Heather came to the Big Apple to become an actress. She worked her way up the ladder, playing hookers, junkies, and strippers. You know, the parts that most actresses are afraid to play. Then came the role of a lifetime...
Heather Litteer’s gripping, funny, heartfelt solo show explores how women are treated both onscreen and off. Her adventures as an actress and downtown darling are mixed with calls back home to her ill but steel magnolia of a mother, whose southern roots are so strong they can suffocate. Navigating the absurd misogyny of our mediaverse, Lemonade turns female exploitation on its head, and offers redemption to any woman who has even been typecast.
About the Company: La Mama Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a world-wide reputation for producing cutting-edge work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer and legend, Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,000 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.
La MaMa provides a supportive home for artists and takes risks on unknown work. Artists such as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Blue Man Group, David and Amy Sedaris, -and others whose names you haven't heard of yet - began their careers at La MaMa. International artists introduced to America by La MaMa include Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Kazuo Ohno and, more recently, the acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre.La MaMa has been honored with more than 30 OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk and Bessie Awards, and, in 2006, Ellen Stewart was recognized with a special TONY Award for "Excellence in the Theatre."
Hyena is an interactive and visceral solo show about the beast within. Hy examines questions of intimacy, femininity and vulnerability as she attempts to find ways to navigate the painful world in which we live, while toeing the line between her public and private self. Join her as she discovers the darkest parts of herself.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club will present the World Premiere of Romana Soutus’ solo show HYENA, directed by Rachel Levens for a limited engagement March 18-27 at The Club at La MaMa (74A East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) with performances on Friday and Saturday at 10pm and Sunday at 6pm. Tickets ($18/$13 students & seniors) are available online at www.lamama.org or by calling 646-430-5374. The show runs approximately 75 minutes, with no intermission
The production team will include Costume Design by Lizzie Donelan, Lighting Design by Cecilia Durbin, Music by Gareth Hobbs, and Set Design by Joey Mendoza and Associate Set Designer Vincent Gunn with Production Manager Amy R. Surratt and Stage Manager Kathryn Meister.
About the Company: LA MAMA
La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a world-wide reputation for producing cutting-edge work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer and legend, Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,000 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.
La MaMa provides a supportive home for artists and takes risks on unknown work. Artists such as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Blue Man Group, David and Amy Sedaris, -and others whose names you haven't heard of yet - began their careers at La MaMa. International artists introduced to America by La MaMa include Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Kazuo Ohno and, more recently, the acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre. La MaMa has been honored with more than 30 OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk and Bessie Awards, and, in 2006, Ellen Stewart was recognized with a special TONY Award for "Excellence in the Theatre."
A solo play with aerial dance, pole dancing and acrobatics starring Karina Casiano with original music by Bryan Wade.
On the last day of her life, a vengeful old lady looks back at the way her life has been shaped by being a woman. As she remembers the instances of harassment and danger she has endured throughout her life, she reflects on the role we all play in perpetuating sexual inequality. Through original songs and movement, including aerial dance and pole dancing, WOMANKIND submerges us into the dark reality of sexism, and into the mind of a poisoned soul who has had enough.
WOMANKIND is Karina Casiano's seventh play (her fourth solo piece). Suitable for audiences ages 17 years and older. WOMANKIND is made possible in part by The Field's Artist Residency Program, NYSCA, Puffin Foundation, The Yip Harburg Foundation, Queens Council on the Arts, and to "First Acts" sponsors New York Community Bank, the Natalie Bailey and Herbert Kirshner Foundation, the Kupferberg Center for the Performing Arts, and Queens College.
Karina Casiano (performer, writer, director, choreographer) has written seven plays with music since she began self-producing in 1999, among them 4 solo shows. Her work has been seen in most Latin American countries and in New York. Casiano is the co-founder of La Criatura Theater, which has produced three of her plays since 2005 in New York and Brazil.
In New York, she has also collaborated with The Flying Machine, International WOW, Spanish Repertory Theater and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, among other companies.
She has appeared in multiple independent films in the United States, including "Gun Hill Road" (Sundance 2011 and theatres nationwide) "Babygirl" (Tribeca Film Festival 2012 premiere,) and "The Love Bite" (winner of the 2004 Galway Film Fleadth in Dublin, Ireland,) as well as the TV series "Law and Order."
Casiano has taught movement workshops for acting students in Puerto Rico, New York and Brazil.
Born in Puerto Rico, Casiano holds a BA in Drama from the University of Puerto Rico. She has also trained in several Latin American countries, and in Spain and New York.
More information, photos, press reviews and videos at www.karinacasiano.com and www.lacriatura.org.
Bryan Wade (composer/guitarist) is a guitarist, vocalist, composer and music teacher based in Brooklyn, New York. His work comprises colorful, mysterious and outrageous sound stories born out of Middle-Eastern, Latin, and American folk music, mixed with punk, funk, jazz, and free sound. Wade has scored a number of plays and films. Wade released the 6-song album "WRONGRWRONGWRONG" on iTunes in 2009. He is currently writing a book on his Mindful Guitarist Training, a series of awareness techniques based on Buddhist meditation. Originally from South Carolina, Wade has shared the stage with artists such as Hootie & The Blowfish, The Manic Street Preachers, Danielle Howle, Vic Chestnutt, The Waterboys and Joe Mauricio, and sang for years with Random Folk. Wade is the founder of the eclectic rock group Jebel. More information at www.bryanwade.com.
About the Company: La Mama Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a world-wide reputation for producing cutting-edge work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer and legend, Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,000 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.
La MaMa provides a supportive home for artists and takes risks on unknown work. Artists such as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Blue Man Group, David and Amy Sedaris, -and others whose names you haven't heard of yet - began their careers at La MaMa. International artists introduced to America by La MaMa include Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Kazuo Ohno and, more recently, the acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre.La MaMa has been honored with more than 30 OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk and Bessie Awards, and, in 2006, Ellen Stewart was recognized with a special TONY Award for "Excellence in the Theatre."
Featuring music of downtown indie rocker Aldo Perez (from the band The Renaldo The Ensemble,) and the work of graphic novelist, Eric Shanower (author of the award-winning Age of Bronze series), Edward Einhorn’s new adaptation reexamines Euripides’ play about democracy versus ochlocracy (mob rule) and the role of religion in popular uprisings, subjects made particularly relevant by Arab Spring.
Masks by Jane Stein are both worn and “puppeteered” as a second self, separating the characters from their classic archetypes and reveling more basic human emotions beneath. Deliberately anachronistic, the production mixes the contemporary with the classical and uses pop iconography of comics to examine the timeless, philosophical elements of the myth
LUZ is a large-scale work, panoramic in its view as the play exposes theglobal scale of gender-based violence and the collusion between human rights
and corporate law practices. From the garbage dump in Guatemala City to tent
cities in Haiti and the toxic oil ponds where birds expire, Luz, Helene and
Zia -- survivors of targeted violence -- with the help of human rights
lawyer Alexandra search for hope in the unlikeliest in-between places. A play
that is at once volatile and tender, entertaining and surreal.
According to author and NYU Gallatin professor Sharon Friedman, "Over the
past two decades, playwright Catherine Filloux has been a leading voice in
theatre for social change, dramatizing human rights abuses and crimes against
humanity. She has given us nuanced portraits of psychic trauma in the
aftermath of genocide in Europe of the Second World War, Cambodia and the former
Yugoslavia. In her most recent play LUZ, she asks audiences to bear witness
to a judicial system that is often indifferent to gender-based violence
against women."
