From this article in the WSJ:

Officials in Europe, facing a widening banking crisis on the continent, on Tuesday urged the U.S. to pass the rescue plan this week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the quick passage of a rescue package is “the precondition for creating new confidence on the markets — and that is of incredibly great significance.”

The European Union, meanwhile, was disappointed with the vote, a European Commission spokesman said. “The United States must take its responsibility in this situation, must show statesmanship for the sake of their own country, and for the sake of the world,” said Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger, who added that a reworked version should be approved swiftly.

My friend Ellen forwarded me the article with the following note:

fascinating leadership problem, destined for the HBR & all other serious publications…

if Bush hadn’t squandered his leadership-ness, which is now compounded by his lame-duck-ness, people would listen to him on this issue, but instead we have this bizarro 3-way leadership vacuum where exactly no one has any credibility nor ability to inspire the American people

so who should come forward to champion this thing & stem the tide of anger that paralyzed the House? Bush the Elder? Bill Clinton? the two together?

it’s an amazing opportunity to reassert American world leadership. American tax payers take the hit to help stabilize the global financial system – another form of entering WWII, creating the Marshall Plan, etc.

caveat – not that I really have any idea what the bailout will really accomplish, still less what goes into success on this issue…

Amazing… which reminds me a little of this article in the New Yorker that said:

A few years ago former-DV8 performer Liam Steel and his company Stan Won’t Dance brought their show Sinner to NYC which John Rockwell called “British physical theater at its finest” in the NY Times. 

Well, now we get to see the source of this intense, physical theater when DV8 comes to Montclair this weekend. Don’t miss it! DV8‘s To Be Straight With You is a poetic and unflinching exploration of tolerance, intolerance, religion and sexuality. It incorporates dance, text, documentary, animation and film.

To Be Straight With You

Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre has won sixteen awards over the last three years for its stage and film works, including a Prix Italia and the Rose D’Or. The company’s latest work, To Be Straight With You, is currently touring the UK, USA and Europe.

“DV8 AND ITS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, LLOYD NEWSON, HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WELL AHEAD OF THE GAME. NOW, JUST AT A POINT WHEN OTHERS ARE CATCHING UP, NEWSON REINVENTS THE RULES.” – Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

Peak Performances @ Montclair

Montclair State University, New Jersey

October 2-5, 2008

Box Office: 973-655-5112

Transport from NYC:

Oct 2 & 3:

6:18pm NJTransit Train from Penn Station to Montclair Heights; 9:11pm Return to Penn Station

Oct 4 & 5:

Charter Service Available, $10 Round-Trip, Call Box Office to Reserve

Here’s a big THANK YOU to all the artists, audience members, curators, thinkers, do-ers, staff and supporters of PRELUDE ’08. This year was absolutely phenomenal.  Pretty much every showing and talkback and panel was full, there was performance in the library, the halls, the lobby, the auditoriums, on the street and even in Second Life! (I finally got it going on Saturday afternoon thanks to the invaluable help of Streamguys!)  We had an awesome opening party at Chorus Karaoke with live performance/installation from Big Art Group and a throw-down drinkfest celebratory closing night party at Under the Volcano on Saturday night –  sponsored by the Polish Cultural Institute…..And we got a great write-up in TimeOut! Phew!

The artists showed amazing works-in-progress, the panelists were all insightful and articulate, the audiences were engaged and active and enthusiastic. YAY!!!!

We will post Rachel Roberts’ photos and Michael Arthur’s illustrations as soon as we catch our collective breath….

Thanks again and see you all soon in theaters all around town!

xoAndy

Thanks to Beatrice for picking up the editorial slack around here while yours truly is neck-deep in PRELUDE!

It has been going really well – check in with Claudia and Art.Cult for updates.

also check out the article in TIME OUT! – and check the Prelude Blog for updates and illustrations from Michael D. Arthur!

There is a visually stunning and not very well publicized production at La Mama that will be running through September 28. Atomic City is a clever composit of dance, theater and live music that takes spectators into the lives of two neighboring families whose troubled patres familias both work as physicists in the town’s laboratory. The plot of the performance unravels slowly, as we learn about the characters’ relationships to each other, and observe them interacting through dance, words and song. Indeed, one of the strongest aspects of the piece lies in the balance of different performance forms that take turns at telling the story. For example, just as a spoken introduction to the piece seems to point us in the direction of a wordy theatrical work, the nimble bodied orator (Karl Sørensen) ends his prologue and throws himself into an extremely physical dance phrase filled with suspensions and inversions, all emphasized by a spotlight that gives his dance a dramatic twist.

The cast for Atomic City is also a combination, a mix of artists with different backgrounds and nationalities: there are two musicians from Sweden, two Danish dancers, a physical theatre performer from Guatemala, and an acrobatic dancer and mover from the US. More generally, the work is a collaboration between the Danish company Terranova and US performer and producer Jon Morris (Fuerzabruta, Cirque du Soleil). They produced the piece in an intensive residency this summer at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, and this in New York is their premiere. Probably because the piece is so new, there is a raw quality to it that makes the work exciting: these artists are taking risks with their bodies and their voices, in a collaboration that has pushed each one of them to a new place in their artistic practice.

