The history of The Lost Mansion of Sojourn.
The original version of the story was a script for a multimedia work with a significant emphasis on audio generated by a NeXT computer. This original script was written in one surprising blast of inspiration on my mother’s birthday, January 19, 1996.
The work was first presented as a gallery installation in New York at the Ward-Nasse gallery. The next presentation was an installation at Elgin Community College in the fall of 1997 supported by a grant from the Elgin (IL) Arts Commission. This production included video projections of the main character and pre-recorded narration. Isadore Geller was the actor and voice performer.
The next performances were a first attempt at a solo theatre show involving music, props with MIDI triggers, and actor. I performed the work myself at the Montreal Fringe Festival in 1998.
The next performance occurred at St. Louis Community College in 2002. I again performed the work incorporating a combination of Geller’s video with the stage action and MIDI triggers from Montreal.
The Lost Mansion of Sojourn was again performed at St. Louis Community College. It was a fully developed production with projected real-time CG video of the locations and events in the story, an actor, live music and sfx, and a beautifully designed stage set. The CG video was created by my son, James S. Hegarty, the stage set was designed and built by Lin E Alden, and the production was directed by Dennis Rau.
The concept has also been implemented as a real-time interactive 3D computer game built by my son James and me. Images from the game are now available in the free eBook “The Island of Naereaon.” The eBooks menu above will lead to download links.