Sun & Sea

About the Show

Imagine a beach – you within it, or better: watching from above – the burning sun, sunscreen and bright bathing suits and sweaty palms and legs. Tired limbs sprawled lazily across a mosaic of towels. Imagine the occasional squeal of children, laughter, the sound of an ice cream van in the distance. The musical rhythm of waves on the surf, a soothing sound (on this particular beach, not elsewhere). The crinkling of plastic bags whirling in the air, their silent floating, jellyfish-like, below the waterline. The rumble of a volcano, or of an airplane, or a speedboat. Then a chorus of songs: everyday songs, songs of worry and of boredom, songs of almost nothing. And below them: the slow creaking of an exhausted Earth, a gasp.

—Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator

Libretto

Explore the Sun & Sea libretto here

Creative Team

Concept and development: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, and Lina Lapelytė

Director and set designer: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė

Lyrics: Vaiva Grainytė

Music and musical direction: Lina Lapelytė

Curator: Lucia Pietroiusti

Tour producer: Aušra Simanavičiūtė

Tour coordinator / stage manager: Erika Urbelevič

Technical director: Lique Van Gerven

Translator (Lithuanian to English): Rimas Užgiris

Sound engineer: Romuald Chaloin Galiauskas

Live soundtrack: Salomėja Petronytė

Singing performers: Evaldas Alekna, Aliona Alymova, Svetlana Bagdonaitė, Marco Cisco, Auksė Dovydėnaitė, Saulė Dovydėnaitė, Claudia Graziadei, Lucas Lopes Pereira, Artūras Miknaitis, Vytautas Pastarnokas, Eglė Paškevičienė, Kalliopi Petrou, Ieva Skorubskaitė, and Nabila Dandara.

Performers: Raminta Barzdžiukienė, Dovydas Korba, Vincentas Korba, Jeronimas Petraitis, Juozas Petraitis, Mantas Petraitis, Pranas Petraitis, Jonas Statkevičius, and others.

Visual identity: Goda Budvytytė

Founding producer: Neon Realism

Co-producers: Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Akademie Schloss Solitude Goethe-Institut, Münchner Kammerspiele, National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, The Momentary, Arkansas

Sponsor: JCDecaux

Commissioner (Sun & Sea (Marina), Venice, 2019): Rasa Antanavičiūtė

Founding Patrons (Sun & Sea (Marina), Venice, 2019): Lithuanian Council for Culture, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Laurenz Foundation in Basel, Vilnius City Municipality

Presenter Credits

Presenter: Arcadia University
Organizers: Richard Torchia, Director, Arcadia Exhibitions, and Martin Hartung, Curatorial Adviser
Administrative Director, Provost’s Office: Katharine Hanley
Exhibitions Coordinator, Arcadia Exhibitions: Matthew Borgen
Vice President for Marketing and Communications: Laura Baldwin
Director of Communications: Dan DiPrinzio

Marketing Adviser: Carrie Gorn (Perpetual Motion PR)

Exhibition Design: Metcalfe Architecture & Design
Partner, Museum Services: Aaron Goldblatt
Design Director: Jason Manning

Beachgoer Recruitment: Witty Gritty
CEO: Michelle Freeman
Outreach and Engagement: Marcus Donald
Content Engagement: Lou Caltabiano
Creative Manager: Jaison Smulski
Engagement and Experiences Operations: Colleen Walsh

Photography: Johanna Austin, Aaron Igler

Videographer: Brandon Hodnett

Special thanks to: Ajay Nair, Jeff Rutenbeck, Rebecca Kohn, Joe Sun, Brigette Bryant, Alison LaLond-Wyant, Mimi Bassetti, Molly Foster, Jamar Nicholas, Cara Palladino,  Jenn Retter, Nataliia Shablia, Lisa Stephens, Charu Varma, Tony Zimba, Elizabeth Ferrell, Carole Loeffler, Marianne Miserandino, Prash Naidu, Mark Wade, Kat Bleiweiss, Julia Maurer, Harley Cannella, Natasha Litwinow, Ibrahim Sillah, Rob Edmondson, Jim Everets, InProduction,  Elizabeth Moreau, Stonie Darling, Jimmy Walden, Sarah Garvey, David Binder, Lieven Bertels, Pia Kishore Agrawal, Kay Matschullat, Peter Meanwell, Alice Beamesderfer, Marina McDougall, Eileen Neff, Rob Carpick, Parker LaMascus, Cynthia Veloric and Israel Burshatin.

