Indeterminacy Festival Presents: Making a Round Ark

Flood myths are among humanity’s oldest stories, expressing a universal fear: could everything disappear? Directions for Making a Round Ark weaves together flood narratives that predate Noah’s Ark, centering on the Babylonian Ark Tablet and Atrahasis, the heroic Babylonian counterpart to Noah. Charged with building a vast circular coracle, Atrahasis must prepare to survive a flood destined to destroy humanity.

The chamber opera, directed and composed by Indeterminacy Festival Director, Stanzi Vaubel, PhD, and Philippe Treuille, features soloists Alexandra Lang, Bert K. Johnson, and Michael Anderson, joined by singers and musicians from the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Bass Ensemble, Grace Chorale, Brooklyn Treble Choir, Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra, and NY Choir Project. The performance will include an introduction by Pinar Durgan, curator at the Morgan Library.

Founded in 2016, the Indeterminacy Festival creates ambitious, site-specific art in unexpected places, bringing professional and community artists together in interdisciplinary collaborations. Founded in the grain silos of Western New York, IF has transformed unconventional sites into stages for music, dance, visual art, and performance. Its work has received support from the NY State Council on the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, and Neuberger Berman with recent commissions from Grace Chorale and Snug Harbor Cultural Center.