Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera

We are working on setting up a monthly newsletter to keep Zombie Opera supporters up-to-date on upcoming events, auditions, filming days, and calls for extras (the more zombies the merrier!)

If you would like to be added to our email list, please contact us. We promise not to share your email information with spam lists, advertisers, or any other such evil internet sources.

Don’t forget you can always follow our Twitter, Facebook page, or our website’s RSS feed!

We are pleased to announce that local Pittsburgh artist, Arvin Clay, has joined our ranks as our Special Effects Makeup Designer.

“I am a fine arts photographer working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The landscape of the city provides wonderful fodder for the medium of urban exploration.  Previously, I worked in the film industry as a materials consultant to special effects makeup studios.  The work I did in the field of materials research (specifically translucent silicone rubbers) helped to push the industry into the 21st century. I maintained an informational website called replicants.org from 2000-2003 that saw thousands of visitors annually. ”

“I left the industry in 2004 and moved back to Pittsburgh to pursue another passion of mine- photography, freezeframereality.org. I caught the bug during the time I spent working in London taking countless pictures of textures. I found Pittsburgh to have the same sort of feel. Many of the old building that have been left years ago can tell us stories of not only the past, but also of the current state of affairs.  Most recently I have taken my craft into a newer realm by incorporating a fashion element to it. Mixing the rough textures of the buildings with modern fashion design I have found a new calling, and through this recent work my perception has expanded 10 fold.”

We are ecstatic Arvin has agreed to take on our project as part of his re-entry into the world of special effects makeup design as well as assisting with photography. He plans to document his makeup and zombie creation process and share it with us along the way.

What kind of Zombie Opera would we be without wishing a very Happy Birthday to Night of the Living Dead’s creator, George Romero!!!!

George Andrew Romero (born February 4, 1940) is an American film director, screenwriter, editor and occasional actor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed Grandfather of the Zombie. – read more

Over 100 Facebook fans have joined the brigade of  Zombie Opera supporters this weekend!  We are happy to see so many people excited about the project.

Please do stay tuned via our website, Facebook, and Twitter as our project grows and we begin announcing casting calls, filming dates including super-duper-zombie-extra-hoards-needed days, and other activities!

You can now follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

our Twitter
our Facebook fan page

As you can see, we have been tinkering with WordPress to bring you our new website design, chock full of content!  We are still tweaking many of the features, but hope you like what is up so far. Many thanks to VirtualEpor for hosting our website.  Stay tuned for Facebook fan page and Twitter info!

We’d also like to give special thanks to Mordant Productions, Open Thread, Amanda Ford, and the many others who have met with us this past month offering helpful advice as our project continues to grow:)

Listed below are some posts from our old website, we will try to make this more ‘tidy’ in the near future
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Jan 5, 2010

Happy New Year! There’s a lot to be done in the next couple months, we’re currently finalizing the synopsis and fleshing out the feel of the show. Liz has begun preliminary sketches of the costumes. Our search for funding opportunities and possible sponsors continues. We are working getting our new website, Facebook, and Twitter setup sooooon to we can keep you posted on our progress, audition information, etc as we get closer to the final production. Stay tuned!!!

Nov 24, 2009

We just pounded out two new songs! Now we have a place in our opera for the “government” and the “media”, serving the functions they usually serve in zombie situations: controlling the panicked population… but this time, musically.

On a business note, we have begun researching grants and funding opportunities, as well as email list setups. If you have any suggestions or helpful advice, please drop us an email!

Oct 31, 2009

Thanks to all who came down to Open Thread’s Variety, Variety, Variety show at the Brillo Box to support our preview performance. We had an awesome time, and definitely plan to offer more sneak peeks as we continue in the pre-production stages!

Oct 20, 2009

Check out our photo is on the flyer for Open Thread!

Oct 14, 2009

After what seems an eternity of tinkering with zombie music, we have been requested to perform at a zombie-themed event!!!

Come on down to hear a preview of Evenings in Quarantine: the Zombie Opera at Open Thread‘s Variety! Variety! Variety! show at the Brillo Box on Thursday, Oct. 29th. The show runs 9pm thru 2am, we will be performing at 10pm.

The variety show is zombie-themed, we will be performing amongst zombie bands, performance artists, and so on. Admission is $6, $4 if you are dressed as a zombie!

It all started with a song…  very simple, one voice, piano… but that winter night in 2008 something started to grow.

“Wow… that was really interesting I can see how that could be a music video”

“Well, why don’t we expand it into a collection of songs, and videos, do the viral thing”

“…I think this could be a performance piece…”

“…yes…. oh my god this could be an opera…. what better place to do a zombie opera… than Pittsburgh:)”

and so it was written, and soon it shall be sung:)