About the Company: Watson Arts
Watson Arts is a resident company of La MaMa E.T.C. that develops and presents original, innovative theater with a particular emphasis on women. This season, Watson Arts launches its playwright series, The Write Women Project, devoted to new plays by women. Our 2010 production is Dog and Wolf by noted playwright, Catherine Filloux, and directed by Jean Randich at 59E59 Theaters in February 2010. Watson Arts also develops and produces works of original text, dance, and performance, as well as musical adaptations of literary work. Many of our theatrical presentations are close collaborations between the core company of writer and director, Mary Fulham, songwriter, Paul Foglino, choreographer, Heidi Latsky, designers, Ramona Ponce, Jim Boutin, Spica Wobbe, and Tim Schellenbaum.
Denis Diderot Productions presents
"Americans struggling to free themselves from....Americans!"
... BAND OF BROODERS & ABSTINENCE ONLY
Two Short Plays by
Jim Pangrazio
Directed by
Jason Hale
with
Eamon Speer
Burnie Du Rant Jr.
Kristin Fireman
Shay Hannon
Nick Mahoney
Christian Caldwell
Lighting Design
Choreography
Crystal Chapman
Sound Design
Ian McGrady
Production Stage Manager
Gina Costagliola
PR
Jonathan Slaff and Associates
Shelly is the disgruntled Circassian-American heir of Motel Sunshine in Framingham, MA. She dreams of traveling the world like her idol, Valaida Snow - but instead spends her days burying the animals that die in her pool. So she lights her motel on fire and sets out on her spherical journey.
Mythophobic Productions in association with FringeNYC presents Hope is the saddest, a heartbreaking comedy about three people lost somewhere in the outer skirts of reality, by Jeffrey Jay Fowler. Direct from their run at the National Arts Festival of South Africa, Hope is the saddest was the winner of the ‘Best Theatre Award’ at the 2012 Perth Fringe Festival, and winner of the ‘Best Production Award’ in 2007 at The Blue Room in Perth.
Theo is the most confused. Marion is the loneliest. But Hope is the saddest. Hope is the saddest is a bright black comedy with tells the story of three loners whose lives crash together in a pool of blood. Hope is a Dolly Parton fan, set to make the world a better place. Theo is a lonely gay would-be inventor. Marion recently inherited money, and moved out of the suitcase she grew up in.
Called “Witty and Profound” by The Sunday Times, and a “Beautiful Gem” by the South African National Arts Festival, Hope is the saddest was the winner of the Best Theatre Award at the 2012 Perth Fringe Festival, winner of the 2007 Blue Room Best Production Award, and the 2008 Equity Award for Best Newcomer (Michelle Robin Anderson). The first incarnation was a monologue performed at the Artragefestival 2006 as part of Shorts and Solos.
About the Company: Mythophobic Productions
Mythophobic Productions an independent theatre company from Western Australia whose aim is to support the work of key artist Jeffrey Jay Fowler. Mythophobic's work is made for the audience, serving the general public and artists alike. It is fun, thought-provoking and subversive.
Playwright and Director Jeffrey Jay Fowler has written and directed Hope is the Saddest, Earth, Zen’s Red Mouth, The Rusalka Thread, and Duck, Duck, Goose!, all of which have been performed to critical acclaim in Australia. He has a Graduate Diploma of Dramatic Arts from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA). He also has a Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Performance from Edith Cowan University at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts. He has worked as an assistant director with Black Swan State Theatre Company and Deckchair Theatre Company. He was also the composer and one of the key writers and devisers on the show Afterwards We'll Go Away, which premiered at Artrage in 2005 and went to the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2006 under the name Motor City Blues.
La MaMa veterans, Ozzie Rodriguez (director), Joseph Blunt (composer), Sally Lesser (costumes), Jeff Nash (lighting) and members of The Great Jones Repertory Company have gathered in celebration of La MaMa’s 50th Anniversary Homecoming Season. The current production is performed by members of Great Jones Repertory: Obie winner Ching Valdes-Aran, Matt Nasser, and Sarah Galassini.
Three Star Circus performers reduced to the status of Clowns rehearse their “act” in the backyard of a second-rate circus. Our heroes are forced to confront “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” to save their way of life when a wild animal escapes and the circus is threatened. Armed with music and humor they perform their beloved “Clown Act” and find the courage to face insurmountable odds.
“When Clowns Play Hamlet” was written in 1964 and first produced at La MaMa in 1967 in the loft at 122 2nd Avenue (where La MaMa resided before Ellen Stewart moved the Café to its permanent home at 74A East 4th Street.) Koutoukas was famous for presenting highly stylized characters, equipped with arch dialogue and setting them loose in outlandish situations. Harry produced plays at a furious rate which premièred at Café Cino, La MaMa, Judson Poets, Theatre for the New City, and most of the birthplaces of Off-Off Broadway.
“…the joy of making things up, the delight of unfettered invention, the exhilaration of creating a world. Koutoukas has it.” (Michael Smith, the Village Voice)
Off-Off Broadway legend has it that Harry wrote this play for the actor Jeff Weiss. It was first directed by Harry with music composed by Cosmo and played by Tom O’Horgan (director of “Hair, “Jesus Christ Superstar”). The original cast included Jeff Weiss, Mary Boland and Beverly Grand. In the early 60’s Harry ran a theater workshop called The School for Gargoyles. The school’s alumni include Gerome Ragni and James Rado (Hair), Tom O’Horgan (director), and actor/playwright Harvey Fierstein. Along with Lanford Wilson, Tom Eyen, Doric Wilson, and Robert Patrick, Koutoukas was one of the playwrights who made Café Cino’s reputation as Off-Off Broadway’s founding theater.
“Harry was one of a group of dramatists including Tom Eyen, Donald L. Brookes, Jeffrey Weiss, and Josef Bush whose work stretched the possibilities of dramatic representation and definitely paved the way for the startling freedom of our media today…” (Robert Patrick, Thoughts on Harry).
In 1975 La MaMa resident director Ozzie Rodriguez mounted two productions of “Clowns,” (one in Spanish and one in English) to celebrate the opening of the Duo Theater. The Duo Theater Company, many of whom were gifted Cuban artists exiled from their country after the revolution, had been formed by Manuel Martin and Magali Alabau to create and perform classical and new bi-lingual theatrical works. Ellen Stewart’s La MaMa had been the umbrella organization for the fledgling Duo Theater.
“A beautiful and compassionate fantasy...” (Joyce Tretick, Show Business Weekly).
About the Company: LA MAMA
La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a world-wide reputation for producing cutting-edge work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer and legend, Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,000 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.
La MaMa provides a supportive home for artists and takes risks on unknown work. Artists such as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Blue Man Group, David and Amy Sedaris, -and others whose names you haven't heard of yet - began their careers at La MaMa. International artists introduced to America by La MaMa include Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Kazuo Ohno and, more recently, the acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre. La MaMa has been honored with more than 30 OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk and Bessie Awards, and, in 2006, Ellen Stewart was recognized with a special TONY Award for "Excellence in the Theatre."
That Beautiful Laugh is an outrageously high-energy, rhythmically-driven comedy piece that features clowning, live music and joy! Created by the director, Orlando Pabotoy, That Beautiful Laugh was inspired by his nightly bedtime ritual of developing stories with his five-year-old son. This family friendly show, based on his son’s musings on different types of laughter, tells the story of a world where laughter is forgotten and rediscovered. Original music combined with new renditions of old favorites compliment this hilarious journey about the power and beauty of laughter in our lives.Alan Tudyk currently stars on the ABC television series “Suburgatory.” His theater credits include Broadway productions of Epic Proportions, Prelude to a Kiss and Spamalot, and his Off-Broadway credits include The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Wonder of the World, Bunny Bunny, Misalliance and Oedipus. Alan’s film credits include 28 Days, 3:10 to Yuma, Dodgeball, Hearts in Atlantis, I Robot, A Knight’s Tale, Knocked Up, Meet Market, Serenity, Transformers 3, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Wonder Boys, the original English production of Death at a Funeral and the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. His other television credits include “Arrested Development,” “CSI,” “Dollhouse,” “Firefly” and “Strangers With Candy.”