Photo by Andrej Vasilenko

About the Artists

Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė
Direction and Set Design
Barzdžiukaitė works as a filmmaker, theatre director, and artist. In her creative practice, she explores the gap between objective and imagined realities, while challenging an anthropocentric way of thinking in a playful way. Her recent full-length documentary film-essay Acid Forest was awarded at the Locarno International Film Festival last year and is traveling in film festivals around the world.

Vaiva Grainytė 
Libretto
Grainytė is a writer, playwright, and poet. Her creative practice usually crosses the confines of deskwork and becomes an integral part of an interdisciplinary polylogue in the form of radio plays, operas, site-specific performances, and musicals. Her book of essays Beijing Diaries (2012) was nominated for the Lithuanian Book of the Year award in the adult literature category and included in the top twelve listings of the most creative books for that year.   Grainytė’s poetry debut, Gorilla’s Archives, was published in 2019 and according to critics recognized as a distinguished voice of neo-avant-garde poetry.

Lina Lapelytė 
Music and Music Direction
Lapelytė is an artist, musician, and composer. Her performance-based practice is rooted in music and flirts with pop culture, gender stereotypes, and nostalgia. Lapelyte’s works were presented at KIM in Riga, Rupert in Vilnius (solo exhibition), 1857 gallery in Oslo, the Modern Art Museum in Malmo, MACBA in Barcelona, and DRAF in London. Upcoming shows include Cartier Foundation in Paris, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Kunsthalle Praha.

Lucia Pietroiusti
Curator
Pietroiusti is a curator working at the intersection of art, ecology and systems, mostly outside of the gallery format. She is the founder and curator of the General Ecology project at Serpentine, London; as well as the curator of Sun & Sea. Current projects include the 2020-21 Shanghai Biennale (with Marina Otero Verzier, Filipa Ramos, YOU Mi. Chief Curator: Andrés Jaque); The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish, with Filipa Ramos; Serpentine Podcast, and Back to Earth – Serpentine’s 50th-anniversary program, dedicated to the environment (2020-22). Recent publications include More-than-Human (with Andrés Jaque and Marina Otero Verzier).

Related Event

Dioramas of the Anthropocene
Panel discussion with artists Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė and project curator Lucia Pietroiusti

Sunday, October 3, 2021
11:00 AM– 12:00PM
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Employing the Academy of Natural Sciences’ collection of habitat displays as a platform for conversation, this event will explore artistic strategies behind the opera-performance Sun & Sea, widely celebrated as one of the most compelling artworks to address the climate crisis to date.

In a panel discussion moderated by Richard Torchia (Director of Arcadia Exhibitions at Arcadia University) in conversation with Sun & Sea curator Lucia Pietroiusti (beaming in remotely) and artists Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė, participants will discuss the bird’s-eye view — integral to the artists’ conception of the opera-performance — as a means to picture our species’ relationship to a warming planet.

After the program, attendees are invited to explore the dioramas of the Academy’s African and Asian halls on their own.

Admission to the Academy for this event is free.

Reserve tickets here

Supporters

Major support for Sun & Sea has been provided to Arcadia Exhibitions by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from Arcadia University. 

