Doomsday Clocks

Choreography and Direction by Garrett Ammon

Starring William Clayton and Isaac Huerta

Music and Lyrics by Tom Hagerman

Performed by Post Truth Serum

Have you got the time
Doomsday Clocks aside
I've squandered all of mine
With catastrophic pride

Can you spare the time
To share a life with me
Is it not a crime
This shared complacency

Can you see
Can you feel
Can you hear
A silent scream

Oh, the humanity
It's been said, hell is empty
Because all of the devils live right here

If you knew this all back then
Would find more restful sleep
Could you fall in love again
A soul these days is hard to keep

We've been sleeping far too long with
Dreams of writing the perfect song and...

It's getting dark, it's getting late
Marry me, just marry me there's no time to waste

About Doomsday Clocks

Denver musician, composer and arranger Tom Hagerman (Devotchka) and Wonderbound Artistic Director Garrett Ammon previously collaborated on the original, full-length production The 7 Deadly Sins, which Wonderbound premiered in 2015 with an ensemble from the Colorado Symphony. When Hagerman shared his newly completed album Modern Victims with Ammon and suggested the possibility of another collaboration in conjunction with the album release, their respective calendars said it was just not to be.

Then COVID-19 happened.

The end of Wonderbound’s season and its summer shows were ultimately canceled and the possibility of Post Truth Serum having a proper album release concert anytime soon was an impossibility. Ammon put Wonderbound’s dancers to work creating short dance films and instructional videos in their apartments and neighborhoods for two online series called Project Wonder and Dance Along!. Hagerman decided to release Modern Victims early and without a concert, on March 19, just as the pandemic was bringing normal life to a halt. The lyrics and music, written and recorded over the past several years, eerily foreshadowed the emotional and psychological space that the world had suddenly been thrown into.

As Ammon examined what he might create next, he kept returning to the songs Hagerman had crafted for Modern Victims. He selected partners and Wonderbound Company Dancers William Clayton and Isaac Huerta to dance in the new film. This freed Ammon to create choreography with the intimate physical interaction that is a trademark of his work.

Doomsday Clocks was filmed on May 25, 2020.

About the Artists

Garrett Ammon began his tenure as Artistic Director of Wonderbound in 2007. Under his direction, the organization has been transformed into an open laboratory for cross disciplinary exploration and creation. He has been recognized for his work as both an artist and leader through a Denver Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Arts & Culture and a Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Livingston Fellowship. Ammon has developed a trademark aesthetic that seamlessly blends tradition with adventurous new ideas. He keeps Wonderbound continually engaged in collaborative endeavors with the region’s finest arts organizations including Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Central City Opera, the Colorado Symphony, Curious Theatre Company, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Mizel Arts & Culture Center, and Newman Center Presents, among many others. In addition, Ammon’s deep belief in the value of live music as an integral part of the dance experience keeps Wonderbound actively creating with a wide range of independent band, musicians and composers like Gasoline Lollipops, The Widow’s Bane, Hal Aqua and The Lost Tribe, Ofer Ben-Amots, Chimney Choir, Confluence String Quartet, Ian Cooke Band, Tom Hagerman, Jesse Manley and His Band, and Paper Bird. Always pushing the boundaries of dance and the performance experience, Ammon brings an eclectic range of other collaborators into Wonderbound projects as well. These individuals include visual artists Eric Dallimore, Mark Allen Henderson, Andrea Pliner and Tom Varani as well as poet Michael J. Henry, digital artist Kristopher Collins, photographer Amanda Tipton, illusionist and mentalist Professor Phelyx, and perfumist Michelle Roark.

Tom Hagerman is a Denver based composer, arranger, and musician best known for his multi-instrumentalist role in the Grammy nominated rock band, Devotchka. He has performed on many recordings including those by M Ward, She and Him, Nathaniel Rateliff, Bettye Lavette, Eric Bachman, Calexico, and Sage Francis. As an arranger and orchestrator, he has worked closely with a variety of groups including, The Colorado Symphony, The Flaming Lips, The Lumineers, Amos Lee, Gregory Alan Isakov, Trampled By Turtles, Ingrid Michaelson, Lettuce, and Opiuo. He has written original music for theater and dance, including performances by Wonderbound and the Colorado Symphony of The 7 Deadly Sins, De Troya by Dallas based Cara Mia Theatre, and performances of Shakespeare's 12th Night for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. His latest project is Modern Victims, a collection of pop songs recorded under the banner Post Truth Serum, with Elin Palmer and Shawn King (Devotchka). Tom is a graduate of the music school at the University of Colorado in violin performance, and is a product of music education in public schools.

William Clayton is from Riverside, California and joined Wonderbound in 2018. He began performing with color guard teams in 2006, eventually touring with world-class groups such as Pacific Crest, The Cavaliers and Fantasia. In 2016, he received his BFA in Dance Theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. That year, he continued to train at the Alonzo King Lines Ballet summer program, and upon returning to Los Angeles, he began to work with numerous companies and choreographers. He has worked with Ezralow Dance, Invertigo, and Brockus RED; and choreographers such as Spencer Liff, Tessandra Chavez, and Ashley Wallen. In 2017, he performed in Musical Theater West's Evita and West Side Story at the Glendale Center Theater. Wonderbound audiences have seen Will featured in Garrett Ammon’s Winter with Jesse Manley & His Band and Boomtown with Chimney Choir among other.

Isaac Huerta, who joined Wonderbound in 2018, found dance at a young age, training at studios across Southern California. Graduating from Orange County School of the Arts, Isaac signed with BLOC Talent Agency. He has been featured in music videos: Taylor Swift’s Shake it off, Katy Perry’s Chained to the Rhythm, and Foxygen’s Avalon. He appeared on the Grammy stage with Perry in 2017 and is featured in Bathtubs Over Broadway closing sequence. Companies Isaac has danced with include: KDV Dance Ensemble, Invertigo Dance Theatre, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, Brockus RED, Clairobscur, Carlon Dance, Solevita, Luminario Ballet, and Ezralow Dance. He has been greatly honored to have shared stages with Margie Gillis and Oguri with Body Weather. He has been in the Cast of Kitty Mcnamee's FireBird with the LA Philharmonic and John Todds Aida with the Pacific Symphony. Isaac was most recently featured in Garrett Ammon’s The Sandman with Gasoline Lollipops.