gesture-counts dance, and an evocative recorded sound score… performed with impeccable clarity… Even pedestrian moves convey a sophisticated choreographic intelligence.”

– Janice Sternberg, San Diego Story

About Ikaros

La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls (WOW) Festival, San Diego, CA (2019)

Commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse for the 2019 Without Walls Festival, Ikaros is an experiential collection of dreams, myth, film, poetry, dance, and performance. It is an audience-centered walking tour through a desert garden path, located on the grounds of a former naval base under the active sky of a nearby airport. Images of Icarus and Earhart, the fragrance of rosemary, and the flight patterns and roar of the engines above fold into one another to become a rite of passage that follows a cartography of flight, failure, recovery.

" … inspires conversation and contemplation… I couldn't stop thinking about it after I saw it.” – E.H. Reiter, BroadwayWorld

“There’s a depth of precision to Third Rail’s choreography that few others dare match, and that’s on display here in abundance.” – Noah Nelson, No Proscenium

Collaborators

  • Tom Pearson

  • Zach Morris

  • Jennine Willett

  • Andrew Broaddus

  • Justin Lynch

  • Mary Madsen

  • Sean Hagerty

  • Isaiah Singer

  • Bennett C. Taylor

  • David Mancini

  • Brittany Crowell

  • Taylor Hollister

Bios

  • Tom Pearson (Writer, Director, Choreographer) is a multi-media artist: a poet, choreographer, performance and visual artist, director, and filmmaker, known primarily for his original works for theater, including the long-running immersive theater hits Then She Fell and The Grand Paradise, and as a founder and co-artistic director of the New York City-based performance company Third Rail Projects. He is also director and curator for the Global Performance Studio (GPS), a program for cultural listening and exchange.

    His work combines material culture and audience-centered narratives, taking the form of mixed-media projects that employ theater, art, choreography, and poetry as well as ceremony, artifact, and mythos to craft interactive experiences. He draws on a background in performance studies, archetypal and scientific psychology, dream practices, ritual, and ceremony.

    Learn More…

  • Zach Morris (Contributing Director) is a director, choreographer and Co-Artistic Director of the internationally acclaimed Third Rail Projects. Zach is co-creator of the immersive theater hits Then She Fell, The Grand Paradise, Sweet & Lucky with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and Ghost Light at Lincoln Center Theater’s Claire Tow Theater, among others. Zach's work includes theater, dance, site-specific performance, multimedia installation art/environments, and he is particularly interested in how all of these can intersect with audience-centered experiential gatherings. Zach has been honored with numerous awards, including a Chita Rivera award, two BESSIE awards; projects he has collaborated on have garnered a Drama Desk Nomination, a Peabody Award, and an Emmy Award. His work has been presented nationally and internationally with the support of numerous grants, commissions, and residencies, and he has had the pleasure of teaching, mentoring, and creating new platforms to support the work of artists at home and abroad. Zach holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University.

  • Jennine Willett (Contributing Director) is a director, choreographer, writer, and educator. Her prominent co-creations include Then She Fell, The Grand Paradise, Ghost Light at Lincoln Center Theater’s Claire Tow Theater, and Learning Curve, a collaboration with Chicago’s acclaimed youth ensemble Albany Park Theater Project (APTP) named one of the Top Ten Shows of 2016 by the Chicago Tribune, Time Out Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Most recently, she co-directed and designed the immersive experience of Port of Entry, Third Rail’s second collaboration with APTP, currently running in Chicago. Jennine has been honored with a BESSIE Award for Then She Fell and a Chita Rivera Award for Ghost Light, and she was part of the creative team of the virtual reality film Wolves in the Walls by Fable Studio, winner of both Peabody and Emmy awards. Jennine teaches courses for numerous academic institutions and arts organizations nationally and internationally. She looks for ways to transport and connect audiences by exploring relatable life experiences, hoping to build human connections and mutual understanding through performance. Jennine holds an MFA degree from Florida State University in Performance and Choreography.

  • Andrew Broaddus (Performer) graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in dance and has been performing in New York for the past 15 years. He toured the fringe circuit in 2022 with The Stakeout before reprising the role at Off-Broadway’s The SoHo Playhouse. He’s played several roles in the immersive shows Then She Fell, Ikaros, and other works by Third Rail Projects, as well as SoHo Playhouse’s Tammany Hall. In his spare time he enjoys brushing up on his Mandarin, singing Georgian folk music, and writing Dungeons and Dragons adventures.

