Who We Are
Tonal Chaos is a nine member vocal ensemble, fusing traditional theatre and comedic improvisation skills with a variety of musical backgrounds into a totally unique concert experience. Funny, haunting, sad, uplifting, funky, familiar and chaotic--Tonal Chaos continually strives to push the boundaries of improvisational music. Using a very loosely structured performance format, their sound goes wherever the muse dictates. A jazzy duet might swell and swing into something like a Bulgarian women's chorus, or a traditional Broadway show tune might transform into something that sounds more like cats mating while an airplane takes off.
Accompanied or a cappella, gospel or atonal, with drums or finger
snaps--Tonal Chaos utilizes everything at their disposal to give their audience the unique experience of hearing music created for
the first (and last) time.
How we got here
Several years ago, Gerri Lawlor of BATS Improv and Amos Glick of the San Francisco Mime Troupe discovered their common interest in and aptitude for song improvisation. In 1999 they started a workshop where they could explore this work more deeply, and asked Kirk Livingston, Julie Sparling, and Joshua Raoul Brody to join them at their first get-together; over the next year they were joined by Christopher Gray, Rob Penn, Barbara Scott, and David Norfleet.
After another year of free experimentation, the nine took it public with performances at Fort Mason's Bayfront Theater, CELLspace, and
in October 2002, Smoke x 7: A Tender Opera with music half-composed by Brody and half-improvised by the group. Since then the group
has also performed at SomARTS Gallery, 848 Community Space, Spanganga, and the Exit Theatre, and the pedestrian tunnels of Golden Gate
Park. We were proud to be a part of the Lysistrata Project at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco.
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