“King’s Chamber Pot,” is an original composition by Glen Gillis (alto saxophone) and James E. Cunningham (sewerphone in A).
It is an over/underture for the play “Incubator at 7 Carnes Lane,” written by Des Gallant as an adaptation of Jay Critchley’s fictional autobiography Uncle Jay.
The venue for the music and play consists of two stages inside the FAU Schmidt Gallery. Known respectively as “The Shitter” and “The Septic Theatre”, the pieces were conceived, designed, and built by students, staff, and faculty at Florida Atlantic University.
Both sets were modeled after actual performance spaces in Jay Critchley’s Provincetown, Massachusetts back yard.
For the majority of “King’s Chamber Pot” the musicians play from the interior recesses of their respective enclosures. Glen Gillis projects a moving melody inside the “Shitter,” and James E. Cunningham answers from the bowels of the Septic Theatre on his ABS plastic sewerphone. The piece utilizes the natural reverberation from the Schmidt Gallery as its “third” instrumentalist.
At the conclusion…James exits from the underground…
…and reveals Glen, who emerges from the King’s Chamber.
The finale features a flourish of an Irish Jig in celebration of a job well done.
“King’s Chamber Pot/Incubator at 7 Carnes Lane” performed for the Jay Critchley Roundtable Discussion, Monday, February 8th. Text/adaptation Jay Critchley and Desmond Gallant; directed by Elizabeth Price; Anna Now, Erin Cunningham; Anna Then, Lydia Nigro.
© 2016