David Byrne Creates Custom Lenticular Art and New Music in Support of THEATER OF THE MIND World Premiere

In conjunction with the premiere of the immersive production Theater of the Mind, co-created by creator of the Broadway hit American Utopia, David Byrne, and writer Mala Gaonkar, Byrne has created a series of seven lenticular artwork images in five editions and a short piece of new music to coincide with the production.

The lenticular proceeds benefit Denver Center for the Performing Arts Off-Center and Arbutus, Byrne's non-profit which celebrates, re-presents and amplifies ideas found in surprising places, ensuring that our picture of the world contains the joy that it should, and is accessible to everyone. "I wanted to create works for the lobby of Theater of the Mind that would embody the themes touched on in the show," he says. "In this case, malleable identity. We're constantly changing. Do we even have a fixed self? I realized I could do this with lenticulars. I took photo portraits of the band members and crew of American Utopia and combined three different faces in each lenticular. Depending on where you stand when looking at one of these, you will see different faces, and sometimes more than one face at the same time. Folks who have seen them find them a bit surprising and also a little disturbing. I like that."

The lenticulars are available for purchase arbutus.world/theater-of-the-self/.

Theater of the Mind was originally scheduled to debut in summer 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The production takes place in a 15,000-square-foot historic warehouse within the adaptive reuse campus of York Street Yards in Denver's Clayton neighborhood. Theater of the Mind takes audience members through an immersive journey of self-reflection, discovery, and imagination, inspired by and grounded in neuroscience. Theater of the Mind is led by a Guide, whose stories are inspired by the creators' lives. Audiences explore how they perceive the world through sensory experiments that reveal the inner mysteries of the brain.

"I hope participants will be as surprised by these experiences as I have been - it really is a new kind of theater," says Byrne, who also composed a short piece of new music for Theater of the Mind that attendees will hear as a recording while they experience the production in person. This music is now available for streaming ontheateroftheminddenver.com/about.

For more information and tickets to Theater of the Mind, visit theateroftheminddenver.com.

ABOUT OFF-CENTER

Off-Center produces unexpected theatrical experiences that put the audience at the center of the story. What began in 2010 as a small theatrical test kitchen has grown into a signature line of programming for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, credited with bringing immersive theatre to Colorado and helping establish Denver as a national hub for immersive art.

Among Off-Center's large-scale productions that have garnered local and national praise are: Sweet & Lucky created with New York-based Third Rail Projects, Camp Christmas with artist Lonnie Hanzon, The Last Defender with The House Theatre of Chicago, Perception featuring live music by Tom Hagerman of DeVotchKa, and a 360-degree staging of The Wild Party. With support from the Doris Duke and Wallace foundations, Off-Center has been recognized as a leader in developing new programming that attracts new audiences. Through Off-Center, the DCPA is the only professional regional theatre in the country regularly developing and producing large-scale immersive and experiential work. www.denvercenter.org

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