Obie Award Winner Orlando Pabotoy’s recent works include adapting and directing The World In The Moon at Juilliard, and choreographing The Cherry Orchard at Classic Stage Company (with John Turturro). Pabotoy co-created and directed the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Creation, directed Scapin at Juilliard (with Bill Irwin as adaptor/choreographer), choreographed Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, choreographed Andrei Belgrader’s production of Pericles at UCSD and USC, and directed a revival of Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me for the Sounding Theater Company. He has taught for the Juilliard School, the Graduate Programs at Tisch NYU, the University of Texas in Austin, Bard College, The Old Globe, UCSD, Cal Arts, and has served as faculty for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare Summer Lab. He is currently a faculty member of NYU’s Drama Department. Pabotoy is a co-founder of The Clown School in Los Angeles, CA. He has performed at The Met Opera House, The Public Theater, NYTW, CTG Kirk Douglas, Old Globe and Yale Rep. His TV credits include “Whoopi” on NBC, “Strangers With Candy” on Comedy Central and “JAG” on CBS. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School and the recipient of a Fox Fellowship and John Houseman Award.
Musician Harrison Beck will accompany the cast on the accordion and vocals. Additional clowns and cast members to be announced.
The creative and design team includes Byron Easley (Choreography), Scott Tedmon-Jones (Set Design) Peter West (Light Design) and Tilly Grimes (Costume Design). Cristina Sisson is the Production Stage Manager.
PACE at LA MaMaThree La MaMa Playwrights: Fornes, Shepard & Wilson
Presented by La MaMa in Association with the Performing Arts Students, Pace University, NYC
February 2-12, 2012
In honor of La MaMa’s 50th Anniversary, Pace University’s Performing Arts (students, alumni and faculty) celebrate La MaMa’s “Homecomings” season with a tribute to three playwrights who called La MaMa their early home: Maria Irene Fornés, Sam Shepard and Lanford Wilson.
These three one-acts are meant to continue Ellen Stewart’s legacy of “Welcome to La MaMa, dedicated to the playwright and all aspects of the theatre.”
* “The Conduct of Life” by Maria Irene Fornés, directed by Ruis Woertendyke
* “Action” by Sam Shepard, directed by Grant Kretchik
* “The Family Continues” by Lanford Wilson, directed by Cosmin Chivu
“The Conduct of Life” tells the harrowing story of a Latin American wife who discovers her husband is a child rapist and torturer when he brings his victim and torture into their personal and private life. The play is directed by Ruis Woertendyke and features Kahlil Gonzalez-Garcia, Lilah Shreeve, Jason Joseph, Julie Robles, Polina Ionina.
In “Action” four friends confront the circumstances that force them together and the “action” that force them apart as they wait for the end of the world and the beginning of time. Symbolic, absurd and humanizing “Action” propels its characters into a disturbing one-act journey. Directed by Grant Kretchik, with Xavier Reminick, Ian Cherry, Gina DeMay, Emily Asaro. A.D. Delaney Yeager.
“The Family Continues” by Lanford Wilson evokes the panorama of a young man’s life-birth, army service, marriage, job, parenthood, old age-within the brief span of its action. Highly innovative in its theatricality, the play illuminates not only the continuity of human life, but also the poignancy and bitterness which can infuse it. Directed by Cosmin Chivu, co-directed by Chad Chenail; with: Niko Papastefanou, Spencer Bazzano, Lauren Morra, Nicole Madriz, Turquoise Olezene, Courtney Taylor, Kaleb Wells, Matthew Curiano, and Patrick Pribyl. Stage manager Lizzy Caplan.
Set Design: Jeffrey Perri
Costume Design: Megan Smith
Performance Schedule:
February 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 & 11 at 10pm
February 5 & 12 at 5:30pm
La Mama’s The Club
Address: 74A East 4th Street (between 2nd Avenue and the Bowery), 2nd Floor, NY, NY 10003
By Subway: F/V to 2nd Avenue, #6 to Astor Place, N/R to 8th Street
Tickets $15; student and seniors $10
For tickets and information, contact Box Office (212) 475-7710 or www.lamama.org
About the Company: The Performing Arts at Pace University
About Dyson College of Arts and Science’s Performing Arts Programs at Pace University:
Undergraduate: Dyson’s Performing Arts Department (PAD) offers Bachelor of Fine Arts Degrees in Acting and in Musical Theater and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts with specialized focuses in Acting, Directing, Commercial Dance or Design/Technical Theater. On average, there are 1,000 applicants for every 100 new openings each year. PAD presents over 50 performances every year. Performance spaces range from the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, Schaeberle (black box) Theater, and Studio 501, home to many student-directed productions. http://www.pace.edu/dyson/academic-departments-and-programs/performing-arts
Graduate: The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University, also located in Dyson College, is the only MFA (Acting, Directing and Playwriting) theatre program officially sanctioned by the legendary Actors Studio (co-presidents Ellen Burstyn, Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino). All MFA students participate in the Craft Seminars known to the world as the Bravo Network television series Inside the Actors Studio (taped at Pace’s Schimmel Theater and open to students), hosted by James Lipton, Dean Emeritus and Co-Founder of the Actors Studio Drama School. www.Pace.edu/ASDS
About Pace University:
For 105 years, Pace University has educated thinking professionals by providing high quality education for the professions on a firm base of liberal learning amid the advantages of the New York metropolitan area. A private university, Pace has campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, enrolling nearly 13,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in its Lubin School of Business, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, College of Health Professions, School of Education, School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. www.pace.edu
The Dreamscape Theatre(In Fields Where They Lay, The Burning Cities Project) is pleased to announce the world premiere production of WHALE SONG or: Learning to Live With Mobyphobia by Claire Kiechel, directed by Brad Raimondo (In Fields…) as part of the 15th annual New York International Fringe Festival – FringeNYC, August 12th-28th.
Only Maya Swan knows why Molly the whale is stranded in the Hudson River. While millions of New Yorkers wonder in amazement, Maya knows Molly has come to deliver a message from her dead father (whose body was found sprawled nude on the back of a killer whale at Sea World). But what is the message? Is Molly here to help Maya get over her grief or to tempt her to follow in her father’s self-destructive footsteps?
WHALE SONG or: Learning to Live With Mobyphobiais the surreal and darkly comic story of Maya’s quest to answer these and other burning questions. Maya would probably have a much easier time coping, if only she could deal with her Mobyphobia.
The production will star Hollis Witherspoon (Eric Bland’s Emancipatory Politics), who returns to FringeNYC after her portrayal of Natasya in An Idiot, listed as a 2010 “Top Play” by NYCFringeGuide.com. Ryan Feyk (The Diary of Anne Frankenstein) plays Maya’s almost-ex-boyfriend, Mark and Gavin Starr Kendall (Emancipatory Politics) is James, whose face Maya sees everywhere she looks. The cast also features Rosie Sowa as the Reporter, Siri Hellerman as Maya’s concerned older sister Sarah and Jordan Smith as Shep the Drummer whose music may represent Maya’s only hope of blocking out the whale’s song.
The production will perform five times during the Festival at Venue #8: The First Floor Theatre at LaMama (74 East 4th Street). The performance dates/times are as follows: SUN 8/14 @ 2:15pm; THU 8/18 @ 2pm; MON 8/22 @ 6pm; WED 8/24 @ 7pm; SAT 8/27 @ 9:30pm.
Tickets are $15-$18 and will be available online at www.FringeNYC.org or by calling 866-468-7619. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at FringeCentral or at the theatre 30 minutes prior to show time.
