Crocus Hill Ghost Story
A collaboration between Zeitgeist, composer/flutist Julie Johnson, writer Cheri Johnson, and filmmaker/actor DJ Mendel, Crocus Hill Ghost Story is a macabre tale of a house possessed, accompanied by a wildly evocative and colorful score performed live by Zeitgeist, Johnson, and Mendel. Studio Z is transformed into a haunted Victorian mansion using real world set pieces, video, and projected images to tell the story of a Summit Avenue mansion with a disreputable past and unwelcome spirits.
Special guests: Members of the Twin Cities Paranormal Society will speak at performances of Crocus Hill Ghost Story on Saturday, Oct. 28 and Saturday, Nov. 4. Stick around after the production to learn about their work and hear their stories.
Regarding young audience members: Crocus Hill Ghost Story is based on adult themes and uses adult language. The show may not be appropriate for children under the age of 14. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us for more details about the content of the show.
About the Artists |
Flutist and composer Julie Johnson has a distinct sound and approach—rougher and more soulful than a typical classical sound, yet more pure than a typical jazz player's—that she brings to many multi-genre projects, including places where, she’s been told, the flute doesn’t belong. As a creator and a performer of new music, Julie’s work walks the line between composition and songwriting, art music and popular music, between genres as seemingly different as classical and blues. A finalist for the McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians and a winner of grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the American Composers Forum, the Lanesboro Arts Center, Springboard for the Arts, MacPhail Center for Music, MRAC, and a Banff Centre residency, she plays in many styles, working to bring both the flute and her audiences to music they haven’t been in contact with before.
Writer Cheri Johnson has received awards and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the McKnight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, Yaddo, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her poetry, fiction, plays, and reviews have been included in magazines such as The Hollins Critic, The Rio Grande Review, Pleiades, Glimmer Train Stories, Puerto del Sol, Cerise Press, New South, Phantasmagoria, The Emprise Review, and Provincetown Arts. She has studied writing at Augsburg College, Hollins University, University of Minnesota, and as a part of the Loft Literary Center Mentor Series, and she has taught writing at the University of Minnesota, Augsburg College, the International Music Camp Summer School of Fine Arts, and The Loft Literary Center, as well as through the SASE Wings program at Intermedia Arts.
D.J. Mendel is an actor, director, writer and filmmaker who has worked extensively with avant-garde theater-makers as well as emerging new writers, directors, and theater groups. His one man show, Dick Done Broke, was recently presented at the Bushwick Starr Theater and he most recently starred in the European Premiere of Elizabeth ou l'equity, which played at the prestigious Theatre du Rond Point in Paris. Mendel recently starred in Hal Hartley's feature film, Meanwhile, and other film roles include Richard Sylvarnesʼ The Cloud of Unknowing, and H.C.E (2007), both debuting at the Tribeca Film festival, and the title role in Salvatore Interlandiʼs critically acclaimed Charlie. As a director, Mendel has been a longtime collaborator with Cynthia Hopkins, directing many of her shows and others such as Daniel Bernard Roumainʼs Symphony for the Dance Floor and Darwins Meditation for the People of Lincoln, both premiering in NY at BAMʼs Next Wave festival. He has directed two feature films: Make Pretend (which he also wrote) and Planet Earth: Dreams, penned by Richard Foreman as well as many shorts, including the award winning, Crazy for The Ballet. His own plays, Tom, Dick & Harry and Dick Done Broke, were presented at The Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York and his play Exhaust Pipes and Manifolds was produced and presented by the Ground Floor Theater Lab. Mendel is also a professor at NYU's Tisch School for the Arts where he is the Head of Advanced Actor Training at Playwrights Horizon's Theater School.
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Crocus Hill Ghost Story is supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight Arts Challenge.Additional support is provided by The City of St. Paul’s Cultural STAR Program, the Jerome Foundation, the Lowertown Future Fund, and the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
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Thank you to our donors!
Robert Adney • Monica Allen • Alyssa Anderson • Lisa Arends • Barnhart Percussion Services • Margaret Barret • Barry Barringer • Heather Barringer • Jason & Kristen Barringer • Katherine Bergman • Philip Blackburn • Cheryl Brown • Paul Cantrell • Cheryl Caponi • Craig Carnahan • Pamela Hauschildt Desnick • Paul and Hong Dice • Steve Dietz • Lawrence Englund • Rolf Erdahl and Carrie Vecchione • Douglas Ewart • Tim Faricy • Jean Franzino • Larry Fuchsberg and Janika Vandervelde • David and Rosemary Good • Julie Haight-Curran • Carrie Henneman Shaw • Joan Hutton • Deb Hysack • Neal Karlen • Stanley Kaufman • Jane Mackenzie • Joyce Miyamoto • John Nuechterlein • Laurel Ogren • Pat and Merribeth O’Keefe • Neil and Gail Olszewski • Ronald Pentz • James Sanford • Jane Sevald • Craig and Nancy Sinard • Gale Sharpe • Tiffany Skidmore • Dan Sorensen • Nancy Sponaugle • Cynthia Stokes • Julie Stroud • Therese Weil
Robert Adney • Monica Allen • Alyssa Anderson • Lisa Arends • Barnhart Percussion Services • Margaret Barret • Barry Barringer • Heather Barringer • Jason & Kristen Barringer • Katherine Bergman • Philip Blackburn • Cheryl Brown • Paul Cantrell • Cheryl Caponi • Craig Carnahan • Pamela Hauschildt Desnick • Paul and Hong Dice • Steve Dietz • Lawrence Englund • Rolf Erdahl and Carrie Vecchione • Douglas Ewart • Tim Faricy • Jean Franzino • Larry Fuchsberg and Janika Vandervelde • David and Rosemary Good • Julie Haight-Curran • Carrie Henneman Shaw • Joan Hutton • Deb Hysack • Neal Karlen • Stanley Kaufman • Jane Mackenzie • Joyce Miyamoto • John Nuechterlein • Laurel Ogren • Pat and Merribeth O’Keefe • Neil and Gail Olszewski • Ronald Pentz • James Sanford • Jane Sevald • Craig and Nancy Sinard • Gale Sharpe • Tiffany Skidmore • Dan Sorensen • Nancy Sponaugle • Cynthia Stokes • Julie Stroud • Therese Weil
