Just got this boatload of info on the NY Clown Theatre Festival 2008. Lookin’ good!

After the jump you will find info on the entire crazy thing including:

Free Events

Lectures and Discussion

Workshops

Mainstage Shows

Cabarets

Site Specific Performance

They also need VOLUNTEERS!!

Want to hang with the clowns and see shows for free?

If interested please contact Gyda@bricktheater.com

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A friend of mine sent me an email about Maaruf Strategies, an excellent volunteer program in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn that seeks to give bright, eager youngsters a chance to shine in a wide range of areas, from public service to the arts. They are fundraising:

THIS IS OUR 1000 / 20 FUNDRAISING DRIVE.  WE ARE SEEKING 1,00O PEOPLE TO DONATE $20.00 EACH.  FOR THE UPCOMING SCHOOL YEAR, AT FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY 4 HIGH SCHOOL, WE HAVE SCHEDULED THE FOLLOWING PROJECTS FOR OUR SCHOLARS AND WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT:

• AGENDA ’09 LEADERSHIP SUMMIT, BRINGING TOGETHER YOUNG LEADERS FROM ACROSS BED STUY TO CHART THEIR AGENDA FOR INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.
• THE LAUNCH OF OUR CITIZEN DIPLOMAT INITIATIVE.  WE’RE LOOKING TO FLY 6 STUDENTS TO THE AFRICAN STATE OF NAMIBIA TO INTERACT WITH NAMIBIAN YOUTH AND DISCUSS A RANGE OF PROJECTS TO BE CONDUCTED OVER TIME.  THE CORNERSTONE PROJECT WILL BE USED SCIENE AND MATH TEXTS  FROM NYC SHIPPED TO SUPPORT NAMIBIA’S SCIENCE AND MATH EDUCATION EFFORTS.

AGAIN, YOUR DONATION WILL BE TAX DEDUCTIBLE. PLEASE FORWARD YOUR CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:

MAARUF STRATEGIES INC

418 BAINBRIDGE STREET

BROOKLYN, N.Y 11233

YOU WILL RECIEVE DOCUMENTATION OF YOUR DONATION FOR YOUR TAX RECORDS.

REMEMBER, WE ARE FACED WITH AN UNPRECEDENTED HUMAN DEVELOPMENT EMERGENCY IN OUR COMMUNITY.  FORTUNATELY, WE HAVE THE WEALTHIEST GENERATION IN OUR HISTORY, WITH MORE THAN ENOUGH AT OUR DISPOSAL TO DEAL WITH THIS EMERGENCY….IF WE REALLY WANT TO.

THANK YOU.

THE BOARD OF MAARUF STRATEGIES INC, 2008

MAARUF STRATEGIES INC. IS A 501 C 3 NON PROFIT CORPORATION.

www.maarufstrategiesinc.com

Just got the PS122 newsletter and though I managed to get a hold of a copy of the schedule a few weeks ago, I was waiting ’til they announced before I wrote anything. Its a good season, opening with our old pal thomas bradshaw, featuring verdensteatret, jo stromgren, reid farrington, rachid ouramdane, wax factory, rob roth, yanira castro, sara juli and a bunch more stuff.  looking forward to the upcoming year!

This looks neat:

On September 6 & 7, Le Poisson Rouge, will present the Beth Morrison Projects’ premiere of David T. Little’s Soldier Songs.

Soldier Songs is an evening-length multimedia performance piece from composer David T. Little. Comprised of 11 songs with an original Libretto by the composer, the work combines elements of theater, opera, concert music, rock and animation to explore the dichotomy between war and modern society through the abstract character, the Soldier.

Soldier Songs was first presented in 2006 as a song cycle by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (the Pittsburgh Post Gazette says about that performance: “Soldier Songs packs [a] heartrending wallop”) and had its orchestral premiere as part of New York City Opera’s VOX Festival in 2008. Feast of Music says the VOX Festival performance “packed the most dramatic punch of any of the works on the bill: it was both thoroughly relevant and profoundly disturbing.”

The upcoming Beth Morrison Projects production is the first fully staged presentation of this dramatic work and features an acclaimed creative team: singer David Adam Moore, members of the ensemble Newspeak, conductor Todd Reynolds, director Yuval Sharon, set/costume designer Chisato Uno, lighting designer Lucas Krech, and animator/video designer Corey Michael Smithson.

