Singing the music of singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. A theatrical construction. The score: Joni’s songs. The book: Joni’s words. The trajectory: younger to older incarnation through three vocal octaves. First came the music. Then came the character. Not impersonation, but embodiment. Live art as triathlon.

Concept, direction, interpolated texts by John Kelly
music, lyrics, and transcribed texts by Joni Mitchell
backdrops by Craig Coleman

Version I: with Brian Butterick (Georgia O’Keeffe) and Jesse Hultberg (Neil Young), Wigstock Festival, Tompkins Square Park, NY, Labor Day, 1984.

Version II: with Jonathan Bassil (Neil Young) and Kenneth Mellman (Georgia O’Keeffe); produced by Tom Ross and Liz Dunn for John Kelly & Company; Josie’s Juice Joint, San Francisco, CA, October 1993.

Version III: with Zecca Esquibel (Georgia O’Keeffe) and Mark McCarron/Blake Newman (Vincent van Gogh); produced and directed by Kevin Malony of TWEED TheaterWorks, Westbeth Theatre Center and John Kelly Performance; Westbeth Theatre Center, NY, October 1996, and Abrons Arts Center, NY, 2009.