Scaffold Room

Ralph Lemon calls this work a “lecture-performance-musical.” In Scaffold Room, two women (both performing live and on video) enact iconic characters drawn from history, popular culture, and science fiction with source materials ranging from Moms Mabley to Amy Winehouse and Kathy Acker to Samuel R. Delany. The space for Scaffold Room is a confined, constructed two-story environment: in essence, its own theater. Over three weeks, Lemon and his team of designers and performers used EMPAC’s infrastructure to prepare Scaffold Room for its world premiere. The designers assembled the modular and adaptive scaffold construction (designed by Lemon and R. Eric Stone); tested control and movement of video projection, along with lighting and audio elements; and conducted final rehearsals with the performers. The work also featured an electronic/turntable-based sound score created by composer Marina Rosenfeld.