BIRDHEART
Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane
with Philip Roebuck
Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane’s BIRDHEART – An intimate chamber piece of animated theatre with a sheet of brown paper and a box of sand. A show about transformation, loneliness, and the urge to fly, BIRDHEART holds a hand-mirror up to humanity and offers it a chair. Through a series of animated images built in front of the audiences’ eyes BIRDHEART creates something achingly beautiful from the humblest of beginnings.
The BIRDHEART performance is preceded by bird-themed songs performed by Saskia and Julian, and led by the extraordinary musician Philip Roebuck. Singing along is encouraged!
Creative Team:
Brooklyn-based SASKIA LANE is a Juilliard-trained bassist, composer, performer, puppeteer and educator. For nearly a decade, Saskia was an integral part of the renowned Salzburg Festival, lending her multifaceted skills as a musician, actor, and puppeteer to the cherished annual production of JEDERMANN. She is also a member of The Chekhov Project where she is both a resident composer and performer for site specific works. In addition to her life as a performer, Saskia composes and directs operas for the very young, OTOYOTOY, NOOMA,, and CAMILLE’S RAINBOW, premiered to great acclaim at the esteemed Carnegie Hall. Her fourth commission, HUDDLE, will have its premiere in the spring of 2025. Her work has received residencies at Park Avenue Armory, Watermill, St. Ann’s Warehouse, The New Victory Theater, and BRIC. A classically trained musician with a strong grounding in jazz, Saskia has appeared with artists as diverse as Jay-Z and Beyonce, Marc Ribot and the Kronos Quartet.
Julian Crouch is an independent mask maker, director, designer, librettist, illustrator and musician. He was a co founder of Improbable, and co-director and designer of Shockheaded Peter. Opera work includes The Egyptian Helena, Hansel and Gretel and Ernani for La Scala Opera, Milan and Cosi Fan Tutti and Falstaff for the Teatro Del Maggio, Florence. Satyagraha, The Enchanted Island, Doctor Atomic, Marnie for the English National Opera and the Met Opera. The Barber Of Seville for the Dutch National Opera. The Magic Flute the Welsh National Opera and King Arthur for the Berlin Staatsoper.. On Broadway he designed Little Shop of Horrors, The Addams Family Musical, Big Fish, Head Over Heels and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony Nomination). He co-directed, co-composed and designed Jedermann for the Salzburg Festival. Co-created The Aging Magician for BMP at the New Victory Theater. Designed The Nutcracker for Christopher Wheeldon and The Joffrey Ballet, Cinderella for the Dutch National and San Francisco Ballets. His production Birdheart played for the Dalai Lama in Brussels and has toured as far afield as Zimbabwe and Abu Dhabi. Julian was recently Artist in Residence at New York’s Park Avenue Armory and was the first commissioned artist for the BRIC House Fireworks Residency Program in Brooklyn, NY. He is currently a Libretto Fellow for the American Lyric Theater. Most recently he designed Orpheus In The Underworld for the Voksoper, Vienna.
Phillip Roebuck is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in NY. As a recording artist, he has made over a dozen albums, including five solo releases, and his songs appear on numerous film and television soundtracks. He frequently works in theater as a composer, musical director, and actor.