Surface level:

Nothing is as it seems. “The Altar of Reality” is, on its first viewing, a show featuring optical illusions, occasional “magic” illusions like the “tip-over trunk”, and audio illusions like the “shepard’s tone” scored by impressionist (and similar) music treated with new, bold interpretations, such as Debussy’s “Passepied" with a back beat reminiscent of Jungle Tango used in Cavaliers 2011, “XtraordinarY”. Our title is a turn of the phrase “altered reality”. The show is a construction process of a physical “altar” heavily featuring pieces of a shattered mirror. A broken reflection of reality.

Themes:

• Reflection

• Perception

• Strangeness/novelty

• Ego

• Mirror/matching images

• Black and White / Opposites

Visual Moments:

• We can make a number of our props into “tip over trunks” which easily produce a disappearing effect. (A performer enters the box from the top, close the lid, tip the box toward the audience, open, you can see to the bottom- EMPTY!)

• Drill utilizing tip-over trunks up on their vertical side as “portals”. (large-interval formation where the closest member in a line or curve is slowly stepping into one box, and directly along the same path invisible between the two props the line continues with a new performer marching out of the other)

• Lids of trunks and other geometric props all have mirrors on the inside, and the lids can be removed. We can wait to open any of the shapes to reveal the mirror as an early visual impact.

• Remove the lids and place them mirror-side-up, performers kneel just behind them so we can see them upside-down in the reflection. (Possibly a ballad hit)

• Gather the mirror pieces to create a giant “shattered” mirror on the field, surrounded by the lid-less props to create an actual “Altar”

• Choreography involving multiple members contributing to the appearance of one person with extra limbs. (See video below)

• Sections of trumpets or other matching instruments split between side 1 and 2 40 yard lines, field mics sending a signal to the opposite speakers, trading which group is playing, and highlighting with choreography. (section puts horns down when the sound comes out of the speaker on that side (or similar effect - was originally imagined with a scrim, with hiding members playing for the “fake” players)

• Create “Impossible geometry” in drill (like the artwork used in the title above, or just visually “confusing” movement)

Additional Layers:

• The actual “altar” of reality represents the relationship between self and the outside world.

• Everything we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste is an illusion playing out in the human brain. Nothing we see looks exactly like we see it. The mirror gives us an opportunity to visually represent reflection, and the deceiving of what we perceive.

• Everything we “worship” exists in our own experience.

• How much time are we peering inward at ourselves? Is this worship? Is the ego an illusion created by this process?

• If we can’t pin down objective reality, then what is possible that we might think is impossible?

Visual Inspiration

Musical Inspiration

Philosophical Inspiration