'My journey from music to multimedia'

Imagine a play combining light projections, music and audio with theatrical pre-recorded performances by actors who interact via plasma screen with each other while David Chocran gives a tour de force live performance on stage.

This is what you can expect from this innovative production, which comes to City Hall on Monday as part of the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts.

Dreamweaver tells the story of a mysterious late night DJ they call Nightfly, who hosts a slot for a trendy New York radio station.

One night, he falls asleep on air while listening to a record he found in a New York cab.

Suddenly his dreams are forecast to an entire city and through these fantasies and dreams, Nightfly’s true relationship with his listeners is revealed.

Mr. Chocran’s musical background renders  Dreamweaver quite unlike anything he has done before.

It is truly a one man spectacle — not only has he written and directed the show, he filmed the actors’ parts, he has composed all the music, he sings, acts and is responsible for the setting up the numerous computers and plasma screen which makes the magic happen.

“It is an artistic expression doing it in a sense. I’ve never done anything this advanced and intricate.

“I am from the music world. I have been writing music for the record business, television and then I started performing with multimedia and video and so on. I think that I really enjoy doing this — it is very powerful.”

Norwegian-born Mr. Chocran, said he has performed the show in front of theatre professionals in numerous major cities who have all told him it was the first time they had seen anything like it.

“It’s not because it is so incredibly advanced,” explained Mr. Chocran “but it is a strange mix.

“All the other performers on the screens are talking to each other and to me.

“Plus there is all this projection on stage and around the venue itself.

“The interesting thing is that people forget completely the technology really quickly which is almost a bit of a disappointment because it was really difficult to make.

“I suppose it’s an indication that it works as people just accept it and feel they are characters on stage and that’s that.”

If the show runs to plan it is easy to imagine the audience getting caught up in the dialogue and forgetting the intricate technological set ups that make it happen. However, things have gone wrong for Mr. Chocran on a few occasions during past performances.

“While the pre-recorded performances will always be the same, I can play around with my role a little.

“It’s tight dialogue but I’m always trying to rearrange what I say in between. I know that I only have, say, 3.4 seconds between the line before and the line after.

“I’ve really messed up before and had people talking over me but most of the time it is good.”

The character of Nightfly is based on New York DJ Alison Steele who was nicknamed Nightbird.

The late Ms Steel worked for the American progressive rock station WNEW fm and Mr. Chocran himself was enthralled by her late night musings.

“I am old enough to have listened to the radio and not just MTV as a child,” said Mr. Chocran.

“Alison Steele had a wonderful voice, she read poetry and was a bit mysterious.She sounded like the most beautiful woman in the world. It was really something very attractive — it was something very, very special, especially when day time radio has such fast talking DJs and so on — these nighttime personalities really struck quite a magical tone.”