 |
Theaterlab |
 |
|
|
||||||||||||
Theaterlab, founded in 2006 by Carlo Altomare and Orietta Crispino, is dedicated to research into the nature of live performance. Altomare and Crispino have created experimental theatrical pieces, including APPEARANCE – A SUSPENSE IN BEING and SOLO PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP. Crispino also directed La Fricchettona, three monologues by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, while Altomare teamed with visual artist Naoki Iwakawa for a 13-part action painting cycle, EXCAVATION, that was presented at Theaterlab over two years (2008 – 2010). The company’s artist residency program has hosted Jef Johnson, renowned principal clown of Slava’s Snowshow, Dutch theatre artist Linda Olthof, and comedian Reno. In April 2009, Theaterlab hosted Brazilian theater legend Ze Celso in his first New York appearance and screened the lyrical film As Bacantes 2009, which documented Celso’s recreation of The Bacchae. Theaterlab produced the first MMiX Festival of Interactive Technology, which featured performances by Todd Reynolds, Luke DuBois, Elliott Sharp/Janene Higgins, Dan Trueman and his Mini Laptop Orchestra, Bora Yoon and more, in October 2009.
Schedule of Upcoming Productions
Production History
Three Sisters Come And Go
| Open: 05/12/10 Close: 05/27/10
THREE SISTERS COME AND GO is a stunning new piece directed by Orietta Crispino (Piccolo Teatro, Milan). It is inspired by French philosopher Julia Kristeva, who argues that we live under a crisis of disappearance and representation which compels us toward silence, paralysis, and ultimately a melancholia of longing. She speaks in favor of "jouicance" (joy) to be discovered through a new vision of being – perhaps through the paradox of the actor’s art. Set between the apparently opposite poles of Chekhov and Beckett, the piece follows the lives of the three archetypical Chekhovian women and their desire to reconstitute their lives beyond their sense of profound loss. They inhabit a space in which "character" is the very thing that they cannot escape. Yet, in the still geometry of Beckett's Come and Go the narrative escapes the stage, opening a door to ambiguity, inviting both actor and audience to examine a trajectory of refreshed desire. The piece was devised through a collective process among director Orietta Crispino (who conceived the piece), Italian dramaturg Marco Casazza, and the three actresses:Liza Cassidy (Patricia Wilson’s Zia Dance Company), Claire Helene, and Jackie Lowe (Broadway: The Tap Dance Kid, Ain’t Misbehavin, Eubie, The First, and Wind in the Willows). All of the text is drawn from Beckett's Come and Go, and the voices of the women from Chekhov's major plays. THREE SISTERS COME AND GO is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Come and Go is presented through special arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc. on behalf of the Estate of Samuel Beckett.
| |
 | |