MEDIATHEK

Predator Songstress is an intensely visual, music-driven fantastical tale that traces the struggle of an anti-heroine in search of the reclamation of her stolen voice. This modern day fairy tale explores what it means to have a voice, to lose ones voice and to rediscover it with a new understanding of its power. The work is set in a world where the tools often used by the powerful to stifle and control are re-appropriated as means for individual realization. The work brings together live music, song, movement theatre and cinematic video. Predator Songstress is set in a totalitarian world where sharing stories is forbidden, and women who speak out are sent to work camps to have their voices removed.
 
 Degenerate Art Ensemble’s work has always focused on the finding of one’s voice. In Predator Songstress, the group collaborated with organizations in Seattle and San Francisco that support the homeless, and worked directly with people recovering from homelessness, addiction and trauma, who, through DAE workshops that explored the finding of voice they helped to create some of the core material of the piece. During the performance, these participants not only shared their own stories of finding their voice, but also interviewed members of the audience, playing the part of the Rebel Forces. The transcripts of these audience interviews are transformed into songs and projections later in the performance.