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Christopher Eaves' CANOPY—A Rainforest Odyssey

CANOPY—A RAINFOREST ODYSSEY written, designed and performed by Christopher Eaves premiered November 20, 2010 at Stepping Stones Museum, Norwalk, CT. In celebration of the Museum's 10th anniversary and grand re-opening, following a 22,000 square foot expansion, Stepping Stones commissioned Eaves to write, design and perform a play about world rainforests that would fully utilize the Museum's newly opened State-of-the-art Multimedia gallery and also honor the Museum's philosophy of inquiry-based learning through play.

Eaves responded with CANOPY—A Rainforest Odyssey, an adventure-filled journey of an extraordinary leaf, hidden deep within a rainforest. Performed on a stage illuminated by 30' by 12' projected animations and immersed in a 5.1 surround soundscape, CANOPY—A RAINFOREST ODYSSEY continued Eaves' theatrical design and construction of performative works that are lit primarily by projected animations.

CANOPY—A Rainforest Odyssey played to sold-out houses of all ages who delighted in the interactivity of light and sound, song and dance and earnest storytelling.

As Stepping Stone's 2010 artist in residence Eaves also designed and facilitated Community Voice & The Art of Play, a year-long professional development series for the Stepping Stones staff.

For more information about Stepping Stones Museum for Children visit them at steppingstonesmuseum.org. [Photo: Christian Villa]

EN PLEIN AIR—IMPRESSIONS OF PAINTING IN GIVERNY & OLD LYME premiered on June 25, 2008 at the Florence Griswold Museum in historic Old Lyme, CT. Written, designed and performed by Christopher Eaves, EN PLEIN AIR coincided with the Museum's exhibition Impressionist Giverny—American Painters in France, 1885–1915, Selections from the Terra Foundation for American Art. [New York Times exhibition review]

EN PLEIN AIR brings to the stage the aesthetics and themes of early American Impressionism, the lives of impressionist artists and impressionist paintings through the immersion of movement, text, light and sound. EN PLEIN AIR is lit by animated video projections of the exhibition paintings—providing an ever changing landscape of Giverny and Old Lyme where a Painter Pierrot travels in search of the light, his muse and the good advices of Claude Monet.

Click above to listen to Bonnie Grice's WLIU radio interview with Christopher Eaves and David Rau, the Florence Griswold Museum's Director of Education and Outreach.

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EN PLEIN AIR was subsequently perfromed on July 14, 2009 in Hartford, CT.

THE LEDGE wins 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for "Outstanding Solo Performance."	SELF AT HAND is "one of the year's stellar performances" according to the Baltimore City Paper.	©2009 Jim R. Moore / All Rights Reserved	"You haven't lived until you've seen the light." FINISHING HOUSE premiered MAR 2009 at Dixon Place.

Christopher Eaves / eavesdrop® awarded 2006-07 Space Grant by BAX \| Brooklyn Arts Exchange.	Step, Glide and Lift: A Profile of 2008 CJC Artist-in-Residence Christopher Eaves at the Roland Park Country School.		eavesdrop® donates portable synthesizer keyboards to PS/IS 66, Brooklyn so students can rehearse music at home.