World Premiere of Artist Suzanne Bocanegra’s First Person Shooter At OSU on May 20

World Premiere of Artist Suzanne Bocanegraʼs First Person Shooter At OSU on May 20
A Participatory Performance Event and Hallucinogenic Channeling of the Battle of Marathon

Artist Suzanne Bocanegra's First Person Shooter will have its world premiere on Friday, May 20th, 3:30PM in
The Ohio State University's Plumb Hall Agricultural Arena. The performance is presented by The Ohio State
University Department of Art Living Culture Initiative in collaboration with the School of Music, the Department
of Dance and the Department of Greek and Latin.

First Person Shooter is conceived in response to the historic environment of the Plumb Hall Agricultural Arena
as well as the 2500th anniversary of the Greek Battle of Marathon. This participatory performance features the
OSU Percussion Ensemble; an original score by Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang; dancers from
the OSU Department of Dance; The University Chorus; and an ancient Greek Chorus from the Department of
Greek and Latin.

All First Person Shooter attendees will be active vocal participants. The performance commences with a
training session for the audience to learn their part. From there a hallucinogenic channeling of the Battle of
Marathon ensues through an intense duration of hollering and percussion against a hellfire backdrop of lighting.

The OSU Percussion Ensemble and trained dancers will accompany the audienceʼs yelling/cheering/hollering
throughout the event. The percussion ensemble will perform a score composed by David Lang employing a
vast array of military and minimalist beats.

“In a battle, or in a ball, all attendees are participants. Some are professionals and highly trained, while others are
quickly and haphazardly trained on the fly. All are necessary to the battle, the ball. Iʼm interested in mimicking this
structure, combining practiced performers with novices.” ⎯Suzanne Bocanegra

“Music and sound moves in a way that can be undetected. It moves our bodies and it moves our spirit. It is amoral,
it is surreptitious. It can be used to trigger emotions and excitement. Or calm and peace. The first sign of an
approaching army is the sound of its drums. The beat is used to coordinate movement and communicate strategy.
It is also effective in instilling courage. In the heat of battle, the beat of the drum, detached and ethereal, took on a
spiritual quality, helping combatants to distance themselves from the horror and suffering all around.” ⎯Suzanne
Bocanegra

First Person Shooter is one of three events that comprise a mini-festival on the Ohio State University campus.
All First Person Shooter Events are Free and Open to the Public.
 

On Wednesday, May 18 at 8:00 p.m. in Weigel Auditorium, The Johnstone Fund for New Music will
present a free concert with Pulitzer-Prize-winning Composer David Lang.
 

This one-hour surge of postmodern music will serve as a retrospective of Langʼs most riveting works,
including Cheating, Lying, Stealing for bass clarinet, cello, piano, and three percussionists; Heroin for
voice and cello with video footage of Lou Reed by Doug Aitken; so called laws of nature for four
percussionists; Press Release for solo bass clarinet; revolutionary etudes for saxophone quartet; lend
lease for piccolo and percussion; Born to be Wild for solo percussionist; and Table of Contents for two
percussionists.
 

Participating musicians include members of the OSU New Music Collective, the OSU Percussion Ensemble,
and the Pendulum Duo (Joseph Krygier and Susan Powell).

Weigel Hall is located at 1866 College Road on the Ohio State University Campus. Parking is available in the nearby Ohio Union North Parking Garage.
 

On Thursday, May 19 from 12:00p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the Sound Stage at Haskett Hall, The
Department of Art will present War Room, a programmed day of lectures, workshops, and a marathon
drum solo. The dayʼs events will feature a workshop led by Suzanne Bocanegra from 12:00-1:00PM and
an open choral rehearsal directed by David Lang from 1:30-2:30PM.

Haskett Hall is located at 156 W. 19th Avenue on the Ohio State University campus. The building is also accessible
by an entrance on Woodruff Avenue. Parking is available in the nearby Tuttle Park Place Parking Garage.

Suzanne Bocanegra is an artist living and working in New York City. A recipient of the Rome Prize, she has
received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Tiffany Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the
National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
 

Her recent work involves large-scale performance and installation, frequently translating two dimensional
information, images and ideas from the past into three dimensional scenarios for staging, movement, ballet and
music.
 

Bocanegra's piece "Rerememberer," uses the weaving instructions for a scrap of antique Danish peasant fabric as
a template for an evening-length theatrical performance, with an amplified loom, an accordion virtuoso, a dj, and an
orchestra of fifty volunteers playing violin who have been taught to play only one hour before the performance.
"Rerememberer" was premiered at the Judson Memorial Church in New York City this past January and traveled to
Copenhagen in June 2010 and will be performed in Odense in November of 2011.
 

Her piece" Suzanne Bocanegra: an Artist Talk Starring Paul Lazar" premiered at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC
in May 2010 and traveled to the Wexner Center and the Tang Museum. This piece will be in workshop at The
Performing Garage, NYC in November/December 2010 and had a theatrical run at The Chocolate Factory, NYC in
April of 2011.
 

Bocanegra's work has been seen in exhibitions in the United States and abroad, in such venues as the Serpentine
Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Hayward Gallery in London, the Armand Hammer Museum in Los
Angeles and the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia. Her theatrical, video and film work has been presented at the
Bang on Can Festival, the New Haven Festival of Art and Ideas, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and as part
of the Wordless Music series in New York.
 

A major show of Bocanegra's work titled "I Write the Songs" opened at the Tang Museum in July 2010. This show
will be traveling to Site Santa Fe in the summer of 2011.
 

www.suzannebocanegra.com
 

photos: ©Peter Serling, 2011

Directions to Plumb Hall:
Plumb Hall is located just off of Woody Hayes Drive at 2027 Coffey Road on the Ohio State University
Campus.

“Pay and Display” Parking is available in the A, B, & C lots located between Coffey Road and Olentangy
River Road, south of Plumb Hall.
 

Plumb Hall is also accessible by Campus Bus (CABS) Service. Take Campus Loop North or South, or
North Express and exit at the Ag Campus stop.
 

For more information regarding the Ohio State University parking and transportation, please visit:
www.tp.ohio-state.edu/