Upintheair Theatre Presents Jami Reimer's

The tongue of the frog is of the softest known biological materials on this planet. It is this softness that yields the stickiness needed to pluck a fly from mid air, slough skin in perpetual acts of self-consumption, and stretch voice in promulgating chorusing networks.

Joined by bioacousticians, Jami’s field recorder, and an amphibious choir, this work invites full swamp submersion as we listen episodically through the shapeshifting life (and afterlife) cycle of the frog.

Speak in tongues! Breath through your skin! Inherit the earth!

Direction, composition and performance: Jami Reimer

Amphibious Choral Collective: Czarina Agustines, Sara van Gaalen, Eve Middleton-Meyer, Lauren Han, Ruby Maher, Ali McDougall, Indah del Bianco, and Sam Walters

Scientist voices: Joelma Prado, Joao Pedro, Jeanie Soula, Felipe Silva

Lighting and video design: Alexandra Caprara

Video Editing: Jami Reimer, Mena El Shazly, and Kaila Bhullar, 

Stage Manager: Bernice Paet

Assistant Stage Manager: Maddy Woodley

Costumes and styling: Jami Reimer & cast

Extant frog voices: Dendroposophous minutos, Dendroposophous nanos, Boana faber, Boana albopunctata, Adenomera marmorata 

Recorded by Jami Reimer in Atlantic Forest, Brazil with the support of Joelma Prado, Joao Pedro, and Jeanie Soula

Extinct frogs – may they rest in peace: Ischnocnema garcia, Holoaden barde, Rhinella casconi, Boana cymbalum, Hylodes magalhaesi, Physalaemus soaresi, Pithecopus rusticus, Chiasmocleis alagoana  

Accessed via the Fonoteca Neotropical Jacques Viellard with the archival support of Simone Dena and Felipe Toledo, and heard in the final section of the work

“Ambient sounds fade and shift, transforming into more distinctly musical configurations, at times verging on orchestral. Reimer leads us from brittle grass at the edge of a marsh — drum machine scuttling — through a forest, to the symphony. Further into the composition an ethereal, syrupy voice emerges, circling the audio-scape like an auditory apparition.” Ryley O’Byrne, 2023, Reissue Pub. 

Jami is the winner of the 2023 Robert Fleming Prize for composition from Canada Council of the Arts

www.jamireimer.com

Instagram @jamisreimer