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The LIDA Project is a meta-media art collective with a strong emphasis on live performance. Their goal is to present works that experiment and challenge the structure and presentation of performance while strengthening culture, community, and artistic growth.
The name LIDA came from the following story.
“For over a decade, spanning the 1950′s and 1960′s, the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States sponsored experiments in extreme forms of mind control and behaviour modification. MK-Ultra (ultra mind control?) was the title of their most notorious covert program designed to develop and make operational technologies for disrupting and then reprogramming an individual’s habitual patterns of perception, thought, and action,
Meanwhile, Soviet scientists created a device that bombards the brain with low-frequency radio waves. These airborne waves can travel over distances and change the behaviour of animals and humans in their path. The low-frequency waves simulate the brain’s electromagnetic current and produce a trance-like state. The device known as LIDA, (pronounced lee-da) is described as having therapeutic value for cases of hypertension and neurotic disturbances. But such remote control makes possible some potentially frightening uses for altering the brain’s functioning.”
Philip G. Zimbardo
Mind Control: Political Fiction and Psychological Reality
Here is a short description of some of LIDA recent production...
The Soldier
The Soldier manoeuvres through a recent Iraq War veterans struggle to care for herself and her relationships while her PTSD and grief from the war spin into a sadistic health insurance game show. Directed by Tommy Sheridan with performances by Rhea Amos, Hart DeRose, Nancy Flanagan, Michelle Hurtubise, Madeleine Joyce, Heidi Pachner, Stefin Woolever, and Ryan Wuestewald.
The Addict
The Addict is a cyclical spiral of losing control and asking for help. It grapples with both tangible and systemic addictions and whether or not we have the agency to choose our paths. Directed by Kate Roselle and Kenny Storms with performances by Nancy Flanagan, Madeleine Joyce, Deanna Lowman, Heidi Pachner, Lorenzo Sariñana, and Stefin Woolever.
The Survivor
An exploration of how we grapple with death–both losing those we love and dealing with the knowledge of our own. Directed by Jaime Lujan with performances by Rhea Amos, Hart DeRose, Michelle Hurtubise, Madeleine Joyce, Lorenzo Sariñana, and Ryan Wuestewald.
The Middleman
An examination of the difficult choices that individuals have to make on health + care in a world of 7 billion people. Directed by Robin Davies with performances by Rhea Amos, Hart DeRose, Michelle Hurtubise, Heidi Pachner, and Ryan Wuestewald.
The Immigrant
An exploration of alternative medicine, cultural assimilation, and the red tape bureaucratic hoops we have to jump through. Directed by Brenda Cook Ritenour with performances by Hart DeRose, Michelle Hurtubise, Deanna Lowman, and Lorenzo Sariñana.
The Patient
The Patient is a poetic and lyrical exploration of the ins-outs ups downs of a person’s final moments and how hospice and its workers provide support to that person and their relatives. “What’s more important than our final moment,” one patient asks. Death responds, “Them.” Directed by Josh Hartwell with performances by Nancy Flanagan, Madeleine Joyce, Deanna Lowman, Heidi Pachner, and Stefin Woolever.
THE TEAM
Brian Freeland, Artistic Director
Rebecca Gorman O’Neill, Dramaturgy
Tonya Malik-Carson, Movement
Amelia Charter, Scenic Design
Laura Lounge, Production Assistant
Ensemble
Rhea Amos, Meg Chamberlain, Hart DeRose, Nancy Flanagan, Michelle Hurtubise, Madeleine Joyce, Sonia Justl, Deanna Lowman, Heidi Pachner, Lorenzo Sariñana, Stefin Woolever, Ryan Wuestewald.
2701 Lawrence Street
Denver, CO 80205
USA
phone: 720.221.3821
LIDA@lida.org
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.