Running Time: 70 minutes
Website: www.dreamscapetheatre.org
"Poor Baby Bree's performance is a haunting, deeply touching, spot-on evocation of a moment in the distant theatrical past, yet with a very cool and effortless post-modern twist. It is also profoundly funny." -- Charles Busch
"When I first saw Bree it was like being transported into another era. It was astounding. Her voice, her songs about things people don't sing about anymore, her sadness and cleverness -- it made me laugh and cry at the same time. What an amazing performer!" -- Laurie Anderson.
Built around creator Bree Benton's portrayal of Poor Baby Bree, an archetypal waif, I Am Going to Run Away weaves a tragicomic narrative of innocence and loss around seventeen obscure vaudeville and parlor songs (dating from the 1890s -1930s), collected through archival research into period sheet music, along with Victorian-era sentimental poetry and Benton’s original writing. Songs in the show include: "I'm Just a Rose (in the Devil's Garden)," "I'll Pin Another Petal on the Daisy," and "Soap, the Oppressor."
The models for Benton's alter ego include icons of silent and early sound cinema (Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, The Little Rascals, The Bowery Boys), filmed documents of forgotten vaudeville comedians (the Foy family, Joe Frisco), and vocalists from Eddie Cantor to Ruby Keeler. Writing in Time Out New York, critic and music historian James Gavin (Intimate Nights, Stormy Weather) asks, "What led her to adopt this antique persona? So hauntingly does she inhabit it that you may conclude that Bree Benton is not of this time, nor even this world."
Musical director: Franklin Bruno
open heart explores what life is like in a gay relationship that allows for outside sexual partners. He does this through the actual words of men who shared their personal stories and thoughts on monogamy, fidelity, sex, and open relationships.
open heart wrestles with questions and assumptions about how our society uses words like “monogamy” and “fidelity” to attach value to the myriad relationship structures in existence. Actual individuals weigh in on these topics, and their spoken words capture something unique and idiosyncratic, ultimately speaking for more than just the gay men represented in this play.
Thirteen couples representing a range of ages and experiences were interviewed, first as a pair and then as individuals. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed. Of the 27 individuals interviewed, 15 have emerged as voices in the performance script. Five actors will perform these 15 real people, using the verbatim interview transcripts and the recordings to create their interpretations. “We’ve left the stutters, pauses, and ‘uhms’ in the transcriptions and in the performance,” says playwright Joe Salvatore, “as those moments can be the most revealing about how a person feels about the topic at hand. The stories that people shared ranged from shocking to hilarious to utterly heartfelt, and we’ve worked hard to capture all of those feelings in this play.”
The show features Chris Bresky, Stephen Donovan, Daryl Embry, Nick Lewis, and Karl O’Brian Williams. The production features designs by Emily Stork (lights), Blake McCarty (sound and projections), and Márion Talán (costumes). Allyn Bard Rathus serves as the company manager, Robert Keith stage manages, and Sharon Counts assistant directs. Salvatore returns to the New York International Fringe Festival after his play IIIreceived the Fringe’s Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Play in 2008. That play will be published in Best American Short Plays 2008-2009, set for release in Fall 2010.
Told through the eyes of a young and naïve, but talented village girl,Spellbound presents the pursuit of truth and inner courage, set in a world of wizards, witches, and warlocks. After the massacre of her village, Herianne embarks on a journey through a mystical land to rescue her family and fulfill her life-long ambition to become a Grand Wizard. Accompanied by her mentor and three “Teachers of the Scrolls,” Herianne must overcome the evil that enshrouds the land of Dragnor and confront the wickedness that seeks to devour her innate power. With time and a conspiring foe against her, Herianne is forced to choose relationships wisely as she completes her passage from adolescence to womanhood. In a final battle of good versus evil, events beyond her control make it clear to Herianne that great reward often comes at great sacrifice.
Spellbound addresses issues of equality, relationships, terrorism, greed, dictatorship, power, love and the importance of friendship and family. Metaphors for deceit, trust, poverty, wealth, choice and the idea of being isolated from the rest of the world are all vehicles used to highlight just some of the many trials of life in the world in which we live. And that all-important question to which many of us seek the answer, the forever wonderment of ‘Why?’ is presented... along with some possible answers from an alternative point of view!
For music, videos, and exclusive downloads, visit the official Spellbound: A Musical Adventure website at SpellboundTheMusical.com. To learn more about other Mind The Art Entertainment productions, projects, and divisions, please visit MindTheArtEntertainment.com
Book-Music-Lyrics: Paul J. Deakin & Christian De Gré
Director: Nancy Robillard
Music Director: Manny Simone
Producers: Mind The Art Entertainment in association with Robert R. Blume
Casting Director: Stephen DeAngelis
Sound Designer: Bernard Fox
Lighting Designer: Sarah Arnold
Set Designer: Robert Monaco
PR Agent: Les Schecter
Costume Designer: David Quinn
Fight Choreographer: Tom Flagg
Dance Choreographer: Kelli Gautreau
Poster Design: Paul Deakin
Media Design: Stephen Stocking
CAST
Ashley C. Williams as HERIANNE
*Martin Van Treuren as MASTER GARLAN
Aaron Schroeder as GREEME
*David Garry as The Goblin EGOR
*Antoinette DiPietropolo as The Night Elf BERSHA
Philip James as The Fire Wizard HELMIT
*Craig Waletzko as DARLAK
*Joanna Parson as SYLVIE
*Kristin Wetherington as the Dark Witch MELDAH
Joe Kurtz as the barman LARIUS
Joseph Reese as the Warlock ZORLACH
*Andrew Hartley as the Dwarf BALLYON and the SPIRIT DRUID FAERIUS
*Michael Barra as The Necromancer LORD KRUMAH
Clay Nelms as TALUS
Bradley Gale as RAMUS
Dana Glaus as CKERI
And featuring *Michael Iannucci as the DARK LORD ZELATOTH
*Actors appearing courtesy of AEA
"Red Mother" is a one-woman show written and performed by the acclaimed Muriel Miguel, co-founder of Spiderwoman Theater. It is the story of Belle who, with her horse and companion, Blue Fred, travels across what was once Indigenous land. Based on Brecht’s "Mother Courage," it weaves traditional dance with humor and satire, Brechtian themes with Kuna demon and ghost stories, exploring legacy and memory through the eyes of an old Indigenous woman. Murielle Borst directs.
Using multimedia projections, music, and a staging that utilizes elaborate fabric hangings, the 60-minute piece is full of earthy humor, yet stinging pathos. "Red Mother" explodes the fiction of Indigenous women as virtuous, noble, "earth mothers," a stereotype that has been perpetuated both by the dominant culture and the Native population for centuries. Belle, the Red Mother, is a fiery incarnation of Native women who sabotage that patronizing image. She speaks for and to the failed mothers, the prostitutes, and the addicts: women living on the fringe whose very existence contradict the myth of the Native "earth mother."
The piece draws on the "storyweaving" techniques of the legendary Spiderwoman Theater, a radical feminist collective of Native and non-Native American female performers whose work has bridged the traditional cultural art forms of storytelling, dance, and music and the practice of contemporary Western theater since the 1970s. ("Storyweaving" blends poetry, personal memory, and Native legend.)
Muriel Miguel (Kuna/Rappahannock) worked with the Open Theatre and Joseph Chaikin during the 1960s. She pioneered the teaching of Indigenous Performance through "storyweaving" and through the use of the Laban method at The Banff Centre and The Centre for Indigenous Theatre in Toronto. She has been awarded an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Miami University Ohio and profiled in American Women Directors of the 20th Century. She was chosen as the first Lipinsky resident (Feminist-in-Residence) at San Diego State University’s Women’s Studies Department. Along with her sisters Gloria Miguel and Lisa Mayo, who have formed the core of Spiderwoman Theater since the 1980s, Muriel is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 from the prestigious Women’s Caucus for Art.
