St Kilda
A One Woman Scottish Horror Excursion With Supernatural Foley Looping
Written and Performed by Jody Christopherson
Sound and Foley Design by Andy Evan Cohen
Voice Over Acting by Michael de Roos
Dialect Coaching by Savanna Sinéad Kenny
After the death of her Grandmother, an American woman travels to an abandoned island off the coast of Scotland and unearths a dark family secret, in a world where the past is anything but dead.
This tale of supernatural horror is steeped in Scottish folklore and told in a tradition as ancient as its subject matter. To perform St Kilda, Jody Christopherson tours alone and creates her own sound score, lighting and special effects from stage. With the skills of highly trained musician/technician, she sets up and operates all her own technical equipment. Live sound mixing on an 8 channel board, distortion pedals, a sound looper, sound recordings from the UK, folk singing, foley, clip lights on dimmer switches, a hazer, and an LED hoodie she created all conjure a multi-layered storytelling experience in near darkness.
Foley instruments include a cigar box guitar, violin bows on bowls of water, monochords, pie tins full of salt, kitchen and camping items, and more.
St Kilda is inspired by Christopherson’s Nebraska roots, her Scottish heritage, and the 1930 evacuation of Scotland’s St Kilda. The show features the lost music of the archipelago, discovered in 2016.
St Kilda was developed with the support of Torn Page, Tony Torn, New Georges The Room, The New York Community Trust on behalf of Alexander Sanger, Isaac Byrne and Chloe Dirksen
PRESS
"Chilling."- Theasy.com
"If you like Laurie Anderson, try St Kilda.”
- Minneapolis Star Tribune
"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ...creating a chilling atmosphere through light and sound onstage, Christopherson delivers one of the creepiest performances at this years’ Fringe." -- Global News, Canada
"one of the funniest, spookiest experiences I’ve ever had at the theater. With the timing of a seasoned comedian, Christopherson sparkles as a story-teller, breathing exciting new life into this oldest of art-forms. . . exciting, inventive . . . able to inspire fear, sympathy, laughter, and wonder. She’s a visionary in the theater world and legendary story-teller."- The Theatre Times
"a not-so-typical, one-woman performance that completely blew away the audience. . . an amazing sight for the senses. . . enchanting." -Woman About Town
“The most enjoyable evening of theatre we’ve had in a long time . . . imaginative magic . . . a tribute to what Artaud called the “Alchemy” of the theatre.-Travalanche, New York
"Succeeds... brilliantly... otherworldly... skillfully blends the sly mischievous fun of a campfire ghost story with the incantatory eeriness of a Druidic ceremony." -- Beer Tent Reviews, Edmonton
"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ New York’s Jody Christopherson is a quintuple threat – playwright, actor, master of dialects, singer, and most distractingly impressive: An operator of the dreaded 'looper.'" -- Gig City Canada
“Atmospheric and dreamy, St Kilda is a unique theatrical experience, an uncanny, unsettling story and world of secrets and mystery. Jody Christopherson is an engaging storyteller, and her technical mastery is impressive as she manipulates her microphones, recorders and sound effect props to create this story, a wonderfully magical soundscape.”- Minnesota Theater Love
CREATIVE TEAM
JODY CHRISTOPHERSON ( Writer/ Performer) has been called "a visionary in the theater world and legendary story-teller" (The Theater Times) “a talent to watch, not to mention a pleasure to hear” (Time Out NY) “the ANTITHESIS of the manic pixie dream girl” (Zouch Magazine) and a “Rock Monster” (Brooklyn Rail). Her work has been performed in 28 cities in 6 countries, including Canada, Detroit MI, New Orleans, Key West FL, Miami, Amsterdam, Germany, Lithuania, Australia, New York. She is a Drama League Award nominee and productions have been nominated for 7 Innovative Theater Awards. She is originally form Nebraska.
ANDY EVAN COHEN (Sound and Foley Design) is a NYC-based composer and sound artist. Credits include off-Broadway’s The Orchard, (A)Loft Modulation (Audelco Award Nomination for Sound Design), God Shows Up, My Parsifal Conductor, and Pushkin. Broadway's Pushkin, If Only, Dear Jane, and In Bed With Roy Cohn; touring productions of Our Trojan War (Aquila Theater); The American Soldier(Kennedy Center, The Citadel, and other venues). Andy’s film credits as composer include documentary features “Less Than or Equal To” (Fair Housing Justice Center) and “Stig Dagerman: Making of a Man” for Danish TV, The Mall, Show & Tell Tango (awarded best score at European Independent Cinema Awards). Andy teaches in the theatre departments of CUNY’s Borough of Manhattan Community College and Kingsborough Community College. www.rolypolyproductions.com
MICHAEL DE ROOS (Voice of, YFKE)
Michael de Roos studied at ITS DNA (Internationale Theatre School De Nieuw Amsterdam) and at the Koningstheaterakademie in Holland.
In 2010 Michael moved to the United States to study Meisner at the Maggie Flanigan Studio. He also studied dance at DNA (Dance New Amsterdam) in NYC. During his stay in New York, he appeared in several plays and TV-series like “Phases”, “FrankenStein The Musical”, “The Skype Show or See You in August”, The Eshaton Cabaret and “The Little Prinsinn”.
In 2013 he returned to the Netherlands and got parts in Spiderman Far from Home, SPANGAS, “SCARS”, Hunter Street, Little Amsterdam and has been a part of the cast on the long-running soap series “Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden as Alex de Boer”
Michael is currently filming the feature film “Only You” and television series “Huize Harteveld” as well as doing a play at TheatreGroup Met de Botte Zijde.
He lives in a small town close to Amsterdam with his wife and 2 children.
Savanna Sinéad Kenny (Dialect Coach) is an actor/musician and Voiceover artist hailing from Lanark in Scotland. For this project, she assisted with pronunciation in a Scottish accent and Gaelic. Savanna fluently speaks a dialect of Gaelic from the Isle of Lewis.
ST KILDA is an archipelago of abandoned islands, the remotest part of The British Isles, 41 miles west of Benbecula in Scotland’s outer Hebrides. Today, it is the most important sea-bird breeding station in Northwest Europe and has had Dual World Heritage Status since 2005. St Kilda’s island Hirta, is said to be shaped like a woman. (Aerial map drawn by Artist Keith Payne.)
TOUR/Performances
June 2023- Provincetown Theater, Provincetown MA
May 2023- Cloud City, Brooklyn NY
October 2022- LTV Studios, East Hampton, NY
October 2022- Boston University, Boston MA
Aug 2022- Edmonton Fringe Festival, Edomonton Alberta, Canda
June 2022- The City REliquary Museum, Brooklyn NY
Oct 24th, 2021, The Brick Theater, Brooklyn NY
June 15th, 2021, The City Reliquary Museum, Brooklyn NY
July 24th, 2020, Live Stream for Tech 2 Build, Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Jan 10th-12th, 2020, Winter Mini-Fest, Orlando FL
Oct 15th, 2019, The Center at West Park, New York
August 2019, Edmonton Fringe Festival, Edmonton Alberta, Canada
July 5th, 2019, Wellfleet Preservation Hall, Cape Cod MA
June 6th- 23rd, 2019 Westbeth, New York, NY
Dec 13- Jan 6, 2018, So-fi Festival, New York NY
Oct 26-Nov 3, 2018, Twin Cities Horror Festival, Southern Theatre, Minneapolis MN
Oct 22nd & Nov 16th, 2018, Torn Page, New York NY
To make a tax-deductible donation to support this project please visit Fractured Atlas !