For the better part of the past twenty years, Chad Salvata and the folks at his production company, Ethos, have been creating what they call cyberoperas. These works, set in a fantasy world and all featuring elaborate, colorful costumes and sets, have up to now all been live stage shows. But the newest installment in the Ethos canon, Octia of the Pink Ocean, is something different.
Octia is the first full-length feature film created by Ethos. Like their other works, it's an opera, set in a world of fantastical locations and characters. So why film it rather than staging it? For several reasons, according to Salvata. For one, a film will give him the opportunity to share his work with a larger audience; it'll also let him preserve it for all time. Most importanly, perhaps, creating a film and using green screen technology allows him to include sets and characters that he could never create in a stage setting.
Longtime director Bonnie Collum has helmed all the stage productions of Ethos works and continues directing duties here. For her, working in a green screen environment was freeing, allowing her to concentrate more of the performances of her actors without worrying about how to fit Salvata's imaginative creations onto the Vortex stage.
Octia of the Pink Ocean will screen at the Vortex for the next couple of weeks, and Chad Salvata will be on hand for a Q and A session after every presentation.
Octia of the Pink Ocean is at the Vortex nightly through August 23, and is for mature audiences only
