Cloud Feather Productions from Punta Gorda Florida presented Dreamwalker at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. Center stage was the largest Unity Drum in America. Most of the audience was invited on stage to beat bamboo xylophones and the huge Unity Drum. A small plush unicorn sat on a bar stool at center stage.
On the screen AI generated animations were used to tell a tale about anthropomorphic animals being warriors. I could not hear most of the narration from the animation shown because of the drumming. In general, there was a story about a Clan of the Unicorn. That story was impossible to decipher
I stopped trying to make sense of the proceedings and just went along with the flow of the mushroom fever dream. The show was written and directed by Joseph Breton on guitar, with Manuela Bass and Sarah Giustra offering back up on various instruments. So, was this a musical? Certainly not in the way Schmigadoon is a musical
Though billed for all ages, the show with its sappy AI generated animations seemed geared for grade school children who might not mind the artificially flavored imagery. The cast was warm and inviting but the choice of projected AI animation to tell the clan story missed the mark for a staged production. Heart felt narration as if told around a campfire might have better expressed the message which I think was about community, compassion, and unity though I really am not sure about the show’s intentions. When the cast was singing facing the largely empty audience bleachers, they would have their backs turned to the members of the audience on stage. The interactive aspect of the show was inspired but the staging felt fractured.
Had I chosen to bang away on a xylophone instead of sketching, I might have had a different impression of the show. My feelings about the cult like AI generated animation however were visceral. If such polished turds of animation are what we face in the future to tell stories, then humanity as a whole is in trouble, no matter how hard we try to drown it out by beating a drum.