Brandon Powers

02/23/23 • 65 min

Host Luisa Lyons chats with choreographer, director, producer, and digital theatre artist Brandon Powers. Brandon shares his journey to becoming a choreographer/director, along with his fascinating insights into the integration of VR and live theatre, Musical Theatre Factory’s XR initiative, TikTok, and the future of filmed theatre.

Brandon Powers is a creative director + choreographer who creates experiences across physical and virtual space. His work focuses on capturing liveness in the digital, building interdisciplinary communities, and shifting culture towards a more embodied future. His key projects include VR saga Queerskins: ARK (Venice International Film Festival), Frankenstein AI (Sundance Film Festival), and Duet (New York Live Arts). On TikTok, Brandon has grown a community of over 70,000 inviting audiences into the process of creating theatre and dance. He founded Constellation, an immersive strategy and production studio building engaged digital communities for theatrical properties. Brandon is a Creative Producer at Musical Theatre Factory, where he leads MTFxR, a program supporting XR musical theatre experiences. He has spoken on the intersection of arts and technology at the TCG National Conference, Verizon’s 5G Lab, Lincoln Center and more.

Show Links:
Learn more about Brandon: https://www.brandon-powers.com/
Musical Theatre Factory MTFxR: https://mtf.nyc/mtfxr/
5th Wall Forum: https://www.5thwallforum.com/5wf-about
Constellation: constellationtheatrical.com
Medium Article: https://brandonpowers.medium.com/the-future-of-musical-theatre-is-on-tiktok-8ecb7ef660a1
Follow Brandon on social media:
Instagram
Tiktok
Twitter
YouTube

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Filmed Live Musicals is where musicals come home. Use the searchable database to find musicals filmed on stage to watch from the comfort of your living room! Visit www.filmedlivemusicals.com to learn more.

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Filmed Live Musicals is created by Luisa Lyons, an Australian actor, writer, and musician. Luisa holds a Masters in Music Theatre from London's Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and now lives, works, and plays in New York. Learn more at www.luisalyons.com and follow on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

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Previous Episode

Spells of the Sea

In part two of our special on Metro Theater Company, host Luisa Lyons chats about the brand new musical Spells of the Sea with director Julia Flood and composer Guinevere Govea.
Discover how the magical new musical transformed from a dorm room quarantine project to a podcast and then became a fully fledged state musical! Hear how the University of Texas facilitated the project, the challenges of creating new work in the age of covid, and how actor-musos helped to solve a tricky problem!
The world premier of Spells of the Sea opens at the Metro Theater Company in St Louis on February 10, 2023. The musical will be filmed live during the first week of the run, and will be available to stream on demand February 16 - March 5, 2023. Purchase tickets here!
Julia Flood has directed Digging Up Dessa, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus, The Hundred Dresses, Frida Libre, Bud, Not Buddy, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, And In This Corner: Cassius Clay, Out of the Box, Talkin’ Trash, Afflicted: Daughters of Salem, Unsorted, and Say Something, Do Something! for Metro Theater Company since she moved to St. Louis to become artistic director in February 2014. Julia served on the national board of directors of Theatre for Young Audiences/USA from 2011 to 2019, and brings more than 40 years of experience to her role as artistic director of Metro Theater Company. Learn more at MTC.
Guinevere Govea is an award-winning actress, writer, and composer from Austin, Texas. She is a recent graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in theatre and dance as well as a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Guinevere’s first musical, Trash! The Musical, was a semi-finalist for the O’Neil National Musical Theatre Conference in 2021. Her second, Spells of the Sea, won Best Original Script at the B. Iden Payne Awards in Austin. Learn more at www.guineveregovea.com and follow on Instagram.

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Next Episode

New Normal Rep with Jack Canfora

Host Luisa Lyons chats with playwright, actor, musician, and teacher Jack Canfora all about the creation of the virtual New Normal Rep, making online theatre, the importance of democratizing theatre, and more!

John Lawrence "Jack" Canfora is an Award-Winning American playwright, actor, musician and teacher. After receiving his dramatic training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, he began his career as an actor in regional theater, working mostly in Shakespearean roles such as Mercutio and Macbeth. He’s been hailed by the Associated Press as “White-hot Entertainment” for his off-Broadway plays including Poetic License, Place Setting, and Jericho, a New York Times “Critics Pick.” He was nominated along with Edward Albee, Elaine May, and Teresa Rebeck for The Newark Star Ledger’s Best Play, 2007. Jack is the recipient of two Edgerton Playwriting Awards, for Jericho (2010) and The Source (2018). He won the 2016 Webby Award for Best Writing in a Web Series. Jack is also the Artistic Director of New Normal Rep.

Bonus Content!
Access New Normal Rep’s virtual production of Jericho by Jack Canfora for free with code NNR2022 at www.newnormalrep.org/bonus.

Learn more about Jack Canfora:
https://www.jackcanforawriter.com/
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Learn more about New Normal Rep:
https://www.newnormalrep.org/
Follow on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

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