Visual/Sound/Walls has expanded from an opening-night party into a full-fledged lounge showcasing the best of music videos and performance art throughout the entire festival. Taking place Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, we interviewed Cucalorus Stage coordinator Brighid Greene.

encore (e): Tell me what’s different about V/S/W in 2018.

Brighid Greene (BG): The V/S/W party has transformed into V/S/W Lounge. It is your multi-spirited venue, the heart of our Cucalorus Stage Festival where you can drop in during the day for a drink and stay all night for a fringe-style showcase of experimental theatre, comedy, and music from real good bands. We’ve still put together the year’s best music videos and they’ll be playing all day long on several screens.

e: How many music videos are you showing each day. How many bands? And what are some of them? Which impressed you most and why?

BEG: There are twenty six music videos, all of which you can also see on Thursday, Nov 9th at 6:30pm in our Hominy Shorts block in addition to being played all day starting at 12pm at the Visual/Sound/Wall Lounge on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Our programs are always mingling, so not only do we have a music video from the Wilmington band Pinky Verde, but they’ll also be playing on Saturday night alongside Rene Russell and headliner Lizdelise, a pop-duo from Philadelphia, who is currently on tour, making Cucalorus one of their stops. On Friday night we have more local Wilmington musicians, subterrene with a video and music-based performance and Beats & Coffee who have a special Hollywood-themed night up their sleeves. Playing alongside them is Langston Hughes III from Charleston, South Carolina.

e: When will performances at V/S/W take place, and what will they consist of? Dancers, bands, performance artists?

BE: Each day performances start around 5p and go until midnight! The performance programming kicks off on Thursday with a play reading of Mary Worshippers and the Sheepshead Bay by local playwright Shaun Mitchell featuring many local actors, and “5 Fish, a Goat Head, and a Bag of Money,” a brand-new sketch comedy show about a hodgepodge of costumes and props unearthed from the dilapidated remains of many shuttered theaters by Wilmington-based Pineapple-Shaped Lamps. Our out-of-town shows, which repeat on both Friday and Saturday, are the Future Perfect: A Postcapitalist Adventure by LA-based collective Freemachine, whose mission is to work toward an automated future that benefits everyone, and Ike Once More, a stream-of-consciousness variety show by Ikechukwu Ufomaduna, named one of five “Comics to Watch in 2018” by Time Out New York. Each night ends with something musical. Swing into Verses: Versus for free on Thursday night to sing a la karaoke non-binary love songs, and come by on Friday and Saturday night for the bands mentioned above.

e: How will WTF be set up and are they doing anything special per drinks during V/S/W?  

BE: During the day at the V/S/W Lounge the drinks will be flowing and the venue will be open to the public. Come by for a taste of Cucalorus where the music videos will either lull you or give you the jolt you’ve been looking for- we encourage you to sit back, grab a drink, and talk about what you’ve just seen or to the friend you’ve just made. Upstairs in the loft while the lounge is open to the public on Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be an ongoing video installation, The Evolution of Silence (Version 2), which explores the dynamics of conflict and its relationship to memory and place.