About
The Bardo Trilogy: three films about people dealing with the liminal zone between life and art, being and not.
We’re in production again—this time it’s a film that mashes together the genres of documentary, musical theater, and opera into a full-length film called I Hear America Singing. Currently in pre-production, filming starts on 1 March 2024 and includes the documentation of one of the live performances of the show-within-a-documentary-about-a-show.
Currently on the international film festival circuit is 9-10: Love Before the Fall, an operafilm for six characters set in a restaurant in New York City’s Little Italy the evening before the fall of the World Trade Center.
NMC's members brought a staggering breadth of practical experience, training, and expertise to the development of Orson Rehearsed, the collective's first project (resulting in a web installation, an Operafilm, and a staged opera integrating film), which was co-produced by the Chicago College of Performing Arts, featuring the Fifth House Ensemble.
Formed in 2013 by artistic director Daron Hagen and named after Orson Welles' Mercury Theater, the New Mercury Collective exists to create and sustain a laboratory for artistic exploration, creative risk-taking, and performance in which its members can collaborate on the creation and performance of post-genre works combining theater, music, and emerging technology for audiences of all types underpinned by a fierce committment to social justice and civic activism.
“We’re going for something new here together that combines the emotional impact of cutting-edge live operatic performance with the psychological verisimilitude of gritty third-wall-demolishing auteur filmmaking. In short, neither film nor opera, but images storyboarded, directed and edited to the rhythm of the score by the composer himself, brought vividly to life by brave, fiercely-committed performers.”
The Woman in Morocco creative team, (l to r) Daron Hagen, Roger Zahab, and Barbara Grecki in Chicago, September 2018.
Cast and production team at a special screening of 9/1): Love Before the Fall at Upstate Films, in Rhinebeck, NY on 25 March 2024. p/c: Karen Pearson
Post performance talkback with New Mercury Collective members (l to r) Omar Mulero, Daron Hagen, Roger Zahab, Robert Frankenberry, and Robert Orth at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, 15 September 2018.
(l. to r.) Conductor Roger Zahab, Omar Mulero, Daron Hagen, Robert Frankenberry, and Robert Orth in rehearsal at the Fine Arts Bulding in Chicago, September 2018.
(l. to r.) The gold / filmed cast of “9/10: Love Before the Fall” during rehearsals in Chicago, April 2022. Cameron Dammann, Carlos Jaquez Gonzalez, Robert Frankenberry, Daron Hagen, CeCe Jude Hastreiter, Gilda Lyons, Barbara Grecki, Roger Zahab.
Click through to some of our collaborators….
