Muller started his career in the urban theater scene of the 1970s. Upon finishing his undergraduate education at Temple University’s School of Communication and Theater, he was attracted to the rapidly developing technical side of the entertainment market. Muller worked with some of the biggest acts of the 80s including the first Live Aid show at Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia, and provided technical supervision to national tours of musicals and comedies. During the late 80s and early 90s, Muller was also Technical Manager of Yellow Springs Institute, an international residency developing new art in multiple genres, working with avant-garde composers like Tan Dun and performance artists like Guillermo Gomez-Peña. After Yellow Springs closed its doors in 1995, Muller decided to hang up his road shoes. He designed and managed new technical systems for Longwood Gardens, as well as being resident lighting and sound designer for the organization's entertainment programs. In 2007, Muller was appointed Manager of Production, Operations, and Artistic Administration for Peter Nero and the Philly Pops. He was promoted to Director of Operations in 2012.
"Spare A Dime...is a testimony to the resilience of the American people." George Muller, Lighting and Sound Designer for Spare a Dime, has always relished tales of reinvention. "Spare A Dime is more than just the story of the Great Depression and the implosion of an economic bubble," Muller said. "It is the story of how people and government cooperated to pull the country up to a more stable footing against all odds. It is a testimony to the resilience of the American people."
Muller started his career in the urban theater scene of the 1970s. Upon finishing his undergraduate education at Temple University’s School of Communication and Theater, he was attracted to the rapidly developing technical side of the entertainment market. Muller worked with some of the biggest acts of the 80s including the first Live Aid show at Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia, and provided technical supervision to national tours of musicals and comedies. During the late 80s and early 90s, Muller was also Technical Manager of Yellow Springs Institute, an international residency developing new art in multiple genres, working with avant-garde composers like Tan Dun and performance artists like Guillermo Gomez-Peña. After Yellow Springs closed its doors in 1995, Muller decided to hang up his road shoes. He designed and managed new technical systems for Longwood Gardens, as well as being resident lighting and sound designer for the organization's entertainment programs. In 2007, Muller was appointed Manager of Production, Operations, and Artistic Administration for Peter Nero and the Philly Pops. He was promoted to Director of Operations in 2012.
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"The WPA...helped create a dialogue with those whose voice needed to be heard." "The Works Progress Administration created a lasting legacy in the arts not only through its architectural contributions but through the visual arts as well," said Gerardo José McGarity-Alegrett, animator for the Spare A Dime project and COSACOSA's Technology Specialist. "The history of photography is a great interest of mine, and the WPA had created some of the most important and symbolic images of not only the time period, but of American culture. Lewis Hine, Bernice Abbott, Walker Evans, and Dorothea Lang (to name but a few) helped define the art of documentary photography through support from the WPA. These photographers examined daily life, work ethic, and poverty through their cameras. Photography for the first time was being used as a device for social change and helped create a dialogue with those whose voice needed to be heard." McGarity-Alegrett is a dual citizen of Venezuela and the United States and is currently studying Interactive Media and Design at Philadelphia University. He recently won the Dr. Diane A. Pfaltzgraff Capstone Seminar Award for his writings on LGBT human rights and social media in Israel. Previously, McGarity-Alegrett worked in AIDS research at Drexel University and taught photography in the Philadelphia public schools. His involvement at COSACOSA has ranged from multimedia design to a starring role as "Judge Mental" in Change ≠ Chance, our 2012 Philly Fringe performances. As an artist and inventor, McGarity-Alegrett draws his inspiration from his travels and is constantly planning new adventures. He has backpacked through Southeast Asia and, most recently, Peru, and he is looking forward to going to Tanzania and Kenya this summer. "...it is essential that students learn about their American past..." "To me, it is essential that students learn about their American past, and this specific opportunity for my students allows them direct contact with history specific to their city," said visual artist Steve Teare. "I'm very excited to be a part of the Spare A Dime project and to be in collaboration with COSACOSA." Teare is creating illustrations that will be animated and projected as sets for Spare A Dime. He is also working with his students at Bok Tech High School to create an exhibition of re-imagined Liberty Dimes and WPA-style posters for our performances. Teare describes himself as a late-20s high school art teacher who resides in West Philadelphia while teaching teens in South Philadelphia. He received his Bachelor of Science in Art Education from Temple University. As a visual artist, Teare creates in multiple media, and his work includes comics, illustrations, and paintings. His ongoing comic strip, Back and Forth, appears at phinkwell.com, a web comic collective, and his paintings have been shown in solo and group shows throughout Philadelphia. Teare is also a founding member of the local rock band Flat Mary Road. Listen to their music at flatmaryroad.bandcamp.com/ Get to know the artistic team and our work in progress.