Ms. Miguel began to develop "Red Mother" in 2003, working with members of the Playwrights Workshop Montreal, and continued to develop it at the American Indian Community House and urban ink productions/fathom lab’s New Works division. In November, 2007, Red Mother was presented as a workshop production by Indigenous Performance Initiatives and Two Spirit Productions at Nozhem First Peoples Performance Space at Trent University in Ontario. It was presented by the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., as part of their Native Expressions Series in 2008. Featuring greatly expanded lighting, costume, and music design, this will be its New York premiere.
Spiderwoman Theater was founded in 1976, when Muriel Miguel gathered together a diverse company of women of varying ages, races, sexual orientation, and world view. This group included her two sisters, (Gloria Miguel and Lisa Mayo). The group broke new ground in their use of storytelling and "storyweaving" as the basis for the creation of their theatrical pieces. Spiderwoman Theater Workshop’s mission is to provide exceptional theatre performance, training and education in an effort to address cultural, social, and political issues in the Native American and women’s communities. They seek to entertain and challenge audiences and bring communities of people together to examine the causes and effects of a variety of issues.
Red Mother has been developed with the assistance of Loose Change Productions.
Set and costumes are by Christine Plunkett. Composer and sound designer is Russell Wallace. Lighting designer is Don White.
For more information, please visit: www.spiderwomantheater.org and www.loosechangeproductions.org.
Puppet theater has an uncanny ability to take on big themes, and such will be the case when Jane Catherine Shaw, co-director of the Voice 4 Vision Puppet Festival, takes on world drought in "Thirst: Memory of Water," her newest puppet theater work. It's a big theme, but Shaw is trying to make it manageable by concentrating on themes of women and water because, as she writes, "around the world women are carrying (literally) the burden of maintaining life by walking for water." The play, to be presented by La MaMa March 25 to April 11 in its First Floor Theater, will nevertheless have an epic feeling.
The play's narrative is compiled from first-person writings about Ethiopia, China, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan and testimonials from Haiti, Tanzania, and the Jenin Camp on the West Bank. There will also be newspaper accounts from Saudi Arabia, excerpts from the Rig-Veda, Leonardo Da Vinci's Treatise on Water, and Book Six of The Aenead. Texts have been assembled through The Common Language Project (www.clpmag.org), the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, 1h2o.org, WaterAid (www.wateraidamerica.org), All China Women’s Federation (www.womenofchina.cn), Voices for Creative Nonviolence (Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator), and from personal recollections of the all women cast.
Imagery is created using such "theater magic" as elevated rod puppets with dancing puppeteers, shadow puppets, three-person puppets, a small baby puppet and a duplicate giant inflatable baby puppet, a small hand held vignette (performed in the palm of a puppeteer's hand), and a quasi-toy theater piece depicting the NYC Sand Hogs (who are digging the third giant NYC water tunnel as you read this). Shaw writes, "My use of puppetry is based on how the image/design/gesture/movement communicates--ideas like scale, material, relationship of text and sound to image, or relationship of puppeteer to these puppets--these representations of humans/humanity are the secret power of the puppet, for me."
Shaw's puppet theater productions often tackle scientific topics and she finds the world's water crisis, arising in part from global climate change as well as water mismanagement, too compelling to ignore. She says, “It has to do with scarcity and conflict--and whether or not water is accepted as a 'right,' therefore everyone should have access to it--or as a resource. As a resource it is a commodity that can be withheld or sold at high prices.”
Her script uses the example of the Mesopotamian Marshes, which were drained by Saddam Hussein in retaliation against the Marsh Arabs, the Ma'dan, after the Gulf War. After Saddam was toppled, Iraqis began to tear down the dikes and canals that had diverted the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and many areas of the marshes were re-flooded, but the next drought put the region in peril again. “Today there are many dams upstream of the marshes which restrict the flow of the Rivers and impact the lives of everyone and every animal downstream." Shaw muses. "Imagine if our treaties with Canada about the equitable use of rivers crossing our borders become difficult to maintain. We already have an existing treaty with Mexico about the quantity of water that is allotted to them from the Colorado River. But, for instance in the 1950’s the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation project pumped out large quantities of water and returned highly saline drainage that was unfit for Mexico’s farmers to use. In 1972 we resolved that water quality issue with a 'permanent and definitive solution,' but what happens if we have many years of drought? Will we honor the treaty, or withhold water to sustain ourselves and our lifestyle? It could happen—and it could happen around the world."
She continues, "The water crisis is too much material for one play, so I chose to focus on women and water because around the world women are carrying (literally) the burden of maintaining life by walking many miles daily to collect water for their families. The more severe the problems become, the heavier the burden on women—and children.” She found a little known style of puppetry from China in which a three foot rod puppet is held over the head of the puppeteer who is costumed and visible as a performer; “I became intrigued with the image of women performers carrying women puppets who are carrying water.” She adds, "I’m interested in this image and hopeful that it will heighten the drama of the story about women and water." Shaw also delves into mythologies which relate common understandings of water across cultures. Water as the world’s best solvent or as the best spiritual cleanser is a common theme. She notes that deluge stories are found in many cultures and ritual washing is also a universal practice.
The production has music composed by David Patterson. Choreography is by Hillary Spector. Lighting design is by Jeff Nash. Set design is by Gian Marco Lo Forte. Puppets, costume design and construction, script and concept are by Jane Catherine Shaw in collaboration with the all woman cast of Sophia Remolde, Ora Fruchter, Spica Wobbe, Margot Fitzsimmons, Kristine Haruna Lee and Cybele Kaufmann.
Mind The Art Entertainment begins its affiliation with the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club by featuring an Anthology of 3 bold and exceptional works. Encompassing musical theater, comedic looks at philosophy, and political performance art, these pieces seek not only to entertain, but to challenge the status quo of your thinking and rebel against your reality.
What If? Fridays, March 26 & April 2 @ 10pm
Conceived & Musically Directed by Christian De Gré
What if Fiddler's To Life was set in a 1950s Cuban cigar lounge? What if The Sound of Music was belted out by a 1920s jazz vocalist? What if Jason Robert Brown wrote The Last 5 Years as a Linear story Rock Opera? These are just a few of the musical mash-ups you will find in this innovative concert that dares to redefine musical styles and genres. Join award-winning musicians, composers, and singers as we ask the question ‘What If?’ and experience Broadway Revised, Retuned, and Remixed.
DIE Saturdays, March 27 & April 3 @ 10pm
Written by Joe Kurtz & Directed by Christian De Gré
Imagine, if you will, a world unencumbered by the stress of decision-making; a world where you never have to wonder if you made the ‘right decision.’ In this existential comedy, two roommates make this a reality by letting the roll of a DIE decide for them. But is life really carefree when the responsibility is left up to chance? Watch as this duo embarks on comedic misadventures, all of which are orchestrated by YOU. That’s right, because the DIE is in YOUR hands. With 36 possible endings, you won’t see the same show twice. So take a chance. Their fate. Your hands… Roll the DIE.
Under the Veil: Being Muslim & Non-Muslim in post 9/11 America
Sundays, March 28 & April 4 @ 5:30pm
Written by The TE’A Company & Directed by Cheryl Paley
Under the Veil is a provocative piece of political theater that investigates the stereotypes and racism imposed upon the Muslim-American community within New York City society. Through drama, comedy, music, and poetry we confront the issues of race, loyalty, and identity, challenging you to question your own religious fear and misunderstandings as we take you Under the Veil.
