10% NATION
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Created by The Nerve Tank
Melanie's core work is in the theater. As the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Nerve Tank, she collaborates with writer, designers and performers to create high-impact, visually arresting theatrical events. In many cases the work is immersive in style and content and in all cases she bases the vision on "making things I've never seen onstage."
THE ATTENDANTS
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Presented by Arts World Financial Center, May 2011
Direction/Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
Inspired by questions of confinement and virtual connectivity, The Attendants upends conventions and engages the viewer in a different way. It creates a dynamic space that encourages audiences to watch in their own ways and on their own time. They use technology to effect change, while the performers respond only with their bodies.
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Presented by Arts World Financial Center, May 2011
Direction/Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
Inspired by questions of confinement and virtual connectivity, The Attendants upends conventions and engages the viewer in a different way. It creates a dynamic space that encourages audiences to watch in their own ways and on their own time. They use technology to effect change, while the performers respond only with their bodies.
OPAL
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Presented by Incubator Arts Project, May 2011
Direction/Choreography/Set: Melanie S. Armer
Opal is an overlapping performance piece for five voices that explores memory and role play
in a fractured family dynamic. Certain archetypes emerge: Mother, Father, Son, Daughter.
The show is staged as a dissonant chamber music Piece, with each speaker representing a distinct physical and vocal instrument. It incorporates modulated voice, choreographed movement, and immersive design.
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Presented by Incubator Arts Project, May 2011
Direction/Choreography/Set: Melanie S. Armer
Opal is an overlapping performance piece for five voices that explores memory and role play
in a fractured family dynamic. Certain archetypes emerge: Mother, Father, Son, Daughter.
The show is staged as a dissonant chamber music Piece, with each speaker representing a distinct physical and vocal instrument. It incorporates modulated voice, choreographed movement, and immersive design.
LIVE/FEED
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Produced in residence at the Brooklyn Lyceum
Direction/Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
LIVE/FEED is a movement theater mash-up that focuses on the actors’ physical relationships with each other and with the performance space. The text becomes a navigational tool for these discoveries. Inspired by an apocryphal quote (“May you live in interesting times”), the project deals with issues of control in a violent and chaotic landscape. Featuring original music and immersive, site-responsive design.
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Produced in residence at the Brooklyn Lyceum
Direction/Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
LIVE/FEED is a movement theater mash-up that focuses on the actors’ physical relationships with each other and with the performance space. The text becomes a navigational tool for these discoveries. Inspired by an apocryphal quote (“May you live in interesting times”), the project deals with issues of control in a violent and chaotic landscape. Featuring original music and immersive, site-responsive design.
bauhaus the bauhaus
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Produced in residence at the Brooklyn Lyceum
Direction/Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
The Nerve Tank explores the Bauhaus, the seminal German school of design that operated from 1919 until 1933, when the Nazi regime shut it down. bauhaus the bauhaus is a fully immersive research and performance experience, where collective action meets mass production to form a stylized dream of progress. Are the ideals of the Bauhaus alive and well today? Or have they been concealed, co-opted, and Ikea-d to death?
Conceived by Chance Muehleck
Created by The Nerve Tank
Produced in residence at the Brooklyn Lyceum
Direction/Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
The Nerve Tank explores the Bauhaus, the seminal German school of design that operated from 1919 until 1933, when the Nazi regime shut it down. bauhaus the bauhaus is a fully immersive research and performance experience, where collective action meets mass production to form a stylized dream of progress. Are the ideals of the Bauhaus alive and well today? Or have they been concealed, co-opted, and Ikea-d to death?
The Window
I Was Just Thinking...
April 2 – 8, 2012
Presented by The Romanian Cultural Institute, NY Gallery Storefront
Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
A site-specific theatrical work directed by Ana Mărgineanu. The Window breaks the classic convention of the theatregoer buying a ticket, entering the theatre and just seeing a show. This time, the audience members are in control and decide how long to watch the performance. Pedestrians may view the piece as a “living window” for a few moments, in a quick flash or in its entirety.
I Was Just Thinking...