  • Justin Lynch (Performer) is from Kingston, Jamaica and studied piano performance at the Royal College of Music in London and Boston University. As a dancer, he has worked with Elisa Monte, David Parker/The Bang Group, Christopher Williams, Nicole Wolcott, the Metropolitan Opera and others, and for the past several years has performed as a dancer, actor and pianist with Third Rail Projects, including its long-running shows Then She Fell and The Grand Paradise. He has presented his own work in NYC and Vienna, and was a 2017 danceWEB Scholar at the ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival. A graduate of Columbia Law School, he leads a double life as an immigration and business attorney for artists and other creative people.

    (Photo by Berette Macaulay)

  • Mary Madsen (Performer) is a dance artist based in NYC. Originally from Wisconsin, she holds a BFA in dance from the University of Milwaukee-WI. She has been an avid member of the NYC Dance community for 18 years. Throughout her career, she has had the pleasure of working with many dance companies and choreographers. Mary currently works with Third Rail Projects and was proud to be a performer and rehearsal director for their Bessie award-winning show, Then She Fell (closed in 2020). From time to time, Mary creates solo performance works and dance films. In past years Mary has had the pleasure of working with: Jody Oberfelder, Becky Radway, Megan Bascom, the Resonance Collective, Elia Mrak (Seattle), Regina Nejman, Kelly Anderson (Chicago), David Appel Dance, Rebollar Dance Theater (D.C.), Simone Ferro (Milwaukee), and others. In addition to performing, Mary has invested in deep practice and study of improvisation.

  • Sean Hagerty (Composer) is a sound designer, composer, and violinist based in NYC. With Third Rail Projects, he's created immersive soundtracks for Then She Fell (Bessie Award), Ghost Light (Lincoln Center), The Grand Paradise, Ikaros (La Jolla), Midsummer: A Banquet, Sweet and Lucky (DCPA), Behind the City, Confection (Folger Shakespeare Library), Roadside Attraction, Oasis (Brookfield Place), and the documentary film Between Yourself and Me. Other shows include Hit the Body Alarm (Performing Garage), the off-Broadway revival of Around the World in 80 Days (Davenport Theater), The Wild Party (DCPA), Hound of the Baskervilles (Weston Playhouse), and 66 one act plays with the Actors Studio Drama School. seanhagerty.com

  • Isaiah Singer (Collaborative Musician) grew up surrounded by music: he passed the hat at the cable car turnaround at Ghirardelli Square while his father played the concertina on a slack rope; his mother ran the children’s choir. His early projects included solo folk recordings with harmonica and acoustic guitar, attending open mics around the SF Bay Area.

    Fast forward to New York in his 20s, where he found himself playing with Genesis P-Orridge in Psychic TV. Later bands included incendiary garage punk rockers Snatch Attack and the chamber-punk trio (sometimes octet) Freedom Haters, who played one of the last shows at CBGB before it fell victim to the ravages of fashion.

    Over the past ten years, Singer has been collaborating with composer/violinist Sean Hagerty and the Third Rail Projects theater company on shows including the ground-breaking off-Broadway immersive hit Then She Fell and Ghost Light at Lincoln Center.

    Recent sync film credits include “Numbers on the Door” which appears in the experimental film The Night Garden presently making the rounds of film festivals with Best Experimental Short Film awards from the Roma, London, Toronto, and Tokyo Film Festivals, to name a few.

  • Bennett C. Taylor (Wing Design) is a graduate of of Olin College of Engineering, an experienced designer and fabricator, and a passionate member of the artistic community. With applied knowledge in fields from theatrical design to thermal modeling, he is happiest engaging in tasks calling for both critical and creative thinking.

  • Dave Mancini (Dramaturg and Assistant Stage Manager) is a doctoral student at UC Santa Barbara (Theater and Dance). He holds a Bachelor of Fine Art in Directing from Chapman University and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre with a Directing emphasis from the University of South Dakota. As a student he received multiple awards for meritorious achievement in directing from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

    He has worked with the Old Globe, Pasadena Playhouse and Center Theatre Group as a director, assistant director and production assistant. Production credits include “The Sunshine Boys” with Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsh, “Art” with Roger Bart and Bradley Whitford, and “One Night With Janis Joplin” with Mary Bridget Davies which toured nationally and then made its Broadway debut garnering Ms. Davies a Tony nomination.

    Dave has a background in play development working on new plays and musicals for the Pasadena Playhouse, TE San Pedro Repertory, Ensemble Studio Theatre and Theatre @ Boston Court. In addition to his work with repertory theatres he has toured his one-woman adaptation of “Venus and Adonis” to the United Solo Festival in New York as well as a run at the Independent Shakespeare Company in Los Angeles. His latest work was the West Coast Premier of Anthony Neilson’s “Normal” which ran at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and was nominated for best ensemble and best horror piece. It also earned a Broadway World nomination for best local theatre production in Los Angeles.

