During this time, Winchester was tapped by composers Kyle Vegter and Ben Kauffman to help develop and revamp the original score and sound world for Manual Cinema's multi-disciplinary, feature-length work Lula del Ray. Composer Ben Kauffman temporarily relocated to New York City from Chicago for graduate school,[15] and Winchester was recruited as Kauffman's replacement guitarist and multi-instrumentalist.[4]
While Winchester was employed at the Art Institute of Chicago gift shop, Manual Cinema undertook a residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in which museum-goers were granted access to the development of the show Mementos Mori in the museum's Edlis Neelson Theatre.[16][17] The show was funded in part by a 2015 Project Grant from The Jim Henson Foundation and developed in part by the MCA Stage New Works Initiative, the University of Chicago Theatre and Performance Studies Summer, Inc. Residency, the National Museum of Health and Medicine Chicago, and the Almanack Farms Arts Colony. [18]
Despite Winchester's contracted work as a sound designer and script consultant on Manual Cinema'sMementos Mori, and despite his work being shown as a part of the show's premiere at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago from January 15, 2015, a large portion of his work was subsequently cut from the final version of the show, and he is not currently credited for his contribution. This work included creating a game show soundtrack for one of the show's central characters.[19] He is, however, listed as Assistant Sound Designer on previous incarnations of the Manual Cinema website.[18]
Lula del Ray
Manual Cinema's Lula del Ray was largely developed during the summer and fall of 2012 at the University of Chicago's Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts as a part of its Theatre and Performance Studies Program, and early versions of the show were performed at various venues and festivals around Chicago in 2013, including the Chicago International Music and Movies Festival on April 20, 2013.[20] However, by January 2017, the show had undergone several major, collective revisions in terms of its script and musical score. Musically, these revisions included significant added contributions from Winchester, Thin Hymn's frontman Michael Hilger, and musician/photographer Maren Celest.[21]
The newly revised show was performed at the 2017 Under the Radar Festival in New York City which resulted in a NYT Critic's Pick from The New York Times.[22] The show's updated, original musical score, which included Winchester's contributions, was lauded as "beguiling" by the publication's chief theatre critic Ben Brantley.[22]
In August 2017, Lula del Ray was shown as a part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it garnered a "★★★★★" review from The Telegraph which described the show as "moving – a wordless, dreamlike fable set against the backdrop of the Fifties space-race" and noted that the show's "emotional impact comes partly from the enchanting live soundtrack, scored for guitar and cello, which includes snippets of a recurring melody: the Baden Brothers' Roy Orbison-esque ballad 'Lord, Blow the Moon Out Please.'"[30]
Show & Tell collaboration with NPR's StoryCorps
Winchester was contracted by Manual Cinema in 2014 to create work and perform for Show & Tell as a part of "Let's Get Working," a tribute festival to celebrate the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning author and broadcaster Studs Terkel hosted by the University of Chicago in the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.[31] The show, a multimedia collaboration between Manual Cinema and NPR's StoryCorps, animated and reimagined StoryCorps stories that dealt with themes of "love, loss, and redemption."[32] It was performed as the opening act for This American Life'sIra Glass.[33][34]
Winchester composed the score and produced the sound design for a story told by Gilbert Zermeño and Pat Powers-Zermeño, retitled "Sax Trombone" for the event.[35] He also directed and wrote the script for a live version of a story by Thomas Weller, retitled "Lone Ranger" for the event.[36][31]
Show & Tell received praise from the Chicago Tribune which described the show as a "Kafka-esque psychodrama, with cardboard puppets mixing with live actors, planes gliding onto runways and Terkel delighting a giggling baby."[37]
