Meet the Composer

"Slide is a rich tapestry of love, human frailty, the desire of control, and eventually the tragic consequences once we have attained it. The central metaphor is a slide from an experiment, which defines every element in this complex drama set with music, movement, and theater."

Slide is a concert-length music/theater work featuring new music ensemble eighth blackbird, actor/singer Rinde Eckert, and composer/performer Steve Mackey. Eckert plays Renard, an enigmatic psychologist who struggles to describe an experiment examining reactions to in- and out-of-focus slides. The results reveal that our decisions are based on habits or conventions that make it difficult for us to see clearly.

Slide uses the experiment as a metaphor for today's world, where persuasive images are employed to sell a commercial or political product. The work explores the seduction and manipulation of the American psyche, but also the effect of the experiment on Renard himself, who seems irreversibly changed by the experience.

eighth blackbird and Steven Mackey create onstage characters in the story and projected images play an important role. The goal is an unmediated exploration and expression of sound, text, movement and image.