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“Turn That Thing Around” is Aaron’s own personal story of survival, and has been performed five times for live audiences. 

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Standing at the intersection of queerness and neurodivergence, the story centers on Jack, a young person on the cusp of another fun summer at camp with their best friend Gabe. As Jack becomes unstable, different lines of thought and memory, escalating emotion, and a sense of unreliable narration bring the audience into Jack's mind and foster a sense of understanding of his neurodivergence. Reality grows increasingly unreliable until everyone in Jack's life must confront and accept that the journey to camp has become a long and arduous journey to recovery.

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What is "Turn That Thing Around"?

Review of TTTA

“We need to keep talking until everyone can understand [mental illness]; kudos to Woodstein for starting the conversation.” - Jenn Oswald in The Argus 

Review of TTTA

“...fresh-out-of theater-school playwright Aaron Harris Woodstein has an autobiographical tale in hand for the next Moth Story Slam.” - Dan Jakes from The Chicago Reader

Elevator

Pitch

Jack, on a road trip with his friend Gabe, is faced with major coming of age moments (including awaiting the results of an HIV test) which turns into a full-blown manic episode. We are propelled backwards and forwards in time as the play unfolds through the lens of Jack’s mind.

Review of TTTA

“Felt as if it was a mirror in some ways to [my own life] and I felt moved by it. Very very moved by it.” - Rachel Dicker, Audience Member

Review of TTTA

“The script style was very innovative, the way it structured dialogue... it really was an interesting thing to behold.... [Playwright Aaron Harris Woodstein] brings a lot of innovation to the stage” - Bill Turck on Playtime Radio

Climax of "Turn That Thing Around" by Aaron Harris Woodstein, in Concert.
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Climax of "Turn That Thing Around" by Aaron Harris Woodstein, in Concert.

This piece, as seen at CCM's Sonic Explorations Concert, is the climax of the play "Turn That Thing Around" by one of the co-composers, Aaron Harris Woodstein (1993). The play follows two bisexual characters as they make the long journey from Chicago, IL to Cleveland, OH and finally to a camp in Freedom, NH. All the while one of them is experiencing their first ever bout of Mania: a symptom of Bipolar Disorder. The excerpt features electronic music from Aaron Harris Woodstein and acoustic music from their co-composer Luke McLoughlin (1993). McLoughlin's music in these scenes is processed using filtering, reverb, multi-band compression, and a dynamic software plugin called MISHBY. The Music and projections are played back using QLab. The vocal layering is accomplished mainly using MaxMSP's buffer~ and a multitude of OSC commands coming from an iPad. The final moment of the piece relies on Convolution of the performer’s voice. Performers: Laura Duque (Narrator) Cassandra Reeves (Jackie) Monica Llorente (Voice of Dr. Dayagal) Avi Kritzman (Voice of the GPS)

See the inner workings of Aaron's way to effectively perform the cacophony / anxiety section titled "Full Blown" with just 3 actors!

They created MaxMSP and TouchOSC patches which operate QLab via OSC commands all while capturing actor's voices from their microphones.

Our Musicians: 
Eric Novak, oboe, baritone saxophone
Audrey Fitzgerald, Bb clarinet
Andrew Smelser, Bb clarinet, Bb bass clarinet
Keziah Cobden, horn in F
Adam Wax, horn in F, piano
Michelle Riechers, Bb trumpet
Sam Stevens, trombone

Score

by Luke J

McLoughlin

Brandon Moore, tuba
 
William Greenlee, violin

Alejandro Mancera, viola

Michael Grittani, cello

Aaron Harris Woodstein, voice
 

John Cossio, guitar

Ryan Donlin, electric bass

Luke McLoughlin, conductor, piano, auxiliary percussion

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