HOUGHTON – The Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts is pleased to present a webinar and Q & A with the creative team behind Manual Cinema, an award-winning artistic company that has pushed the art and crafts of filmmaking, puppetry, and live performance in an exciting and breathtaking new artistic direction. Their work combines handmade shadow puppetry, innovative cinematic techniques, and live sound and music to create an immersive, haunting, and entirely unique brand of live performances. They will present the online video stream of their production of Lula Del Ray, streaming free tonight at 7:30 p.m., with stream access through the Rozsa website: mtu.edu/rozsa. The performance will be available for viewing for 24 hours.

The Rozsa then invites audiences to join them for a free webinar in which they will discuss the puppetry, lighting, sound, music, and filmmaking techniques, elements, and expertise that combine to become Manual Cinema performances. The webinar, titled Behind the Curtain, will be available to be live streamed on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 4 p.m., where they will pull back the virtual curtain and guide audiences through their innovative blend of lighting, puppetry, and cinematic techniques – all the elements that bring their award-winning creations come to life. To access the live stream, please visit rozsa.mtu.edu, click on the button on the homepage for “Behind Curtain,” and you will be instructed on how to access the live stream link.

Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award winning performance collective, design studio, and film/ video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality. Lula del Ray is the story of a lonely adolescent girl who lives with her mother on the outskirts of a vast satellite array in the middle of the desert. After a chance encounter over the radio, Lula becomes obsessed with a soulful country music duo, the Baden Brothers. Inspired by their music, she runs away from home and into a world of danger, deception, and disappointment.

For more details about streaming Lula Del Ray and the Manual Cinema webinar, please contact the Rozsa Center at rozsa@mtu.edu, or call (906) 487-2856.

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