Presented by The Englert Theatre and Little Village Magazine, Witching Hour is a platform dedicated to exploring the unknown, discussing the creative process, and presenting new work.
Over the years, Witching Hour has welcomed the brightest artist and thinkers to push the boundaries of their respective crafts. Through performances, readings, discussions, workshops, and screenings, we engage what it means to be human in today’s world.
The 2022 program will be presented as a series to enable active audiences to engage with all that Witching Hour has to offer. Join us for all 5 events starting September 17, 2022.
Sponsored by: ReUnion Brewery, Rylan and Ross DeValois of MidAmerica Securities, MidAmerican Energy, Phoebe Martin (REALTOR), Goodfellow Printing, Iowa Arts Council / Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, Think Iowa City, Iowa City Downtown District, Marcus-Fitzpatrick Team Blank & McCune, & University of Iowa Libraries.
2022 Witching Hour Fall Series Lineup
Debit @ The James Theater
September 17 @ 7:30 PM
As a producer, DJ, and international radio host, DEBIT has been called “an impeccable talent” (i-D). Since relocating to New York in 2015 from Monterrey, Mexico, she has become an activate figure in the latino diasporas musical aesthetics and circuits. Ranging from dance to ambient music and with a clear and deconstructive approach, she works with blends of Latino and club beats, dramatic accents, baroque synths and polymorphous textures. DEBIT has done radio and performance with diverse bands throughout N & S America since 2010 and has DJed at Ghetto Gothik, MIXPAK, and with Kode9, ARCA, Jubilee, Nick Hook & many other defining artists of our time. She’s been an influential force in the Mexican experimental, electronic and club scene since 2012. She co-hosted Oraculo with Riobamba at The Lot radio for over a year. She believes in a self sustaining sonic message without resorting to obvious tricks and effects. She participated in RBMA Bass Camp at Bonnaroo 2017. Currently, her LP Animus will be released thru Mexico City’s NAAFI in January 2018.
Nakatani Gong Orchestra @ The Englert Theatre
October 2 @ 7:30 PM
Tatsuya Nakatani is an avant-garde percussionist, composer, and artist of sound. Active internationally since the 1990s, Nakatani has released over 80 recordings and tours extensively, performing over 150 concerts a year. His primary focus is his solo work and his large ensemble project, the Nakatani Gong Orchestra. He teaches master classes and lectures at universities and music conservatories around the world. Originally from Japan, he makes his home in the desert town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. With his activity in new music, improvisation, and experimental music, Nakatani has a long history of collaboration.
Nakatani’s distinctive music centered around his adapted bowed gong, supported by an array of drums, cymbals, and singing bowls. In consort with his personally hand-carved Kobo Bows, he has spent decades refining and developing his sound as an arrangement of formations of vibrations, incorporated in shimmering layers of silence and texture. Within this contemporary work, one can still recognize the dramatic pacing, formal elegance and space (ma) felt in traditional Japanese music.
Chromic Duo @ The James Theater
October 21 @ 7:30 PM
Chromic Duo blend classical music, toy piano, and electronics into genre-fluid performances and installations. Inspired by the small wonders of the everyday, they compose soundworlds inspired by the multitudes as third culture kids discovering their voice within the vast Asian American diaspora.
Their work often blurs the lines between film, VR, and AR, but the heart of their work remains constant: to create an intimacy and sense of wonder in their music that unravels the story of self-discovery and a passion for connecting the dots between grief and joy, belonging and displacement, and creating community in boundary-pushing performances and web-based experiences.
Hrishikesh Hirway + Jenny Owen Youngs @ The Englert Theatre
Octobre 27 @ 7:30 PM
Hrishikesh Hirway is a musician and podcast creator. He’s the host and creator of Song Exploder, an award-winning podcast and a Netflix original television series, where musicians break down the creative process behind their songs. Vulture called Song Exploder “probably the best use of the podcast format ever.” As a musician, he’s released four albums under the moniker The One AM Radio, and an EP with Moors, his project with Lakeith Stanfield. Besides Song Exploder, Hrishikesh produced and co-hosted the award-winning podcasts Home Cooking, with Samin Nosrat, and The West Wing Weekly, with Joshua Malina. He’s also the host and producer of the Partners podcast. He helped Google launch their first original podcast, and is the executive producer of Shirley Manson’s podcast, The Jump, for Mailchimp. As a composer, he has written and recorded original scores for movies and television, including the Netflix series “Everything Sucks!”, the film “Save the Date, the CNN documentary “Our Nixon,” and the video game “The Red Lantern.”
Another Stage of Staging Ourselves @ The Englert Theatre
October 29 @ 7:30 PM
Jennifer Kayle’s dancing has been referred to as having “muscular presence” (Dance Source Houston), while her work has been reviewed as “provocative, tight, with wit and stage craft… serious chops” (Vox Fringe), “distinct… affecting scenes” (Hampshire Gazette), “memorable…shockingly poignant,” (City Revealed). With over 60 works shown nationally and internationally, Kayle’s projects often wonder about social change, usually with optimism and pessimism in a clash of wills. Her choreography is deeply informed by collaborative process and intersects with her work as a director and performer of Ensemble Improvisation.
Brady Van Patten is a Chicago based physical theatre artist who plays in the forms of dance, clown, choreography, and improvisation. While in Chicago Brady has had the pleasure to perform and study with the Neo-Futurists Theatre Company. As a freelance performer Brady has created and studied with other great minds such as Alexandra Beller, Leah Urzendowsk, Anthony Courser, Adrian Danzig, Melinda Jean Myers, Kurt Chiang, and Dan Kerr-Hobert. Brady has created and Performed original works at the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, Chicago Peacebook Festival, Links Hall, and Navy Pier.
Series Pass
Get full access to all 5 events in Witching Hour with a series pass! Pass holders can also save up to 20% on tickets.
$75 + Fees – Witching Hour General Pass
$65 + Fees – Witching Hour Member Pass
$40 + Fees – Witching Hour Student Pass
Individual Tickets
$20 + Fees – General Admission
$16 + Fees – General Admission (Members)
$10 + Fees – General Admission (Student w/ ID)
