Not too long ago I felt that the more theater I saw, the more I preferred dance. I was frustrated by what seemed like an overabundance of words. Too many words trying to explain too much and taking too long to do it. So it was refreshing to see the spare and compact Vision Disturbance, a new play by Christina Masciotti, directed by Richard Maxwell. Masciotti’s economical approach to language demonstrates how much you can do with less, drawing full portraits of complicated characters and telling a simple but profound story of human connection.

In Vision Disturbance Mondo, a middle-aged Greek immigrant woman living in the small-town of Reading, Pennsylvania, is going through a divorce from her traditional Greek husband. The resulting stress manifests in an eye disorder that features a loss of depth perception among other perplexing symptoms. She seeks treatment from Dr. Hull who uses an unorthodox approach involving music therapy to help her regain her eyesight. Dr. Hull has his own problems, chronic back pain that has led him to abuse painkillers. Mondo is strong and forthright, a no-nonsense type who is not used to being incapacitated. Dr. Hull is less assertive, a lonely bachelor who lives with his mother and an aging cat. As their respective lives fall apart and become unstructured, Mondo and Dr. Hull find each other, and new meaning.

It is easy to see why Richard Maxwell was drawn to Christina Masciotti’s writing. They share an interest in regular people, in excavating the poetry of everyday language and experience. Masciotti has a gift for finding small moments and mining them for meaning:

“In the house, I had to wash my hands and I was looking at the sink. I couldn’t think how to touch the faucet to turn it. I never thought before, how do I turn the faucet? But looking at it, at that moment, there was nothing to grab, so I didn’t know how I was gonna turn the damn thing. Finally, I just closed my eyes and felt for it. With both eyes closed, I could feel a part of something. Only with my eyes closed. I felt like I could see better closing my eyes. I could see what I remember, and I could feel the rest. Most of the time that’s what I did. I just closed my eyes and pretty soon, I felt like I was part of the world again. But the world was black, so that became my world. The rest was somebody else’s pictures.”

Both Linda Mancini as Mondo and Jay Smith as Dr. Hull bring a gentle, humorous, pathos to the proceedings. They are gifted, understated performers that allow the language to do most of the work. They deliver their lines in the affectless style one associates with Maxwell’s work, but are simultaneously adept at conveying the inner lives of the characters.

With the notable exception of last year’s Ads, Maxwell’s recent outings as a playwright (Ode to the Man Who Kneels, People Without History) have been increasingly poetic, baroque and fantastical. This collaboration with Masciotti feels a little bit like a return to earlier work, with a focus on recognizable, contemporary characters and commonplace situations. And that’s not a bad thing. In my mind Ads seemed like a capitulation to the techno-trend in downtown theater – towards more video, more gizmos, more tricks and less meaning. It was refreshing and exciting to see a master of simplicity like Maxwell bring his talent to the work of a new writer who is exploring similar territory. Vision Disturbance is a thoroughly enjoyable evening in the theater and a reminder that, sometimes, all you need is a few chairs, strong actors and good, insightful writing.

Vision Disturbance plays through September 18th at Abrons Arts Center.

For further reading check out this interview with Masciotti in the Brooklyn Rail.

Name: Belinda McKeon
Occupation: Writer
URL: www.belindamckeon.com

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up on a small farm in Co. Longford in the Irish midlands. I moved to Dublin to go to university, and after that, I began to work as a freelance journalist in the city. Visting New York in 2004 made me realize that I wanted to live there for a while – I loved the city from the first day I experienced it – and we moved there in 2005. We live in Brooklyn. But we go back to Ireland often. The two places don’t seem that far apart.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

I was lucky enough to discover the fiction of the Irish writer John McGahern when I was a teenager, and it taught me lessons – lessons I’m still learning – about language and care and rhythm – and restraint, most of all about restraint. His novel Amongst Women will probably always be my tuning fork (to use another notion I learned from him). There have been – so far – many other influences, many of them gleaned during the years I went to the theatre almost nightly as part of my work as an arts writer with the Irish Times: for example, companies like Druid and Rough Magic, and their visionary productions of classic and modern plays. I admire the paintings of Hughie O’Donoghue, in all their richness and their sorrow, and similarly, the photographs of Willie Doherty. Tacita Dean’s short film on the poet Michael Hamburger is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I love the opening scene of Silent Light by Carlos Reygadas. And recently, I was struck by the quiet beauty of two very different collections of images: the rediscovered, century-old color photographs of Russia by Prokudin-Gorsky, and Denny Renshaw’s shots of the BQE, which makes a racket just blocks from my door.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I’m not very patient. I want to get everything done now. I’d like to be able to take things slowly and enjoy the way there.

