In the early hours of May 13, 1862, Robert Smalls and a crew composed of fellow slaves, stole a cotton steamer in Charleston, SC, picked up family members at a rendezvous point, then navigated their way through the harbor. Once clear of the harbor and outside of Confederate waters, he had his crew surrendered his ship to the blockading Union fleet. Smalls would later go on to serve five terms in the US House of Representatives. His amazing life was depicted in an October world premiere production of Finding Freedom, The Journey of Robert Smalls, at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, with media design by Joseph Amodei.
Combining media with music and stage movement, Amodei, assistant professor of theatre, designed the production’s visual content, blending responsive screen projections with live video and film to connect the audience with the world in which the characters live. Finding Freedom depicts the early years of Smalls enslaved in Beaufort, SC; years learning the land, waters, and Gullah traditions of his mother, the bold seizure of the USS Planter through the Charleston Harbor, and his later life of advocacy in Congress.
“In this case, media design is how content and videos contributed to the story,” Amodei says. “For me, it's blending that with live camera, videos switching work that's mixed, with these more imagistic portraits. And then also I feel like I'm in charge of interactivity, having sound affect the quality of the experience, making sure everything's networked together so it can be really, really precise for some of the movements.”
Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences News.
Spotlight Recipient
Joseph Amodei
Assistant Professor