    His main research interests center on immersive theatre and its multiplicity of iterations, especially in exploration of audience agency and actor-less narrative. David is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society as well as Actors Equity.

  • Brittany Crowell (Production Manager) is a theater artist and administrator. Brittany has worked as a producer, production manager and stage manager with many companies, including: The TRUF, The Bower Group, Tinker’s Collective, Oscar + Lottie, [CENSORED] Collective, and Anthill Productions. Administratively, she has worked as the Management Coordinator at the revitalized Bucks County Playhouse and as Executive Assistant to Producer, Jill Furman. She currently serves as the Managing Director of Crashbox Theater Company

  • Taylor Hollister’s (Production Stage Manager) stage management credits include Looking for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, NYFA's Sweeney Todd, and Third Rail Project's Ikaros.

Credits

La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls (WOW) Festival presents Ikaros by Tom Pearson

World Premiere, a La Jolla Playhouse Commission

Creative Team

Written, Directed, and Choreographed by Tom Pearson
Contributing Directors: Zach Morris and Jennine Willett

Created in Collaboration with the Performers:
Andrew Broaddus, Justin Lynch, Mary Madsen

Additional Text: Zach Morris
Original Music and Sound Design: Sean Hagerty
Collaborative Musician: Isaiah Singer
Voice-overs: Andrew Broaddus, Justin Lynch, Mary Madsen
Vocalist: Andrew Broaddus

Lighting Design: Zach Morris, with Tom Pearson
Costume Design: Tom Pearson, with Jennine Willett
Wing Design: Bennett C. Taylor
Dramaturgy: David Mancini

Production Staff

Production Manager: Brittany Crowell
Production Stage Manager: Taylor Hollister
Assistant Stage Manager: David Mancini
Lighting Consultant: Lutin Tanner
Stitcher & Costume Consultant: Anna-Alisa Belous
Production Assistants: Noah Fusco, Shannon Humiston, Bennett C. Taylor

Project Support

COMMISSION & FUNDING
Ikaros was commissioned and presented by La Jolla Playhouse as part of the 2019 Without Walls Festival. Ikaros received development support from the Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut; from the Bogliasco Foundation in Liguria, Italy with a Residency Fellowship in Theatre; and through the Sketch Model program at Olin College of Engineering where Tom Pearson was the 2019-2020 Artist in Reference; through a major individual contribution from Kyle Fisher; and from the Third Rail Projects Producers Circle, which is supported by individual donors.

Special thanks to David Margolin Lawson, who engineered the voice-over sessions at Pace University.

lkaros was also supported by New Music USA: https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/ikaros

SPECIAL THANKS:
Renata Zhigulina, Cullan M. Riley, Fiona Coffey, Rani Arbo, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, J.T. Garrett, Sara Hendren

REPRESENTATION
Paradigm Talent Agency, Jack Tantleff and Allison Schwartz

PRODUCTION LEGAL COUNSEL
Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, P.C., Mark A. Merriman, Esq. and Helen Reeves, Esq.

ACCOUNTANT
Egan Tax & Books Ltd, Becky Egan, CPA

Press Coverage

All Press Coverage

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE | Review | October 19, 2019
”Highlights of the Without Walls Festival” by Pam Kragen
“a meditation on humankind’s eternal desire to take wing.” – San Diego Union-Tribune

BROADWAYWORLD (San Diego) | Review | October 19, 2019 |
“BWW Review: WITHOUT WALLS FESTIVAL at La Jolla Playhouse - PDA, TALL TALE OF THE HIGH SEAS, INCLUSION, & IKAROS” by E.H. Reiter
" … inspires conversation and contemplation… I couldn't stop thinking about it after I saw it.”

SAN DIEGO STORY | Review | October 21, 2019
“The Point Loma Pause as Art: Ikaros at the WOW Festival” by Janice Sternberg
“… Exquisite visual imagery, every-gesture-counts dance, and an evocative recorded sound score… performed with impeccable clarity… Even pedestrian moves convey a sophisticated choreographic intelligence.”

NO PROSCENIUM | Review | October 23, 2019
“We Don’t Need Walls Where We’re Going: 2019 Without Walls Festival Diary: San Diego’s Liberty Station became ground zero for groundbreaking work” by Noah Nelson
“There’s a depth of precision to Third Rail’s choreography that few others dare match, and that’s on display here in abundance.”

OLIN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING | Feature | October 22, 2019
”Olin’s Second Creative in Reference Takes Flight with Help from Olin Students”, Special to Olin

KPBS SAN DIEGO | Interview | October 16, 2019
Interview with Tom Pearson by KPBS Public Media

La Jolla Playhouse’s 2019 Without WallS (WOW) Festival Trailer

DOWNLOAD FULL WOW FESTIVAL PRESS RELEASE