- La MaMa Experimental Theatre is a world-renowned cultural organization led by founder Ellen Stewart. For 48 years La MaMa has passionately pursued its original mission to develop, nurture, support, produce and present new and original performance work by artists of all nations and cultures. We believe that in order to flourish, art needs the company of colleagues, the spirit of collaboration, the comfort of continuation, a public forum in which to be evaluated and fiscal support.
- Mind The Art Entertainment is a New York City based collaborative arts & entertainment company whose mission is to promote, enhance, workshop, and produce new work and talent in the arts. It is a company firm on the belief that the modern arts, in all their varieties, should be used not just to entertain but also to inspire, teach, reach out, and enhance its own art form.
Alienation (Enchanted Evening), abuse of power (Out to Sea) and the limitations of human freedom under a totalitarian system (Serenade) are the telling themes of three of the most popular plays by Polish dramatist Slavomir Mrozek.
These productions will be brought to life by Pace University’s Performing Arts students, alumni and faculty in association with La MaMa Experimental Theatre(E.T.C.). Performances will be held at La MaMa’s Lower East Side location, 74a East 4th Street, on Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20 at 10:00 pm, and Sunday, March 21 at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at www.lamama.org
For Enchanted Night Director Ruis Woertendyke, Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Pace University, the return to Ellen Stewart’s La MaMA is a homecoming of sorts. A La Mama baby of the late 1970s and early 1980s, his work as a playwright was showcased there, namely Brothers and Sisters, Love and Junk, American Babies, along with his collaborations with Felix Montez – Slow Poison, Small Fires. Woertendykewill be joined during this limited run by his Pace colleagues: Grant Kretchik, Director of BFA Acting Program, and Cosmin Chivu, Acting and Theater Arts Adjunct Faculty.
Each evening will consist of these three one-act plays by Mrozek:
- ENCHANTED NIGHT-two business men spend the night together in a hotel while on a conference. They are visited by a beautiful young woman but don't know which of them she has come for . . . or is she real at all and maybe this is a dream and what are you doing in my dream? A night they'll both try to forget. This comically provocative one-act is underscored by the band playing downstairs, the passing train, and a squeaky bed. Directed by Ruis Woertendyke and featuring Grant Kretchik (appears courtesy of Actors Equity), Jon Gabrielson, Lilah Shreeve.
- OUT AT SEA- a story of the selfish, savvy and eager. Stranded at sea three characters take a surreal journey when they are forced to decide how to survive. Campaigning, elections, and scandal all give way to sacrifices for the greater good. The human need for a sense of purpose and legacy can create quiet an appetite. Directed by Grant Kretchik and featuring Kristen Vaphides, Julie Robles, Dorothy James Loechel, Matt Alford, Ruis Woertendyke.
- SERENADE- tells the story of Fox, a natural born killer with a conscience. He attempts to seduce the Hens of a local henhouse, under the beak of an overprotective Rooster. Directed by Cosmin Chivu and featuring Chris Azzara, Steve Lesce, Chelsea Roe, Kehinde Koyejo, Talitha Custer, George Robson, Giacomo Rocchini.
All three one-act plays feature Set Design by Gian Marco Loforte, Live Music by George Robson and Sound Design by Scott O'Brien.
ASCULAPIUS tells how the son of sun god Apollo and mortal maiden Coronis transcends to his rightful place in the heavens because of his great work in medicine. It is believed that Aesculapius' story has never before been told on stage.
In Ms. Stewart's adaptation of this classic Greek tale, Aesculapius is the son of the mortal Coronis, who was raped by the god Apollo. Angered by Coronis' agreement to raise the child with her true love, mortal Ischys, Apollo's twin sister, Artemis, kills Coronis. Although Apollo tries to stop his sister he, can not save Coronis. Apollo puts Coronis on a funeral pyre and, as she is burning, he reaches into the flames and takes the baby from Coronis' womb. Aesculapius is sent to be raised in nature by the centaur Chiron, who teaches the boy about herbal medicines and the lore of the woods. The adult Aesculapius uses herbs given to him by snakes to bring a king's son back from the dead, angering his brother, the god of the underworld Hades, who is jealous of Aesculapius' ability to use medicine to ward off death, and thus orders Aesculapius' death. In fact, this rarely told story of the father of medicine is rife with incest, murder, betrayal, passion and unrequited love.
Aesculapius' story inspired the familiar serpent-entwined-staff insignia used today by hospitals and doctors worldwide as a symbol of excellence in medicine.
AESCULAPIUS features music composed by Ellen Stewart, with additional music by Michael Sirotta, Yukio Tsuji, and Heather Paauwe; and Greek music written by Elizabeth Swados, performed by live musicians.
The production features choreography by Federico Restrepo, puppets by Theodora Skipitares, light design by Federico Restrepo, scenic consultants Mark Tambella and Jun Maeda, and sound design by Tim Schellenbaum.
This presentation of AESCULAPIUS represents a continuation of La MaMa E.T.C. and The Great Jones Company's tradition of contemporary interpretations and adaptations of the classics. The production will retain the inimitable international flavor that is a trademark of Ellen Stewart's body of work at La MaMa, with a multi-ethnic cast consisting of over a dozen artists from Colombia, Italy, Japan, Germany, China, Korea, Kosovo, Puerto Rico, Republic of Congo, Philippines, Taiwan, and the United States.
The cast includes George Drance, Cary Gant, Denise Greber, Allison Hiroto, Onni Johnson, Michael Lynch, Benjamin Marcantoni, Matt Nasser, Prisca Ouya, Eugene the Poogene, Frederico Restrepo, Valois, Meredith Wright, Perry Yung, and Kat Yew.
The Cast of THE SYSTEM features: Richard Jennings*, John Patrick Driscoll*, Charles Whetzel, Andrew Reilly*, Elisabeth “EG” Heard, Patrick Kelly and Paul Kaufmann
* Actors appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association
Visuals by Nic Ularu, Lighting design is by James Hunter and Craig Vetter, Choreography is by Miriam Barbosa, the Production Manager is K. Dale White and Stage Manager is Paul Kaufman.
WHITE ELEPHANT features a series of poetic vignettes about animals, people and objects transforming from one plane to another. Inspired by the true story of an unwanted, white, weathered wicker elephant whose owner tosses it onto a roaring bonfire one chilly fall night, White Elephant is brought to life through puppetry, movement, mask, super 8 film and live music.
After the wicker elephant is thrown onto the bonfire, its tightly woven pieces prove durable; glowing, intertwined embers become white fragile strings. The elephant, now as light as a feather, rises up and hovers over the fire. A sudden drop destroys its beautiful shape as well as the complex system of threads that held it together, completing the transformation from object to ash/ghost. Thus begins the journey of White Elephant, a meditation on transition, memory and release.
Performers: four puppeteers/physical storytellers: Lake Simons, Erin Orr, Luis Tentindo and Yoko Myoi alongside musician John Dyer.
Milton is a blend of the Black American sell-out/Idiot/all knowing/dreamer/brave/insecure-identity searching struggle within Black people in America. The intent of this piece is to address the sleeping giants living within people in America. The abundant potential and free light that exist in all of us that for the most part is ignored and untapped. Instead we are crammed into cubicles, Wal-Mart, emails, traffic jams, school, court, etc. Who is strange? Is it the homeless woman that steals and refuses to get a job? Or, is it the man that works at the same place for 35 years, retires at 65 and dies at 68 years old. WHO'S KRAZY?
This story is delivered through monologue, spoken word, a 70’s soul/hip hop soundtrack, and song.
The production incorporates six video projectors that display both words and images, making the experience truly multicultural and accessible for Japanese and English speaking audiences alike.
