Mikel Rouse

Failing Kansas New Zealand Festival 2002

The 2002 performances of Failing Kansas at the New Zealand Festival created a scandal and ultimately a sensation. Credited with knocking Osama bin Laden off of the front page of the National newspaper and dominating TV and radio for days, the piece was ultimately a sold out triumph heralded as “A New Art Form." Now, almost twenty years later, Rouse has assembled the original footage and live recordings into a complete concert film.

The Demo World Premiere Bing Concert Hall 2015

World premiere of "The Demo," a music theater work written by composer/performers Mikel Rouse and Ben Neill based on Douglas Engelbart’s historic 1968 demonstration of early computer technology. Engelbart’s 1968 demo rolled out virtually everything that would define modern computing; videoconferencing, hyperlinks, networked collaboration, digital text editing, and something called a “mouse.” The Demo re-imagines Engelbart’s historic demonstration as a technologically-infused music theater piece, a new form of hybrid performance.

The Demo Krannert Center Workshop 2014

2014 performance of "The Demo," a music theater work written by composer/performers Mikel Rouse and Ben Neill based on Douglas Engelbart’s historic 1968 demonstration of early computer technology. Engelbart’s 1968 demo rolled out virtually everything that would define modern computing; videoconferencing, hyperlinks, networked collaboration, digital text editing, and something called a “mouse.” The Demo re-imagines Engelbart’s historic demonstration as a technologically-infused music theater piece, a new form of hybrid performance.

Mikel Rouse at National Sawdust

Retrospective concert with special guest Jeff McErlain at National Sawdust on April 29, 2017.

Dennis Cleveland Luminato Festival 2008

The Canadian premiere of Mikel Rouse's multimedia opera Dennis Cleveland at the 2008 Luminato Festival.

Metronome: Community Spread

A short film music album hybrid for the Metronome project by Mikel Rouse.

Gravity Radio

A live performance film of Mikel Rouse's song cycle Gravity Radio at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2010.

Music For Minorities

This is the small feature film that formed the integrated backdrop for the live performance/music piece. As abstract images and sound combine with the various stories and insights of the subjects interviewed, an illustration of memory is created. Seemingly unrelated video images merge with the images of the storytellers to create a common thread: the views of the Silent Minority.

Dennis Cleveland

A 2002 live performance of Mikel Rouse's Dennis Cleveland, a multimedia opera set entirely on a television talk show in the late 20th century.

The End of Cinematics

Drawing on the richness of the good old days of cinema with live music and a thoroughly modern, “hyper-real” film experience with multiple screens and surround sound, The End of Cinematics examines the 21st-century phenomenon of viewing media content in fragmented form. From channel surfing to MTV to formulaic Hollywood films and sitcoms, we’re accustomed to—and adept at—filling in the details of storylines, of grasping an idea and determining its conclusion.

Funding

Vivian, Roe, JJ, Ines and a mysterious French man through a 20 year musical memory of New York City. As people and places in their lives drift away, visual impressions meld with sound and narrative stories to reveal a complex yet moving tableau. As the characters recall their own personal histories, conflicting images reveal their past, present and future.

The Perth Production of a Talk Show Opera

This is a documentary produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and directed by Kevin Firkins. This documentary coincided with the production of the talk show opera Dennis Cleveland at the Octagon Theatre as part of the 2001 Perth International Arts Festival.