Free Tix: “Schick Machine” Wild & Unique Mechanical Musical Instruments (Dec. 15-17)

A giant motorized hurdy-gurdy, a deconstructed pipe organ, and an array of spinning and thrashing metal machines that seem almost to be alive—these devices and more fill the basement workshop of our possibly mad and possibly genius inventor as he nears the completion of his giant instrument that he believes can reconcile the past and the future. He thinks: “Theoretically, it’s sound. It’s sound, theoretically, it’s sound.”

The sound of a summer storm’s distant thunder and the rain on the roof—the memory of the late-night sound of his mother’s typewriter down the hall—compel the sound collector and sonic inventor Lazlo Klangfarben to attempt the creation of the Schick Machine, a wondrous mechanical device that consumes his every waking and dreaming moment.

Collaboratively created by:

Paul Dresher: Composer, Instrument Inventor
Rinde Eckert: Director, Writer
Steven Schick: Performer, Percussionist
Daniel Schmidt: Instrument Inventor
Matt Heckert: Mechanical Sound Artist
Tom Ontiveros: Lighting and Visual Designer