A dramatic serial of Lesbian life in the Berkshires that previewed at St. Mark's Church and then moved permanently into The Club at La MaMa, where it attracted capacity crowds of fervent fans for eleven full episodes between January and June, 2008. The production was a breakthrough event, of sorts, for The Dyke Division of Two-Headed Calf and its director, Brooke O'Harra. From January 22 to February 8, 2009, La MaMa E.T.C. will remount the hit series for those who couldn't squeeze in or who just can't get enough of it, with "Room for Cream Season One: The One Box Set!"
Each chapter took audiences on a witty sojourn to the mythical town of Sappho, Massachussets where big hearted, often sturdy women gather, most often at a coffee house whose name is the series title. With celebrity guests, witty scripts and savvy stage direction by O'Harra, the series galvanized a community of artists who had been waiting to work together for a long time. There emerged a sense of mission and a sparkle, as the creators realized they were filling a necessary niche by writing parts for lesbian and transgender actors. Audiences responded to the project's wit, sincerity and depth (rare enough onstage; mostly absent Showtime's titillating TV counterpart, "The L Word"). The addition of "queer art stars" as celebrity guests added an extra dose of brio. Critics reported that the mixed cast and breakneck schedule engendered a stylized entropy that made for must-see theater. Each episode turned into a "happening" of sorts, geared toward giving the often splintered queer community a place to commune and laugh at itself in a light hearted way. Then, O’Harra says, the undertaking "got bigger than itself very quickly."
With the election of America's first African American president, Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor, two prominent artistic voices in American race and gender politics for the past thirty years, make a timely return to the La MaMa stage. While pundits crank out santized narratives of multi-culturalism and gender quality in sweeping gestures, Jones and Ackamoor track a decidely personal political history of this country through the romantic, professional, political, and sexual relationshps that have guided them through decades of conflict and struggle. Part house party, part TV talk show and part cabaret, The Love Project is an interactive experience that testifies to the network of human relations that define our times. The play is a fascinating satire of business doublespeak. The euphemistic language of marketing executives is adopted as ideology by the members of this media-saturated group, who swoon for such "future" ideas as "Facadism" and the "Mythosphere." Power is found in the reordering of information. Nostalgia, for them, is remembering their parents filling in product surveys with a ballpoint pen. They unify behind a business idea--The Reality Bowl--with a leader who boasts, "everything I've ever done has been right on the cutting edge of legitimate." Their ride into the euphoria of this value proposition is the journey of the play.
The cast is a unique mix of Neu veterans, relative newcomers, and first-timers: Mary Shultz, Tony Nunziata, Chris Maresca, John Costelloe, Byron Thomas, Kristine Lee and, of course, Jim Neu. The production is directed by Keith McDermott (his ninth Jim Neu play) and has music by Harry Mann. Sets are by David Fritz and costumes are by Meg Zeder.
Sin Cha Hong's last New York production, "Pilgrimage" (La MaMa, 2006), was a dance portraying the religious journey towards enlightenment. So it is natural to imagine her embracing Existentialist themes that are commonly ascribed to "Waiting For Godot." Like Beckett's play, her dance is grave, intense and concise. Sin Cha Hong does not literally play Vladimir or Estragon, Pozzo or Lucky, but many elements of the play are strongly present, including its centerpiece, a scrawny tree, which bears fruit to indicate the passage of time. There is a whole collection of shoes, ranging from the Tramps' tight clodhoppers to some stylish-looking, red high-heels. There is even a rope with which the protagonists might have actually succeeded in hanging themselves.
Sin Cha Hong is alone on stage. She awakens beneath the tree, as if to indicate that she has always been there. There is no dialogue, only slow, affective movement, accompanied by a percussive score that would, in Beckett's words, "hold the terrible silence at bay." The shoes are manipulated like puppets, as is a large white coverlet which she tears off her bed and surrounds herself, resembling the placenta of a kitten at birth. There are ingenious, delicately-designed lighting images, as when the tree is projected as a shadow upon Sin Cha Hong's white gown. Overall, there is a feeling of beautiful solitude (implying, perhaps, that the path to enlightenment is a lonely one?) and of the many changes that happen to you while waiting--a journey from agony to laughter.
Building on the traditional text of Italian author Carlo Collodi, PINOCCHIO unfolds with contemporary resonance through an imaginative fusion of spoken word, movement, masks, light and shadows, sound effects and music.
Presented in the company's signature style, PINOCCHIO is a dark, surreal adult tale of a wooden boy who becomes a real man and embarks on an adventure of self-discovery in a world full of very real dangers
PINOCCHIO stars Giandomencio Cupaiuolo in the title role and Elsa Bossi as Fata, Pinocchio's fairy companion. The ensemble also includes Elena Nene Barini, Nicolo Belliti, Carlo Gambaro, Giacomo Pecchia, Giacomo Vezzani, and Jonathan Bertolai. In addition to the sets and costume design by Mr. Gregori, the production has sound design by Hubert Westkemper and lighting design by Angelo Linzalata. PINOCCHIO will be performed in Italian.
"Days of Antonio" is based on a true story that took place in 1916 in Veredo, a small town near Milan, Italy. Antonio, a disabled boy, born with one leg shorter than the other in a poor peasant's family, is locked by his parents in a roost to live with the chickens and to be shown off from time to time like a circus attraction. He grows up with the hens, identifying himself with the king of the henhouse, the rooster. At the age of fifteen his parents catch him with a prostitute and decide to lock him in an insane asylum. "Days of Antonio" starts the day the unlucky boy is admitted into the asylum, where he finds out the truth: he's not an animal and will never be a human being.
WEST BANK, UK is a world-premiere musical about a Palestinian and an Israeli who must share a rent-controlled apartment in London. The production stars Jeremy Cohen and Mike Mosallam. WEST BANK, UK is directed and written by Oren Safdie, who wrote the Off-Broadway hits "Private Jokes, Public Places" and "The Last Word," and has music and lyrics by Ronnie Cohen, best known for the musical "Jews and Jesus."
THE EXILES tells the tale of Orestes and Electra, siblings who execute a grisly plot of vengeance against their mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, for the horrific murder of their father, Agamemnon, upon his return from the Trojan War.Based on Euripides' "Orestes," and inspired by John Paul Sartre's "The Flies," THE EXILES unfolds using video projections, masks and puppetry--including five-foot Bunraku puppets strapped to the front of actors' bodies at the head, the chest, the waist and the knees. Veiled actors speak lines from behind the puppet, much as an actor might have spoken lines from behind a large Greek mask in ancient Greek theatre.
Poems by Elizabeth Bishop, conceived and Performed by Saskia Hegt. A theatrical solo in which poems and letters by the poet Elizabeth Bishop are combined with movement and music. 
US premiere of TARANTELLA is a celebration of life expressed through the southern Italian traditional dance of the Tarantella and Pizzica in its original integrity. The performance will feature prominent singer and guitarist Dominic Mancuso, internationally renowned composer, violinist and accordionist Claudio Vena, acclaimed guitarist and mandolin player Silvio Simone, and showman percussionist Armando Borg. TARANTELLA will also feature original ballads, authentic costumes, animation, film clips and images. Dramatic dialogue will be in English, Italian and local Southern Italian dialect with subtitles in English. The story is set in the South of Italy in the 1940s. An eighteen-year old girl and a twenty- year old boy have shared a bond of love for two years. Every day Paolo climbs the mountain where Caterina lives with her wealthy and respected landowning family. Their love is as innocent and real as the feeling of hope that followed the liberation of Italy from the darkness of WW2. The excitement of the unknown and a sense of good things to come are in the air. But everything seems to be changing too quickly, and an unexpected series of events, choices and missed opportunities, change the young lovers' lives forever.
Directed By - LIESL TOMMY
music composed by Elizabeth Swados, lyrics by Federico Restrepo, Elizabeth Swados and Denise Greber based on interviews with the cast.
