SOCALLED’S THE 3RD SEASON
Past production
-
The Season, Socalled’s hilarious, sophisticated and heartwarming musical was a one night only performance at Pop Montréal festival in 2011, released as an album in 2013 on Dare To Care Records, and re-staged at the International Summer Festival at Kampnagel in August 2014 with 5 sold out performances in a venue with 300 seats. The opalescent musical melts folk music, HipHop, klezmer, funk and recalls the golden age of Broadway musicals. By means of puppetry, acting, dance and live music, The Season tells the story of the impossible love that blooms between a forest animal and an extraterrestrial, addressing themes of xenophobia, economic crisis, friendship and existentialism.
Following The 2nd Season, Dolgin was commissioned to create a sequel. Premiering at Kampnagel's International Summer Festival in 2017, The 2nd Season explored themes of industrialization, urbanization, addiction and gentrification. Putting the relationship between the puppets and the puppeteers constantly in focus, it’s also a meta-theatrical play with an unpretentious DIY-touch and an experiment in theatrical togetherness; an elevated community theatre event bringing together an unprecedented diversity. The 2nd Season featured a total cast of 16, consisting of 3 puppeteers, 1 dancer and Fred Wesley as performers on stage and 7 musicians plus 4 vocalists set up behind a scrim on the stage.
After another international success, Dolgin created The 3rd Season. This time, it featured forest creatures, an evil monster named Zog, and one human performer, who all tell a love story through song. Like parts one and two of The Season, part three addresses social issues, including environmental destruction, gentrification and addiction. Oh, and the characters also go to space.
Dolgin's absurdist puppet musicals each have one human star on stage; the artists he invites into the projects come from very different genres of music. For The 3rd Season it is Kiran Ahluwalia, a two-time, Juno-winning Indian-Canadian performer who mixes traditional Indian classical singing with contemporary musical styles. For Dolgin, the eclecticism of the 20-strong cast of creators and performers in the third installment of his series is part of what makes it quintessentially Montreal. -
Director, Design, Puppets, Music and Lyrics
Josh "Socalled“ Dolgin
Socalled's The 3rd Season: Space feat. Kiran Ahluwalia is a hilarious, touching, and unparalleled puppet-heavy indie musical conceived and composed by Montreal's Josh Dolgin aka Socalled. The producer, pianist, writer, rapper, magician and cartoonist has – in addition to releasing six solo albums and worldwide touring – collaborated with musicians as different as Chilly Gonzales, Wu-Tang Clan’s Killah Priest, Irving Fields or “the architect of funk music” Fred Wesley, famed for his work with James Brown, Susan Hoffman-Watts and Frank London.