Performance Details:

When: Saturday, September 6, 7:00pm (doors open at 6:00)

Sunday, September 7, 7:00pm (doors open at 6:00)

Where: Le Poisson Rouge 158 Bleecker Street

Tickets:           212.796.0741 or www.lepoissonrouge.com

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The World Premiere of 1965UU by Mac Wellman, starring Paul Lazar, directed by Stephen Mellor

September 11 – October 4, Thurs-Sat @ 8pm $15

More than two years in development, 1965UU is a solo performance written by Mac Wellman (winner of numerous Obie awards, recent plays include Bitter Bierce at PS122, Jennie Richee with Ridge Theater, and Antigone with Big Dance Theater) adapted from his own group of short stories about the imaginary histories of real world asteroids (Wellman obtained a list of all the named little worlds). 1965UU was written expressly for performer Paul Lazar (of Big Dance Theater) and director Stephen Mellor (frequent Mac Wellman collaborator, received his first Obie Award in 1990 for his performance of Wellman’s Terminal Hip, and his 2nd in 2003 for Wellman’s Bitter Bierce). Additional performances by Heather Christian, Ed Jewett, Daniel Manley, and Kate Marks. Set and Lighting Design by Kyle Chepulis. Sound by John Kilgore. Stage Management by Julie Rossman.

The Chocolate Factory

5-49 49th Avenue

L.I.C., NY 11101

(718) 482-7069

Dudes. I know I’m totally lax. I know I should be posting. I apologize. And my “trusty” co-contributors are not contributing. The search goes on.

I’m just really busy with my job and also with PRELUDE. Which is going to be amazing. You should definitely plan to take off work from September 24-27, 2008 and join us. It is FREE!! Check out our new website which  totally rocks. www.preludenyc.org. NOWHERE ELSE IN THE CITY OR THE WORLD can you see so much theater, behind the scenes, FOR FREE, and meet the artists and your fellow theater-makers; attend panels with all of NYC’s most important curators and producers and scholars and writers and just generally see so much important and diverse work under one roof. NOWHERE ELSE! So come be a part of this amazing event.

Um. What else? Oh yeah. I watched the Democratic National Convention the other night and I have to say that if Hilary had made that kind of speech during the actual campaign, she probably would have won the nomination. It was really well-written and well-delivered, and though it was “about her” it was not nearly as self-centered as her campaign. It actually sounded passionate and inspiring, like she gave a hoot about more than just her own ambition. Oh well, too little too late for this go-round.

I promise to catch up soon. New contributors – its a new school year, anybody aspiring arts journalists wanna join Team Culturebot?

Oh and I’m headed to Philly this weekend – and the next three weekends – you should definitely avail yourself of the opportunity. Its also a preview of upcoming work in NYC. Jo Stromgren and Verdensteatret are both showing the same pieces in Philly now as they will in NYC later on this year.

Okay so I have a lot of things to post, I need to find some time to catch up. I was going to do it this weekend but I went on a cleaning spree instead. After five years in this apartment (almost) this has been the Summer of Domestic Endeavors. I fixed some plumbing, cleaned like a motherf-er, threw stuff out, got organized. Its crazy.

I took a break from my cleaning and went out to dinner in my neighborhood – so I’ll give a shout-out to my local Turkish place, Tarabia. I had never been there before, even though its been open for awhile. And let me tell you, it is worth the trip to my ‘hood. Reasonably priced, great friendly service, good wine list and DELICIOUS food!! I had the Sultan’s Lamb which was succulent and spicy and altogether yummy. Hummus and spicy vegetable dip appetizers with warm “fresh-from the oven” bread were a great way to start, the environment is good for both intimate/romantic and friendly/jovial outings. If you’re up near 59th St. and 1st Ave, you should definitely stop by Tarabia for dinner.

And finally, on a totally different note, as I work on my epic treatise about culture, I had this random fleeting thought the other night. What if ADHD isn’t a disorder? What if it is the early manifestation of a profound shift in consciousness? What if it is just growings pains for the human mind? We’re moving from a text-based world to an immersive visual world, an incredibly fast networked reality of information overload. We medicate it now – and it causes us stress if we have ADHD because we don’t know what to do with it. But maybe we’re just changing. People were different before books and the written word, the human mind was different, our ability to convey the sophisticated, abstract and intangible was hampered by our inability to fix ideas in time and place. Now the expression of human imagination is no longer fixed to letters, symbols, pictographs and paper; nor is it returning to pure orality. It is becoming something other.

I don’t know. Just some random thoughts that I could investigate more deeply if I could just pay attention long enough!!!

hahaha.

As if the Fall wasn’t going to be busy enough!! FIAF is presenting Crossing the Line: FIAF Fall Festival 2008 all over the city! Zut, alors! Beaucoups des choses a voir! Dieu merci! C’est vraiment formidable, vachement chouette.

enough of my bad french typing. but check it out.

Just want to thank Rachel Kramer Bussel for inviting me to the reading last night! I had a great time, I laughed , I cried, I bought the lunch box.

I forgot how much I enjoyed reading/performing and making the people laugh. Good times! And all the other readers were fabulous. Plus there were snacks. Yummy snacks.

Okay – off into the weekend.