Festival Icon Producers: Lisa Roberts & David Seltzer
Festival Star Producers: Mark & Tobey Dichter
Festival Producers: Andy & Bryna Scott; Carol Klein & Lawrence Spitz; Lynne & Bertram Strieb
Festival Co-Producer: Judith Tannenbaum

Photo by Andrej Vasilenko

About Arcadia Exhibitions

Arcadia Exhibitions organizes programming for four distinct gallery spaces on the Arcadia University campus throughout the calendar year. Its goal is to provide a broad-based community constituency with a stimulating roster of individual and thematic exhibitions of contemporary art ranging in scope and stature from the regional to the international. Public lectures, panel discussions, gallery tours, and receptions generate vital contexts for each exhibition while also serving as a forum to encourage dialogue among artists, educators, students, and the general public about contemporary art and its socio-cultural relevance. For more information, click here.

About FringeArts

FringeArts is Philadelphia’s home for contemporary performance, presenting progressive, world-class art that expands the imagination and boldly defies expectation. Our programming exposes audiences to genre-defying dance, theater, and music performances by accomplished and emerging innovators who push the boundaries of art-making and redefine the artistic landscape worldwide. The lineup for our 2019 Fringe Festival this September is now on sale at FringeArts.com.

The Philadelphia Fringe Festival is a 4-week long, city-wide celebration of innovation and creativity in contemporary performance. Each September, the Festival explodes into every nook and cranny of Philadelphia with more than 1,000 artistically daring performances, including national and international performances curated by FringeArts, and works that are produced by independent artists and promoted by FringeArts.

FringeArts Staff + Board

FRINGEARTS STAFF

Nick Stuccio, President & Producing Director
Zach Blackwood, Artistic Producer
Zoe McNichols, Associate Producer
April Rose, Fringe Festival Coordinator

Carolyn Schlecker, Senior Adviser Operations
Melissa E. Bridge, Director of Finance
Margaux Cattelona, Finance Associate
Alexa Teves Mani, Office Manager & HR Assistant
Mary Menchel, Client Services Manager
Genevieve Chapin, Donor & Volunteer Coordinator
Marissa Both, Box Office Manager
Claire Frisbie, Marketing and Communications Director
Isabella Raposa, Marketing Manager
Amy Kurzban, General Manager
Keighty McLallen, Director of Production
Kelly Orenshaw, Associate Production Manager
Evelyn Swift Shuker, Master Electrician

Joanne Marder, Senior Director of Development
Anna Buller, FEASTIVAL Development and Event Coordinator

Fringe Festival Box Office:
Becca Bernstein
Cecily Chapman
Jill Chiaro
Alaina Clune
Kaela Dudek
Anna Fiscarelli-Mintz
Courtney Giugliano
Jamie Hafner
Tiffany Hall
Marion Horowitz
Mads Klemm
Leslie Miller
Emma Noel
Brianna Peguero
Cinco Placensia
Shawn Porter
Dan Shade
Joey Tabasco

INTERNS

Rachel Adler, Marketing
Siani Beckett, Artistic Programming
Sarah Bhalla, Development
Maria Dragone, Photojournalism
Kaela Dudek, Marketing and Communications
Anna Fiscarelli-Mintz, Fringe Festival Guide
Courtney Giugliano, Guide Information Management
Kevin Grace, Graphic Design
Jamie Hafner, Marketing and Communications
Ryan Henry, Podcast Production
Ayouni Kromah, Artistic Programming
Haven Ogbaselase, FEASTIVAL
Hansel Quezada, Podcast Production
Abi Sanie, Artistic Programming
Joey Tabasco, Venue and Patron Services

BOARD

Richard Vague, Chair
Jennifer Bohnenberger, Vice Chair/Secretary
Lisa P. Young, Treasurer

Donald Baines
Juliana Carter
Mark Dichter
Denise DiSimone
Tony P. Forte
David Hoffman
Kevin Kleinschmidt
Kathy Lentini
David Lipson
Tom Lussenhop
Clement D. Pappas
Jake Reardon
Darryl Ridgeway
Michael Solomonov
Stephen Starr
Nick Stuccio
Audrey Claire Taichman
Max Tuttleman
Paul Wright