Hammerstep’s new work, INDIGO GREY: The Micah Grey Experiment, takes the form of a series of interactive tests for participants and a thirty-minute immersive and interactive theater performance. The performance is part of the exhibition Only Human, presented by NEW INC and Nokia Bell Labs.

In the near future, society on the Eastern seaboard has fallen apart. New York City’s utopian Sixth Borough and its cutting-edge research facility, Borough Labs, are searching for solutions to the worldwide energy and humanitarian crises. Chief Engineer Micah Grey has discovered the presence of an Indigo energy life force, demonstrated through the physical and extrasensory abilities of society’s most creative and innovative individuals. Heightened movement initiative is a core indicator of “Indigo abilities”—imperative to the development of the Sixth Borough society. For the first time ever, Micah is holding a public event to recruit “Motion Thinkers” to help fuel a revolutionary new “Indigo” experiment, and you have been invited to participate.

Hammerstep is a collective that uses choreography, technology, and nontraditional audience engagement to tell new stories through theater and dance. Their unique percussive style, which fuses elements of hip-hop, Irish dance, African stepping, and martial arts, acts as a coded language for the future, focusing on the symbolic potential of movement.

INDIGO GREY: The Micah Grey Experiment is a prologue to a more ambitious immersive theater experience called INDIGO GREY, currently in development. This work-in-progress presentation will introduce key concepts and characters from that narrative, as well as some of its interactive narrative devices, such as a responsive projection environment, gesture-controlled drones, and interactive motion puzzles that audience members will solve to progress through the story.

When not activated by one of Hammerstep’s performances, their modular set functions as a monolithic projection-mapped sculpture. Mysterious and foreboding, the structure is at once reminiscent of a temple, a spaceship, a bunker, and a mausoleum, inviting visitors to devise their own narratives about the fictional society that built it and for what purpose it was intended.

Hammerstep is utilizing Nokia Bell Labs’s pioneering network-controlled drone research to enable precise tracking and control of drones with millisecond latency responsiveness.

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CREATIVE TEAM

Writing and Direction:
Hammerstep (Jason Oremus and Garrett Coleman)

Producers:
Hammerstep (Jason Oremus and Garrett Coleman), Scott Peterman

Co-Producer:
Nimblist (Spike Brant)

Choreography:
Hammerstep (Jason Oremus and Garrett Coleman)

Additional Choreographic
Contributions for Aadya:
Sasha Alvarez

System Programming and Technical Direction:
Scott Peterman

Sound Design:
Chuck Palmer

Original Compositions:
Chuck Palmer, Dave Eggar, Amy Lee

Costume Design:
Hat Rabbit Studio

Production and Lighting Design:
Nimblist (Spike Brant)

Lighting Programming:
Lauren Brunson

Animation:
Andrew Hildebrand, Scott Peterman

Visual Content:
VJ Catmac

Technological Design Contributions:
Bell Labs Engineers (Michael Baldwin and Prasanth Ananth)

Set Concept and Design:
Hammerstep (Jason Oremus and Garrett Coleman)

Technical Set Design and Construction: Nimblist (Spike Brant), YAWN MOON

Scenic Carpenter:
Branko Balic

Master Draftsman:
Atsushi Hanano

Script Editor:
Elyse Romano

Casting:
Hammerstep (Jason Oremus and Garrett Coleman)

Production and Stage Manager:
Robert O’Brien

Assistant Stage Manager:
Mackenzie Meeks

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CAST

Dr. Micah Grey:
Travis Mitchell

Young Aadya:
Aislinn O’Connell

Elder Aadya:
Sasha Alvarez

Guardians:
Garrett Coleman, Jason Oremus, Meghan Lucey, Lisa Murphy, Abby Coyman, Lauren Beadle, Jack Puluka, Gabriella Woods, Owen Luebbers, Cassidy Luebbers, Caitlin Golding, Kamaal Davis, Ronald Simmons, Tehya Baxter, Brigid Rosendale, and Kieran Riley

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INCUBATED BY
The Cell Theatre, NEW INC, Apples & Oranges, and Nokia Bell Labs

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SPECIAL THANKS TO
Bob Looney and 4Wall Entertainment, Mario Beck, Will Harvey, Joe Hofmann, Marianne McGoldrick Driscoll, Hugh Tipping, George Heslin, Joanie Madden, Adam Zotovich, Patrick Lopez, David Lin, Elyse Romano, S.J. Velaszquez, Scott Minter, Mo Caicedo, James & Lynn Murray-Coleman, Hsuan-Yu Pan, Elise Phillips Wright, Kira Simring, Nancy Manocherian, and Patrick Pohl

ADDITIONAL THANKS TO
INDIGO GREY Kickstarter Backers, Mana Contemporary, Julia Kaganskiy, Alex Darby, Mike Kelberman, Larry O’Gorman, Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum, Leif Percifield, Matt Felson, Juan Patino, Sean Mangan, Phil Faconti, Brendan Muldowney, Vance Garrett, Carriage House Studios, Jacob Marshall, Lee Simonson, Luke Notary, Jackson Whalan, Pius McGrath, Tim Kashani, Aidan Lok, Simon Lok, Sean Robinson, Esteban Robles, Jonathon Srour, Patrick Mangan, Nicole Zepcevski, Ernest Baker, Razvan Gorea, Colin Barkell, Conor Coleman, Kieran Coleman, Brian Reager, Mackenzie Meeks, and Zoë Allen