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Reviews for: THE MOTH PROJECT
A feast for the eyes and ears
An immersive experience with bright, projected video and live music. And story. It reminded me of what you might [typically] see as part of the Walker Art Center's "Out There" performance series. I caught the show as the last of my schedule for the day and it was the perfect way to top off the evening.
Fringers should note that the venue (2213 Snelling, Mpls) is right off Franklin and very close to the West Bank cluster of venues -- not as far away as it might "feel." I arrived in plenty of time for the show, miscalculating how close Red Eye now is. There's a parking lot out front and plenty of street parking so don't let the location deter you from seeing this polished, entertaining, relaxing & enjoyable show.
Strange and wonderful
A chance to revel in the natural beauty of moths with live music and some storytelling? Yes please! The music is eclectic and beautiful - a special shout out to the violinist. The whole show is a delight for the senses and a playful way to ponder our place in the natural world. Recommend!
Big Potential/Needs Work
Everyone loves butterflies but most people don't care about moths. This show makes you think about moths in a new way. The author compares key aspects of moths life to his own lived experienes and it is very compelling. There a three huge movie screens that are supposed to help move the story along. The two side screens are showing a night sky and the center screen is showing images of moths and elements visulations of the story. There is live music component where the author is part dj/playing the piano with an amazing violinist who is also on stage. Each component by itself is amazing. The music is amazing. The images are stunning. The story is compelling. But all together it doesn't really work. The most important part is the story. At times the music and images distract from the story. This would be more effective if it was stripped down and reimagined. The author on stage by himself telling his story with at most 20 pictures of moths on the screen.
Moth moth moth
We saw an exclusive artists-only taping of Moth Project and really liked it! The violinist is so talented !! Another great work from Peter and Whitney, my favorite moth projectionists
A thematic concert
Hope more people can make time to check out this show.
Moths! Music!
A great show you should go and see! The projector setup was highly immersive and the violin was transcendent. Crisp, up close footage of very furry moths– exactly what I came here for! Emerge!
Punchy Music, Visuals; a Wing-Dusting of Heart
Despite the nature of The Moth Project—an experimental(ish) concert that runs for ninety minutes, comprised of playful digital beats, keys, and excellent violin—something human and personal is woven into a concept that could've felt quite thin. Stories of childhood, immigration, and mortality don't always gel perfectly with its overarching theme (moths), but they comprise a spine that connects audience and performers in an earnest way.
If you're coming for presentation, The Moth Project has a pretty striking execution: three massive screens with everchanging visuals and perfectly struck cues. Having experienced this opening night on a Thursday, the crowd was relatively small, perhaps more nervous about taking up the musicians' request to leave their seats for the dance floor; I can easily imagine this kind of engagement contributing massively to the fun, should attendees become more receptive later into its run.
If you're coming for the music, you'll likely be entertained. It's catchy, straightforwardly danceable, and diverse in its sound. Not every aforementioned anecdote (primarily childhood and immigration) landed completely when it came to marrying mothy-ness in the songwriting, but the attempt to convey them while having a good time was always admirable. Coming from a musical background, one where lyricism was prioritized above all, I was often left wishing the depth of those personal stories had been brought more transparently into the text. In this particular area, my favorite two tracks came from moments of unique openness: first a song dedicated to a dream about the performer's brother after his passing, and then a ridiculous mashup of classical music, Virginia Woolf's posthumous "The Death of a Moth," and lyrics from a KISS song he misheard as a child. There was still a thread of humor present here, predominantly in the latter, but I found their sentiment to be achingly beautiful. A handful of moments became stuck to my mind, and though I originally intended to approach the performers after the show, their impact had me a bit speechless, so I left wordlessly instead. By contrast, although enjoyably silly, the tunes about moths having sex didn't do as much for me.
Might catch this one again in the fever crawl of Fringe. It was a nice way to kick off this year's round of shows, easily imaginable as a way to close it out sweetly as well.
Cool! Moths 🤠
Really cool show that everyone should see! If you violins and moths this is for you!
Immersive indeed
Great live music timed with video and inter mixed with story telling and crazy visuals, all about moths and life .
Cast and Crew
Peter Kiesewalter
keyboards
Whitney La Grange
violin
Tony Bublitz
technician
Sarah Bauer
stage manager
More Information
Two brothers, a biologist and a musician, spend summer 2020 in quarantine together with their six collective children at the family cottage in Canada. Through the ritual of evening campfires, a thread of an idea emerges that weaves together their combined worlds – art and science, myth and fact, music and moths. A few years and a Canada Council for the Arts grant later, The MOTH PROJECT is bringing their show to the Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis with a NEW expanded version of the show - with 3 screens of visuals and a booty-shaking AfterParty.
CLICK here for more info, videos, images at mothprojectlive.com
Is the show eco-theater? Transdisciplinary and multimedia performance art? “I didn’t understand those terms when I wrote the show,” says Peter Kiesewalter, a Grammy nominated and Emmy Award winning composer based in New York City, “but there does seem to be a movement among the arts that incorporates the themes of biodiversity and ecological awareness. I’d explain the show this way:
“The Moth Project is a 75 minute live show featuring two musicians – myself on keyboard and the violinist Whitney La Grange - performing a diverse range of music, from Bach to Joni Mitchell to KISS to original songs, while a stunning visual tour of macro photography, slow motion video, and dynamic motion graphics are projected onto us, transporting us and the audience to a strange and wonderful world. It is about and inspired by moths with a spoken word narrative arc about my family’s migration from post-war Germany to Canada in the1950’s.”
Recently featured on NPR’s popular weekly “Science Friday,” the show is resonating with both arts and science presenters and media. Kiesewalter continues “and we’re thrilled with the enthusiastic response from the biologists and photographers whose images have been entrusted to us.” But perhaps the most important endorsement has come from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the esteemed botanist, professor, recent MacArthur Fellow, best-selling author (“Braiding Sweetgrass”), and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, whose words and voice grace the piece “Reciprocity,” a song which asks the question “what can I gift the Earth in return for the privilege of breath?” The answer – pay attention, get to know your neighbors, and create transformative works of art.