"The Tooth of Crime" will be the centerpiece of the 45th-anniversary season at La Mama, the East Village experimental theater run by Ellen Stewart, since its inception in 1961. In 1983, the company mounted a production of the play (which had its New York premiere in 1972) under the direction of George Ferencz, who staged the entire work as a rock concert. The director's approach, for a play about a fading rock star fending off the ambitious newcomer who wants to take his place, was well received by critics. In 1997, Mr. Shepard rewrote the play as "Tooth of Crime (Second Dance)," which is the only version for which performance rights are currently available. At Ms. Stewart's request, though, Mr. Shepard will allow one more production of the original script this fall, with Mr. Ferencz once again directing. Starring as Hoss, the rocker on the way out, is Ray Wise (Hap Gardner on the Fox show "24" and Don Hollenbek in "Good Night, and Good Luck"), who won an Obie for his 1983 performance in the same role.The New York Times
August 7, 2006
Everything begins and ends in the taxi, which is driven by a 55-year-old Italian-American--a good-hearted wiseguy who inspires confessions in some of his fares and arguments with others. The passengers reveal themselves primarily in monologues but occasionally in two- and three-character scenes.
resents his sister's desperate relationships with men, accuses her of promiscuity and responds self-righteously to his mother's queries about his own relations with women. The play starts off like an indictment of male machismo and double-standards with a Strindbergian touch. Then it turns on it's head. Shocking, mysterious secrets are revealed. The boy's arrogance gives way to humility and greater understanding.
and pianist Lin Li
Set to a score of live scat singing, sung by Polish jazz legend Urszula Dudziak, and performed by actors who don't speak a single word -- uses shadow and light accompanied by haunting, original music and movement to convey emotions and existential truths inadequately expressed in words.
Adapted by Madzik from Tadeusz Rozewicz's award-winning book of prose and verse, "Matka Odchodzi (Mother Departs)" -- winner of NIKE, Poland's highest literary award in 2000 -- ODCHODZI (PASSING AWAY) is a visual spectacle that examines the solitude and mystery of a loved one's passing.
and paintings of Bosch and Breughel.
Johannes' prose-poem is believed to be inspired by the death of the author's first wife in 1400. The grief-stricken writer introduces himself as a ploughman, whose plow is his pen. Representing Man, he bitterly accuses Death of unjust dealings toward humanity. Death argues back forcefully and sometimes scornfully, eventually reconciling the ploughman to the necessity of dying. Throughout the fiery debate, the ploughman asserts a noble human ideal against Death's more negative view of mankind. The dialogue is free of dogmatic teaching and is an astonishing disputation: the author makes deliberate and frequent use of legal
forms and phrases, and the dramatic effect is that Death is on trial. Ultimately God, the judge, gives Death the victory but Man the honor. The conclusion is the Man can overcome the awesomeness of Death only through an active and honorable life, inner peace and a clear conscience.
The play is an ironic, sci-fi examination of the relations between developing and devloped countries. Set in the imminent future, the play imagines a grisly pact between the first and thrid worlds, in which desperate people can sell their body parts to wealthy clients in return for food, water, shelter and riches for themselves and their families.
What happens when George Bernard Shaw, meets Japanese Kabuki? Will it be a fight to the death or can these two disparate theatrical forms peacefully and productively co-exist. In this work, Theater of a Two-headed calf melds together the dense political rhetoric of Shaw with the physicals and vocal stylizations of Japanese Kabuki. The infusion of Kabuki's Aesthetics of Cruelty adds a particular poignancy to Shaw's play, in which Barbara, a Major in the Salvation Army, argues for soul-saving and redemption, while her father, a rich arms manufacturer argues for the necessity of man's murderous, freedom-giving abilities. 
On the eve of his 70th birthday, after receiving an award from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Einsten takes an account of his life with the audience. He examines the many conflicting aspects of his personality as a physicist, pacifist, Jew and Zionist. SAINT OEDIPUS is performed by Edyta Lukaszewicz-Lisowska and Rafal Gasowski. Scenic design is by Jan Zavarsky, costume design by Eva Farkasova, music by Piotr Nazaruk, with direction and lighting by Piotr Tomaszuk.
Performed by DAH Theatre Research Centre, Jadranka Andjelic ProjectThe 1990's conflicts in the Republics that formerly made up Yugoslavia left the young artists of Serbia grappling with essential questions of war and peace that will permeate their work for many years to come. One of the best examples of the Serbian movement of post-civil war performance is the women-led DAH Theatre Research Centre, whose motto is, "In the contemporary world, destruction and violence can only be opposed by the creation of sense." "Seekers," a dance theater work by DAH Theatre Research Centre's Jadranka Andjelic Project, is inspired by the poetry of Sufi master Hafiz and recalls a sister and brother, brought up in the Sufi tradition, who were heroes of World War II. The piece is created by Jadranka Andjelic.
The intricately choreographed piece is largely based on the poetry of Hafiz, a Sufi poet from XIV century Persia, who wrote, "Any thought that you are better or less/Than another man/Quickly/Breaks the wine glass." Hafiz has influenced intellectuals and artists for centuries. The bravery of this poet is his intentional breaking of clichés of mind and convention, rare even today. Personal and direct, his poems remind us of our responsibility to create the world as we would like it to be. The performance uses translations of Hafiz' poetry by Daniel Ladinsky from his book, "The Gift."
elderly woman and her daughter in this musical thriller which transplants
Dostoevsky's 19th Century classic novel Crime and Punishment to New
York's East Village in the present day.
music director: Jeremy Fenn-Smith
The production is an Equity Showcase
PERSEUS - loosely based on excerpts from Ovid, Hesiod and Apollodorus with additional text by Ms. Stewart - is the often-told, but rarely-performed saga of Perseus the son of Danae and the god Zeus - who slew the serpent-headed Medusa and married the beautiful maiden Andromeda after saving her from a sea monster. LOVEPLAY: about a woman who loses her great love, is betrayed by her best friend but through work and friendships discovers just love—a greater love that is just.
LOVEPLAY dramatizes how giving justice to those with fewest choices gives us all more choices.
Contemporary scenes used in the production have been written by Serhiy Zhadan, Ukraine's hottest young poet, who was leader of the tent city in Kharkiv (the "Chicago" of Ukraine) during the country's recent "Orange Revolution." The multidisciplinary theatrical work is being created by director Virlana Tkacz in collaboration with Zhadan. It centers on a midwinter ritual of the Carpathians in which the forces of nature are invited to dinner. The cast mixes American performers of Yara Arts Group with artists from Carpathians who will perform on traditional instruments, including ten-foot wooden horns.
Kuri described his play as "An Autumnal Farce of the Cosmic Anguish." Its theme is succinctly explained by a proverb that says, "It's better to have a broken heart than a rusted one." The play reflects on the risk that love implies the consequences of it, and the price to live an adventure. It unfolds in a sketchy form, with an atmosphere somewhat like an early 20th century medicine show--as if to be played before the oleos. A young man named Fenix arrives in a nowhere town, accompanied by a mentor who is teaching him the art of traveling. He confuses love between a young woman and her older sister who is a prostitute; the latter of whom literally steals his heart because she longs to free herself from a mythical punishment. The play's second part is aptly subtitled, "The Cabaret of Discontinued Love." It contains many outward philosophical pronouncements on love, as when a braggart guard of a tenement house declares, "Love is the bitterness of the meringue, an expensive and sweet candy that becomes bitter; is the central garden where all paths come together. However, love doesn't exist; it is a path that invents itself in every mirage and offers to travelers the fleeting illusion of a city where travelers can stop to give their heart a rest...but...but everybody is happy and so am I."