With gratitude to the patrons supporting the ATOMIC war:

Visionary
Wayne Maugans & Michael Ngo

Champion
Wayne Maugans & Michael Ngo

Advocate
Sue Bailey
Neil Fitzgerald
Sarah Gardner
Melissa Rainey
Mary Round
Liliya Roys
Karen Sullivan
Georgia Tegou

Friend
Dongxiao Cheng
Margaret Harper
Elizabeth Inserra
Betty Landis
Mahalia Le
Melanie Martinez
Eric Nightengale

Supporter
Jessica Applebaum
Hunter Gause
John Harlacher
Joanne Hudson
Josh Landis
Natalia Melnikova
Ben Musselman
Rani O’Brien
Dakota Silvey
Irina Simakovskaya
Mark von Sternberg

To join this circle of support, please consider making a contribution here:
https://vision_forward_celebrating_robert_wilson.eventbrite.com

the ATOMIC war: a cloud is best measured when it is up — an imaged-based, music-driven theatrical work exploring how the pursuit of divinity by those who perform power bends the world toward extremism and ruin.

Structure & Form
Across seven modular scenes, ATOMIC war merges bilingual English/Korean text, commissioned music, advanced projection, and a formalist visual dramaturgy into a politically urgent, multi-sensory event that asks: How much power will we surrender—and at what cost?

Legacy & Inquiry
Conceived as a contemporary response to Robert Wilson’s unfinished masterwork the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down, the ATOMIC war picks up that inquiry for a new generation. Where the CIVIL warS sought to reconcile history through a global opera for the 1984 Olympics but was never fully realized, the ATOMIC war responds to today’s fractured media landscape, asking how collective memory and trauma shape the future. It’s not a story about battles, but a meditation on collapse—spiritual, cultural, and psychological; an elegy for our uncharted era and a call to reimagine what global performance can mean today.

Drawing inspiration from the Book of Enoch, internet iconography, and the Doomsday Clock, it follows a fallen Angel whose union with a human woman gives rise to a monstrous figure (part cult leader, part man-child) who spirals through spectacle, violence, and extinction.

*Confirmed early support from the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation. Additional grants pending.

Timeline:
Development in Korea 2026 → NYC world premiere 2027 → Touring 2027–28.

ATOMIC war is being developed by playwright, director, and designer Luke Landric and Monk Parrots Performance (NYC) in collaboration with artists from the Seoul Institute of the Arts (South Korea)—toward a Winter 2027 world premiere in New York.

Team:

  • Conceiver/Writer/Director: Luke Landric

  • Composer: Jeonghyeon Joo

  • Lighting: Nuri Kim

  • Set: Seung Ho Jeong

  • Costume: Alison Heryer

  • Composer/Sound Designer: Jin In-hwa

  • Projection/Media: TBD

  • Dramaturgy/Translation: Kang Changmin

  • Assistant Director: Kwon Hyejin

  • Choreographer: Arielle Popovsky

  • Advisors/Endorsements: Ann-Christin Rommen, Andrea Paciotto

Materials:

  • Artist bios (PDF) — link

Context & Press:

  • Brooklyn Rail tribute by Luke Landric — Change Change Chance: Remembering Robert Wilson (1941–2025) (link)

  • Event info (Dec 18, La MaMa): Vision Forward: Celebrating Robert Wilson & Launching New Work (Eventbrite link)

Contact: info@monkparrots.org