Jonathan Guillen music + sound

The Mother by Bertolt Brecht

I've been putting the final touches on the audio tracks for Oracle Theatre's production of Bertolt Brecht's The Mother, which opens this weekend in Chicago. I had some great assistance developing and arranging vocal lines from Nicholas Tonozzi, who also acted as the production's music director. The Mother was originally a serialist opera composed by Hanns Eisler in 1935. Director Max Truax and I decided to create new music and reinvent a musical work by Brecht. We wanted to capture the spirit of the Russian worker during the Bolshevik revolution, half drunk on vodka and half starved from poverty. The cast has taken to the music like reactionist propaganda and will be spreading the word from April 20 - May 25, so do try to catch it if you can. Forward without forgetting our solidarity!