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The Making Of ‘Illinoise’ And The Guiding Vision Of Sufjan Stevens – Tony Watch Q&A With Justin Peck
Illinoise, the dance-musical hybrid nominated for four Tony Awards (including Best Musical) is the seventh collaboration between Justin Peck, the resident choreographer and artistic advisor of the New York City Ballet, and his old friend and creative partner Sufjan Stevens, the indie singer-songwriter turned Oscar nominee (for his song “Mystery of Love” from 2017’s Call […]
Illinoise, the dance-musical hybrid nominated for four Tony Awards(including Best Musical) is the seventh collaboration between Justin Peck, the resident choreographer and artistic advisor of the New York City Ballet, and his old friend and creative partner Sufjan Stevens, the indie singer-songwriter turned Oscar nominee (for his song “Mystery of Love” from 2017’s Call Me By Your Name). Putting movement to Stevens’ 2005 album Illinois and its captivating mixture of indie folk, rock and orchestral arrangements – not to mention lyrics that combine the autobiographical, the historical (figures from the state’s past and landscape pop up frequently) and the fanciful (zombies, UFOs, Superman, a predatory wasp) are fashioned into an episodic narrative without dialogue. In this interview, Peck, whose collaborations with Stevens are being celebrated by the New York City Ballet to mark the 10th anniversary of Peck’s appointment as Resident Choreographer with Year of the Rabbit performances on May 18 and May 26 and presentations of Everywhere We Go this fall, describes how Illinoise came together, the challenges it overcame and the collaborative effort that includes a story and book he wrote with Jackie Sibblies Drury, the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of Fairview, musical arrangements by Timo Andres, musical direction by Nathan Koch and of course the songs and the spirit of Sufjan Stevens.
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