Major vocal talent brings the Spare A Dime characters to life! Spare A Dime musical talent (from left): Phyllis Chapell as The Farmer, Musical Coordinator Jay Fluellen, Khrista White as The Merchant, Julian Coleman as The Immigrant, Director/Composer Kimberly Niemela, Lourin Plant as The Veteran, Victor Rodriguez as The Builder, Production Coordinator Rodney Whittenberg. (Not pictured: Bill Gross as FDR and Venissa Santi as The Mother.) Our first full read-through (or rather, sing-through) of Spare A Dime took place this past Sunday evening at the COSACOSA Studio in Manayunk. Our diverse group of professional performers had never met or sung together before. What a powerhouse group they proved to be! We'll be posting their bios and interviews with each of them in the coming weeks.
At the end of the month we'll be creating an official cast recording of Spare A Dime available on CD. Look for excerpts from the performances on this blog and on the COSACOSA website, www.cosacosa.org. Meanwhile, profiles of the archetypal American characters of Spare A Dime continues tomorrow! And check out the PIFA blog about their visit to Bok Tech where COSACOSA visual artists are creating the Spare A Dime set! A major collaboration among Spare A Dime's visual artists comes together in grand form worthy of our historic theater space. Our multimedia song cycle mise en scène includes animations, photographs, large scale paintings, and a guest appearance by a giant dime. Setting the stage proved a bit complex, especially with only limited rigging available because of the age of the house. Our first draft of the set (currently in production) includes a central rear projection screen onto which Gerardo McGarity-Alegrett's animations of Steve Teare's paintings will appear. Joining them will be Great Recession photographs created by COSACOSA community members based on historical images from the WPA's Federal Project Number One. New Liberty dime images and WPAesque posters created by Bok Tech students with COSACOSA staff also appear on screen and in an exhibition at the theater entrance. The students also are working on a giant Liberty Dime that will set the stage from the House floor! Surrounding the central screen are stylized torches illuminating Liberty dimes, representing the interplay of rights and responsibilities -- freedom and fairness -- and how, in the words of one of Spare A Dime's songs, "Our fate's bound inextricably / in justice and in liberty. / Rise or fall, we'll always be / together, indivisibly." In the coming weeks, we'll be posting interviews with each of the participating visual artists, musicians, and vocalists. Meanwhile, next week we'll start exploring the back story for each of the Spare A Dime characters! Emblems shared by the Bok Tech Theater and the Winged Liberty dime inspire our communities. Earlier this week we posted about the symbols on the front of the Winged Liberty dime, the 10 cent coin in circulation during the Great Depression. The symbolism on the reverse also resonates deeply with the Spare A Dime project and our city neighborhoods. The same motifs even appear in the architecture of our performance venue, the WPA-built Bok Tech Theater! The central image on the flipside of Winged Liberty is a bundle of sticks tied together. Called a fasces, this ancient Etruscan symbol was common in the Roman Republic. Fasces represent "strength in unity," i.e., many bound together are stronger than one alone. Such strength in unity is a main theme in the Spare A Dime project, as well as being a core value of COSACOSA and our constituent communities. At the center of the bundle is an ax, representing both the preparedness and power of those united. An olive branch encircles the fasces, emphasizing the importance of tempering power with peace. To quote FDR, "I should like to have it said of my first Administration that, in it, the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match... That is why the recovery we seek, the recovery we are winning, is more than economic. In it are included justice and love and humility, not for ourselves as individuals alone, but for our Nation. That is the road to peace." Images (from top): Fasces that surround the Bok Tech stage are a central image on the back of the Winged Liberty dime. The Liberty Dime has a starring role in Spare A Dime sets, songs, and stories. Spare A Dime celebrates American ideals of freedom and fairness, and we're using the symbology of the Liberty Dime (in circulation during the Great Depression) to make our point. At left, Bok seniors work on a giant dime which will be part of the set. Designed by COSACOSA artists with Bok Tech students, this twirling Liberty image will accompany