When something does not run so smoothly (some of the harmonizing could use a little more practice!) the visuals of the piece by and large make up for it. The set for Atomic City beautifully contrasts the darkness of the performance space with white panels of waxed paper and a green square of fake grass. Spectators sit on opposite sides of the square, a choice that is elegantly exploited several times during the performance by movable wall divisions and the different facings of the performers. Apart from one character, “the gatekeeper”, soberly dressed in grey shades, all the performers wear white costumes. The result is a bright and clean look, easily associated with snow or the stark light of an atomic explosion.

Atomic City is at once readable and abstract: “a recipe for pie and one for destruction”, as described in the flyers for the show. This young group of international artists from different disciplines has created a unique world within the La Mama Annex theatre, a white city in which, as one of the physicists claims, “we are suspended in language”, as well as in sound and movement. In this secret place, human relations unfold playfully and painfully through beautifully physical phrases of movement and broken fragments of language. With its light humor and poetic aesthetic, Atomic City is a promising collaboration, one that should not be overlooked.

La Mama – The Annex

September 11 – 28, 2008

Thursday – Saturday at 7:30pm

Sunday at 2:30pm & 7:30pm

Tickets $25

purchase tickets online

Ivana Müller’s While We Were Holding It Together is a very still dance piece currently showing at FIAF (French Institute Alliance Française). In this work, the Croatian born choreographer has brought together a cast of five performers whose central task for the piece is to remain immobile, living sculptures posing in a tableau in the middle of an empty, black stage. The minimalistic design for the stage, combined with the stark lighting and every day wear of the performers, is meant to free the imagination of the spectator, opening up interpretation as to what these characters are actually doing. As becomes clear very early in the piece, While We Were Holding It Together centers primarily on the experience of the spectator in the theater and the process of perception involved in participating in a theatrical event. The performers seem to tell us that we, the audience members, are responsible for “holding it together”: without our contribution, there could be no performance.

For over an hour, the five performers involve the audience in a process of constant re-imagination, as they describe alternative scenarios to explain their physical condition. Seemingly caught in the stillness of their bodies, the performers speak: “I imagine we are in a forest”, “I imagine I am sick”, “I imagine we are stored into a large container”, “I imagine a family weekend”, and so on. The vignettes that ensue are at times funny, at times touching, and at one point even attempt to be erotic. Müller and her performers successfully maintain a light touch throughout what, we imagine, might otherwise be a tedious experiment. Unfortunately the humor involved in the piece is often predictable: the whole performance plays off of the endless exploration and absurd creations of the imagination, leveraging on the inexplicable stillness of the performers for contrast. This direct juxtaposition does not take many risks and openly aims at seducing the audience into collaborating with the performers: each humorous moment seeks to keep spectators from drifting away from the piece.

In the post-performance talk following Wednesday’s performance, Müller mentioned that three main questions served as the focus for the improvisation exercises that gave rise to the piece. Each performer had to ask themselves: “Who am I? What am I doing? Why am I here?” At times, it seems like those questions have been exhausted in the process of making the piece. Indeed, there is a limitless number of stories that could be tailored around the conditions of the five performers, but what next? While the solutions created for the performance are satisfying, the piece does not succeed in pushing the boundaries of a well-designed improvisation exercise.

While We Were Holding It Together is a strongly cerebral piece, not surprisingly considering Müller’s background in literature and her interest in conceptual dance. The questions addressed in the work speak directly to contemporary critical theory in the field of audience reception, making Müller’s exploration echo existing academic writing on theatre and performance. Overall, however, Müller addresses these issues with clarity, and the empathetic experience of observing the performers’ impossible attempt at stillness remains with you even after you have left the theater.

While We Were Holding It Together

FIAF

Wednesday–Friday, September 24–26, 2008 at 8pm

I been so busy with the PRELUDE I forgot to post this. I am way behind schedule. Anyhoo – okay so PRELUDE is opening tomorrow night with an awesome panel and then a party at Chorus Karaoke (FREE KARAOKE from 8PM-10PM) and then all weekend long performances from all your favorite downtown theater peeps. dig on that.

OH – but I forgot again, almost.

The Whitney Museum’s performance department is in search of an assistant to help manage an upcoming performance series.   More details after the jump. This is a great gig for a young aspiring curator…

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This weekend – I’m not sure when the show starts, maybe Thursday – when you’re not at PRELUDE (and you should pretty much be there every day) – but when you’re not – go to PS122 to go see Verdensteatret’s LOUDER. I was blown away when they did CONCERT FOR GREENLAND back in ’05. This stuff is really unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.  I think I wrote about LOUDER here before – I went to go see it in Philly. And it’ll be in Troy at EMPAC next week. But if you’re in NYC go see it at PS122.