April 2 – 8, 2012
Presented by The Romanian Cultural Institute, NY Gallery Storefront
Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
A site-specific theatrical work directed by Ana Mărgineanu. The Window breaks the classic convention of the theatregoer buying a ticket, entering the theatre and just seeing a show. This time, the audience members are in control and decide how long to watch the performance. Pedestrians may view the piece as a “living window” for a few moments, in a quick flash or in its entirety.
The Window 2
4 Alice:
Presented by The Rumanian Cultural Institute, NY Gallery Storefront
May 23-June 18 2012
Choreography: Melanie S. Armer (Nomination for Innovative Theater Awared)
The Window breaks the classic convention of the theatregoer buying a ticket, entering the theatre and just seeing a show. This time, the audience members are in control and decide how long to watch the performance. Pedestrians may view the piece as a “living window” for a few moments, in a quick flash or in its entirety. “Using the window space of the RCINY Gallery for a creative laboratory-like experience, involving Romanian and American artists, is part of our ambition to be a living part of New York City,” says RCINY Director, Corina Şuteu.
4 Alice:
Presented by The Rumanian Cultural Institute, NY Gallery Storefront
May 23-June 18 2012
Choreography: Melanie S. Armer (Nomination for Innovative Theater Awared)
The Window breaks the classic convention of the theatregoer buying a ticket, entering the theatre and just seeing a show. This time, the audience members are in control and decide how long to watch the performance. Pedestrians may view the piece as a “living window” for a few moments, in a quick flash or in its entirety. “Using the window space of the RCINY Gallery for a creative laboratory-like experience, involving Romanian and American artists, is part of our ambition to be a living part of New York City,” says RCINY Director, Corina Şuteu.
Spring Pictures of the Floating World;
A Dream of The Fisherman's Wife
Direction/Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
June 28-July 1 2012
Peculiar Works at La Mama NYC
A site-specific, Muliti-diciplinary experience recreating classic erotica. The performance installation, reimagined the 17th century Japanese Shunga (a.k.a. Pillow Book) titled The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. Melanie collaborated with installation artist Marcy Chevali, Sound
Designer Joey Asal, Video Designer Robert Montenegro, and dancer Robin Johnson.
A Dream of The Fisherman's Wife
Direction/Choreography: Melanie S. Armer
June 28-July 1 2012
Peculiar Works at La Mama NYC
A site-specific, Muliti-diciplinary experience recreating classic erotica. The performance installation, reimagined the 17th century Japanese Shunga (a.k.a. Pillow Book) titled The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. Melanie collaborated with installation artist Marcy Chevali, Sound
Designer Joey Asal, Video Designer Robert Montenegro, and dancer Robin Johnson.
L'Chaim by Talya Chalef
April 2013
Horace Mann Theatre, Columbia University
Choreographer
Polish woodcarver Chaim Chalef uses his art to run away from Auschwitz, lives in the forest with a band of Partisans and reunites with his wife eight years after the war starts. They head to Melbourne for a new life. Jude wakes up to realize the sky is about to fall on her head and unless she participates in an absurd game of life involving a chorus of bucket-wielding townsfolk, a psychopathic butcher and an animated projected chicken, she may just lose.
A dying old man lies in a hospital bed contemplating whether to leave this earth for the stars.
Three semi-autobiographical stories told through installation, projection, movement and poetic text, immerse an audience in a timeless tale of choice, love and life.
April 2013
Horace Mann Theatre, Columbia University
Choreographer
Polish woodcarver Chaim Chalef uses his art to run away from Auschwitz, lives in the forest with a band of Partisans and reunites with his wife eight years after the war starts. They head to Melbourne for a new life. Jude wakes up to realize the sky is about to fall on her head and unless she participates in an absurd game of life involving a chorus of bucket-wielding townsfolk, a psychopathic butcher and an animated projected chicken, she may just lose.
A dying old man lies in a hospital bed contemplating whether to leave this earth for the stars.
Three semi-autobiographical stories told through installation, projection, movement and poetic text, immerse an audience in a timeless tale of choice, love and life.