Spare A Dime's "Chorus of Liberty" each time they enter the stage. The Winged Liberty Head dime was in circulation from 1916 to 1945, the last in a series of Liberty images that adorned dimes from the founding of the nation. Because of the small wings attached to Lady Liberty's hat, this coin often is mistakenly called the Mercury Dime (after the speedy winged messenger of Greco-Roman mythology). However, the wings on this coin have a more poetic meaning: liberty of thought, the backbone of all other freedoms. To quote Benjamin Franklin, "Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech." Indeed, Liberty's headdress is a Phrygian cap, worn in ancient Rome by emancipated slaves as a symbol of their freedom. The Winged Liberty Head dime design was created by Adolph A. Weinman. Made of 90% silver (with 10% cooper added for longevity in circulation), these dimes had serrated edges to assure that no one would try to shave any silver off the coin. When, after being elected to four terms as President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in office in 1945, Congress passed legislation to replace Liberty's image with his. The dime was the perfect coin to honor FDR. He had founded the March of Dimes (originally known as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis) to raise money for polio research and to aid individuals and families afflicted by the disease. The flipside of this coin also has some wonderful symbols that resonate with our Spare A Dime themes (and the design of the theater space). We'll explore them in another post. Photography, sculpture, painting, illustration, and animation come together to set the stage for Spare A Dime. COSACOSA's work is always collaborative, with artists and community members coming together to create public art for city neighborhoods. Spare A Dime takes these collaborations to a whole new level. Community writers, composers, musicians, and vocalists blend their talents setting the stage in sound. And, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. The visual arts also play a big role in telling the Spare A Dime stories. Our visual art team of professional artists and city residents are busy working in multiple disciplines. Our photography team is combing Philly neighborhoods for locations to recreate Depression-era photographs in their modern-day counterparts: a corner store, an abandoned construction site, a backyard garden. Students at Bok Tech High School are creating set paintings, sculptures, and modern-day versions of WPA slogans and posters. Animated illustrations interacting with the singers provide the finishing flourish for the Spare A Dime set. In the coming weeks we'll be posting conversations with these participating artists, performers, and community members. Meanwhile, look for our Sunday and Monday weekly features to help you get in a 1935 frame of mind! Every Sunday, we'll be posting "What happened this week in 1935?" featuring newsworthy events of the time. On Mondays, we'll post "Something from Nothing: Recipes for Hard Times," thrifty foods from the 1930's. When possible, we'll be trying out these recipes with our students and community members, too, and posting the delectable (we hope) photos! Yummy! Telling the story of the WPA...or what is a multimedia song cycle, anyway? Now that we'd selected our moment in time, how could COSACOSA tell this tale of economic collapse and the possible redemption -- of the Great Depression and the Works Progress Administration? True to our mission, our first questions were: how will the communities we serve participate in the art-making process? What art form(s) would best engage our constituents? We really could pick any type of art to share the story; COSACOSA's work is multidisciplinary. As we like to say, our projects range from mosaics to music, from painting to poetry, from interactive theater to intercommunity gardens. Ultimately, we decided to take our cue from one of the best known WPA programs, Federal Project Number One, which put artists across America to work writing original stories and scripts, collecting historical records, making music, producing plays, and creating new visual art. For our project, the more art forms, the merrier, we thought; the more ways for our community partners of all ages and backgrounds to participate. So Spare A Dime combines collected histories with original writings, songs, visual art, old and new photographs, and animated projections. Just add audience and mix. It's a multimedia song cycle! BTW, in a later post we'll talk more about Federal Project Number One (don't you love how the arts were prioritized in 1935?). |
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