Basically its this collective of crazy Norwegians who go to places and then return to Norway and make spectacular multimedia environments. LOUDER Is about their trip to Vietnam. It has a huge robot spider sculpture, abstract mosquito puppets on wires, shadow puppetry, synthesized theremins, computer effects, projections, dozens of speakers scattered around the stage and more. There’s nothing to “get” – you just sit back (or forward) and trip out on all crazy stuff. It is raucous and meditative, ponderous and funny, surreal and ethereal and gritty, rural and urban.

Culturebot doesn’t advocate drug use but for those of you that are already so inclined, getting ferociously stoned for the show might be fun.

I went to the IT Awards last night – well most of it.  It is amazing how much theater there is in this town! I hadn’t heard of a lot of these companies. I’d say I need to get out more, but I can’t get our more without replicating myself. Lisa Kron was super-funny as hostess, Martin Denton and Rochelle were great when they got honored and Judith Malina – along with a great clip reel of the Living Theater – was still a knockout.

All winners list after the jump….

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Photo by Paula Court,

On entering The Kitchen this Saturday, I was curious to see how Radiohole had dealt with Chelsea’s sizable performance space for the staging of ANGER/NATION, their latest production. The company usually performs at the Collapsable Hole, a theater made from two neighboring garages in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and a space they share with fellow experimental theater company Collapsable Giraffe. The Collapsable Hole is cozy and a little claustrophobic. There are no chairs, just large steps with movable pillows, which do not seat more than fifty people. Watching Radiohole in their own performance space is raw and intimate, their ultra technological sets making it feel as though you just entered a post-apocalyptic underground world: red lights, monitors every where, exposed bricks, and familiar objects used for unfamiliar purposes. It was difficult to imagine their work in the clean and fashionable Chelsea space.

Yet for their performance at The Kitchen , Radiohole successfully recreated that sense of intimacy and technological overload by using only about a third of the stage’s depth, and building a fiberglass firework-like structure that bursts towards the audience, mini monitors attached to the end of each rod, physically breaking the imaginary fourth wall between audience and stage. In this production, a large, bluish-grey, cardboard moon hangs above stage right, and the set is dissected through the middle by a ramp that ascends to a darkened backstage. Horizontal, color-changing panels act as a back drop, while on the sides and the front of the stage are visible various light and sound switches: Radiohole members usually operate all the cues in their performances.

ANGER/NATION’s set alone is like a sculpture, and could survive as an installation even when not inhabited by its performers. It is a little like a space ship, filled with light switches and monitors, almost breathing, with its changing colors and tiny movements. Yet the performers are there, all the way from the beginning: pouring beer for the audience, talking to each other, attempting drunken speeches, some of them wearing adjusted German folk dresses complete with embroidered edelweiss. For this show, Radiohole has centered around the historical character of Mrs. Carrie A. Nation (Maggie Hoffman), the “Bar Room Smasher” born in “Garrard County, Kentucky” in 1846. After loosing her husband to drinking and sailors, Mrs. Nation takes on the quest of cleansing America of “sin and degradation” by destroying every bar she sets foot in. Like in other Radiohole productions, narrative is non-linear, and Mrs. Nation’s story appears at intervals between songs, disturbing tableaux, and violent repetitive acts, as when two of the men on stage repeatedly shoot each other’s buttocks with air guns.

About half way through the performance, pink American flags make their appearance on the background monitors, and Mrs. Nation declares that all will participate in her crusade: more specifically “if they are women, they will join [her], and if they are boys, they will follow [her] unwillingly”. Mrs. Nation’s crusade, with its conservative thrust and Born-Again Christian overtones, brings to mind the real world, and at one time Miss Alaska runner-up, Governor Sarah Palin. In fact, Radiohole’s emphasis on questions of gender and sexuality, as well as their dissection of religious zealotism, could not come at a more salient time in the history of American politics.

Mrs. Nation’s crusade eventually takes on an unexpected turn, and the pregnant actress finally appears to us in a radically different attire from the widow like costume in which she first descends onto the stage. The conclusion of the performance is at once surprising and thought-provoking: disclosing it would decrease its efficacy.

ANGER/NATION deals with sex, alcohol, queerness and decadence, with great irony and without sparing the macabre and the gruesome. Filled with chauvinistic jokes, beer smashing, and unexpected props, such as the prehensile penis on actor Eric Dyer, ANGER/NATION is a visceral experience, often overwhelming, sometimes digressive, and always provocative and challenging. Radiohole’s latest production proves once again their unique position as a company on the cutting edge of performance, one taking risks and, on this occasion, breathing fresh air into the now fashionable Chelsea district. There is no one like them in New York.

Radiohole: ANGER/NATION

The Kitchen

September 24-27, 8pm