Constituent dissonance

‘...Patriots...’ make a campaign trail stop at Living Arts

Paul Pinto and Jeffrey Young want your vote. Their platform includes fighting wars in space, building a new Tower of Babel to preempt the fall of Google Translate, and, of course, walls. The pair of composers and multi-disciplinary performers announce their candidacy in the half-hour satirical piece of music-theatre, “Jeff Young and Paul Pinto, Patriots, Run for Public Office on a Platform of Swift and Righteous Immigration Reform, Lots of Jobs, and a Healthy Environment: an Opera by Paul Pinto and Jeffrey Young.”

Originally created in 2011, “…Patriots…” presents Pinto and Young as a pair of candidates whose politics is “certainly not a patchwork of platforms on which we but temporarily rest our shiny shoes.” They field questions like, “Can we weaponize our diversity in the face of global terrorism?” and remind us that in the face of national tragedies, “we need only recall these great American inventions: jazz, lasers, barbed wire, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, and freedom.”

Though the parody of American politics was created seven years ago, these candidates—and particularly Pinto’s maniacal tirade of a stump speech—feel all too real in 2018. Pinto and Young will perform “…Patriots…” as part of an evening of experimental music at Living Arts on July 23.

Also performing is avant-garde soprano and violinist, Bonnie Lander, a free improviser and composer whose company, Rhymes With Opera, commissions and develops new works of contemporary opera in New York City. The show will feature local support from Little Boxes (aka composers/pianists David Broome and Paul Sweet) who perform musical and visual experimentations involving electronics, puppetry, and myriad keyboards.

New Music + New Arts Camp: An Evening of Touring and Tulsa-Based Performance
Monday, July 23 | 7 p.m. | $7
Living Arts | 307 E. M.B. Brady St.
livingarts.org