Miami, Feb. 27, 2017 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) MDC Live Arts and Olympia Theater will present Nufonia Must Fall, a magical, multi-disciplinary adaptation of a graphic novel by Montreal-based DJ, artist, composer, and music producer Kid Koala, at 8 p.m., on Saturday, April 8 at the Olympia Theater.
Equal parts cinema, theatre, and musical concert, Nufonia Must Fall is a film animated live on stage by an amazing team of puppeteers and technicians, and soundtrack performed live by Kid Koala and the Afiara Quartet on piano, strings, and turntables. The story centers around a lonesome, music-obsessed, headphones-sporting robot on the verge of obsolescence who falls in love with a winsome office worker. After a chance encounter, their precarious courtship unfolds via real-time filming of more than a dozen miniature stage settings and a cast of meticulously crafted puppets and robots. Under the direction of Oscar-nominated production designer KK Barrett ( Her, Where the Wild Things Are, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich), the performance is cinematically lit, shot, and projected on a large screen.
The result is an unforgettably heartwarming performance that been hailed as “genuine romance” by The New York Times, “a mix of Chaplin follies and Pixar charm” by the The Boston Globe, and “nothing short of magical” by Eugene Weekly.
Kid Koala is a world-renowned scratch DJ, music producer, and award-winning graphic novelist. He has released five solo albums and has toured with the likes of Radiohead, the Beastie Boys, Arcade Fire, Money Mark, A Tribe Called Quest, Mike Patton, DJ Shadow, and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band. He has contributed to scores for the films Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Looper, and The Great Gatsby. He has composed music for the National Film Board of Canada, the Cartoon Network, Sesame Street, and Adult Swim. In addition to Nufonia Must Fall and Space Cadet, he recently created a score to the short film Minotaur.
Production designer K.K. Barrett started his artistic career as a noise musician and painter before moving into film and music videos. Through close relationships with a handful of directors who share his penchant for personal and intimate narratives, he’s built a diverse body of work including Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, David O Russell’s surreal I Heart Huckabees, Michel Gondry’s Human Nature, and Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He has collaborated with director Spike Jonze on several multi-award winning feature films including Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Her (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award in Production Design). Barrett has been twice honored with the MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction: for Beck’s “New Pollution” (1996) and for Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” (1997), and earned two Silver Clio Awards.
The Afiara Quartet is a dynamic and award-winning ensemble. After residencies at The Juilliard School and San Francisco State University, the Afiara is currently the Fellowship Quartet at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The ensemble is winner of the Young Canadian Musicians Award, Concert Artist Guild, Munich ARD, and Banff International String Quartet Competitions, including the latter’s Szekely Prize for the best interpretation of Beethoven. Afiara has performed throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, at such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Halls, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Library of Congress in DC, Sao Paulo’s Museum of Modern Art, Pro Musica of San Miguel de Allende, London’s Wigmore Hall, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, Munich’s Prinz Regenten Theatre, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, and the Royal Library in Copenhagen.
ABOUT MDC LIVE ARTS
MDC Live Arts is Miami’s most eclectic performing arts series. Created in 1990 as Cultura del Lobo, MDC Live Arts has a celebrated history of bringing extraordinary national and international performing artists to Miami. The annual series presents today’s most exciting artists and designs meaningful engagement between these artists, the students of MDC, and the greater community. MDC Live Arts seeks artists from across the globe who push boundaries and honor traditions relevant to Miami’s diverse community, and aims to offer audiences opportunities to discover new ideas, perspectives and forms of expression. For more information, please visit www.mdclivearts.org.
The Programs of MDC Live Arts are made possible with the generous support of: Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council; the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; the National Endowment for the Arts; the City of Miami Beach Department of Tourism and Cultural Development, Office of Cultural Affairs; the Miami Beach Mayor and City Commissioners; Miami Dade County Cultural Passport in partnership with Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and the Foundation for New Education Initiative; the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts; and National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund. MDC Live Arts is a Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). Major NPN contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT OLYMPIA THEATER
The Olympia Theater opened in 1926 as Downtown Miami’s palace for silent movies and vaudeville. Olympia Center, Inc., the non-profit organization managing the City-owned, historic venue on Flagler Street in Downtown Miami, has been working since 2010 to bring exciting new programming to Miami’s historic Performing Arts Center.
The Programs of Olympia Theater are made possible with the generous support of: Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council; the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the Miami Downtown Development Authority; the State of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs and the City of Miami.
TICKETS: $35 / MDC students $10 / $50 VIP tickets influde After Party with DJ Kid Koala
To purchase tickets and learn more about the 2016-17 MDC Live Arts Season, please call 305-237-3010, or visit mdclivearts.org.
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MDC Live Arts Contact: Alexa Burneikis, Marketing Manager, 305-237-7733, aburneik@mdc.edu;
Publicity: Lisa Palley, Palley Promotes, 305-642-3132, lpalley@bellsouth.net