THE WHITE ALBUM (1995)

A rock n’ roll band is working in a recording studio on fragments of some songs drawn from the Beatles’ “White Album.” In a neighboring studio, actors are recording voice-overs for a television version of Noel Coward’s classic British play, “Blithe Spirit.” The two worlds overlap and collide. THE WHITE ALBUM combines two disparate texts by playing on the similarities produced by their idiosyncratic, distinctly British tone, their preoccupations with death and the afterlife, their nostalgic beauty, and their “hocus-pocus” mysticism. Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit and The Beatles’ “White Album” are combined so that sometimes it appears as if the music the band is producing is a soundtrack for the “Blithe Spirit” video, and sometimes it seems that “Blithe Spirit” is a background track for the music the band performs.

THE WHITE ALBUM was developed in collaboration with students from New York University’s Experimental Theater Wing, and was performed at New York University in April 1995.

Directed by Marianne Weems

Video Design by Peter Norrman
Sound Design and Original Music Composition by Dan Dobson
Set Design by John Cleater
Lighting by Allen Hahn

Text: Noel Coward, The Beatles, and additional text developed by the company

Performed by Jeff Webster, David Pence, Heaven Philips, Tim Cummings, and additional students from New York Unversity’s Experimental Theater Program.