Just up Los Feliz Blvd across from the beloved entrance to Griffith Park is an incredible place that dedicates itself to the preservation and study of esoterica, spiritual periphery and the mysterious. Its a pretty wonderful place and the host to Hell Prepared, Theatre Dybbuk’s latest creation exploring Jewish Folklore and myth. This time, our focus was the “Tofteh Arukh," which is a dramatic poem written in the 17th century from within the Jewish ghettos of Italy by mystic Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto. From Theatre Dybbuk’s website
“Enter the gates of the Venice Ghetto of the 17th century and go on a journey of dominance, separation, and survival that spirals down through the pits of Gehenna. hell prepared: a ritual exorcism inspired by kabbalistic principles, performed within a dominant cultural context takes place in multiple locations on the campus of the Philosophical Research Society, allowing you to be immersed in the secluded world of the Ghetto and dissolve into places beyond the corporeal.
“Featuring a landscape of choreographed movement, poetic text, shadow puppetry, and choral scoring, hell prepared follows a spiritual leader as he endeavors to exorcise the dominant culture and its influence on his world. In the process, he is driven down through the pits of hell where he sees visions of a challenging past and an uncertain future.
“The performance incorporates choreography by Kai Hazelwood, shadow work and production design by Leslie K. Gray, and a live vocal score composed by Fahad Siadat in collaboration with Michael Jay Skloff. The production is written and directed by theatre dybbuk's artistic director, Aaron Henne, and was developed with the ensemble. The play features a cast of three performing alongside a vocal sextet.”
Martin Carrillo Sound Designs the show using MM4’s arranged as a center array on either side of the alley with a surround array of quad UPJ-1P … panning actor and singer voices as well as voice of the spirits… See Hell Prepared at the University of Philosophical Research through August 4th 2019
Panning, Playback and Cue programming
Photo by Taso Papadakis