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

To make a living, I write, some of which is journalism, and I curate arts events, including two poetry festivals, one in Dublin, one in New York. A typical day involves me telling myself I’m not going to check email first thing, I’m going to write instead, and then I usually go ahead and check email anyway. Because a lot of my work is still connected to Ireland, the time difference can sometimes make mornings a bit of a rush; by the time I get to my desk, the working day is halfway through in Ireland, and deadlines don’t change just because of time zones. Then in the afternoon, I write for a few hours. At the moment, I’m working on the edits of my first novel and doing embryonic work on a second one. At this stage, because I really don’t trust myself not to fall into the email/google rabbithole, I’m back to writing longhand again. I have a good room in which to work at home, but if I can get myself out and into the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, all the better. I like the atmosphere in the Rose Reading Room a lot. Or maybe it’s the smell of wood polish I like. Maybe they’re the same thing.

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

See above. Email sometimes wins. But seriously, I have been very lucky. I get to write for most of the day. I know that’s not something to take for granted.

****

Graham & Frost, Irish writer Belinda McKeon’s eviscerating drama of three men who clash at a corner restaurant in Italian Williamsburg, will be playing Thursday, September 16 – Sunday, October 3, 2010.

Part of the 1st Irish Theatre Festival, Graham & Frost reflects the festival’s mission of sharing the work of Ireland’s prominent artists with New York audiences. Award-winning writer Belinda McKeon, a celebrated figure on the Irish arts scene, is currently under commission with the Abbey Theatre. Her first novel, Solace, is due out in the US and UK in 2011.

[Photo by Miles Lowry]

This Thursday, Sept. 2, 6:30 pm at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th St.) French theatre scholar Sophie Proust will offer an overview of her research-in-progress on contemporary U.S. creative process in theatre undertaken in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.

Sophie Proust has observed the rehearsal processes of a collection of significant U.S. theatre artists, including Elizabeth LeCompte (The Wooster Group), Judith Malina (The Living Theatre), Caden Manson and Jemma Nelson (The Big Art Group), John Collins (Elevator Repair Service), Dan Rothenberg (PIG IRON COMPANY from Philadelphia) at The Play Company, Brad Krumholz (NACL: North American Cultural Laboratory), in New York, Aimée Hayes at the Southern Rep, Kathy Randels and Ashley Sparks (ArtSpotProductions), Shad Willingham (Tulane University), Anthony Bean (ABCT; Anthony Bean Community Theater) in New Orleans, Debbie MacMahon (Grand Guignolers) at the Actors’ Gang, Jon Lawrence Rivera at the East West Players, Derick LaSalla at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center in Los Angeles, Wilma Bonet (The San Francisco Mime Troupe), Rob Ready (Pianofight’s) at the Off-Markets Theaters in San Francisco. In addition to observing these directors at work, she interviewed Elizabeth LeCompte (Wooster Group), Judith Malina (Living Theatre), Caden Manson and Jemma Nelson (Big Art Group), Richard Foreman, Richard Schechner, the choreographer and programmer of ISADORA Mark Coniglio in New York, the choreographer Kay Cole, the artistic director of LACT José Valenzuela, Peter Sellars, Lawrence Rivera, Tim Dang (artistic director of East West Players), in Los Angeles, Rob Ready, Michael Sullivan, Wilma Bonet in San Francisco, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott and Chuck Smith and Robert Falls (Goodman Theatre), Ann Filmer (16th Street Theatre at the Steppenwolf Theatre), the Central Regional Director of Actors’ Equity, Kathryn Lamkey, in Chicago. In addition to observing these directors at work, she interviewed Elizabeth LeCompte (Wooster Group), Judith Malina (Living Theatre), Caden Manson and Jemma Nelson (Big Art Group), Richard Foreman, Richard Schechner, the choreographer and programmer of ISADORA Mark Coniglio in New York, the choreographer Kay Cole, the artistic director of LACT José Valenzuela, Peter Sellars, Lawrence Rivera, Tim Dang (artistic director of East West Players) in Los Angeles, Rob Ready, Michael Sullivan, Wilma Bonet in San Francisco, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith and Robert Falls (Goodman Theatre), Ann Filmer (16th Street Theatre at the Steppenwolf Theatre), the Central Regional Director of Actors’ Equity Kathryn Lamkey, in Chicago, and others.

In her presentation at the Segal Center Sophie Proust will give an overview of her research-in-progress and engage in a discussion.

SOPHIE PROUST is Associate Professor in Theatre Studies and a researcher at the CEAC at the University of Lille 3 (France) as well as associate researcher at the CNRS (ARIAS). She is the Francophone General Secretary of the IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) and co-convener with Josette Féral of the IFTR’s working group on the creative process. She is author of La direction d’acteurs dans la mise en scène théâtrale contemporaine [Directing Actors in Contemporary Drama] (L’Entretemps, 2006), with a preface by Patrice Pavis. As a working theatre artist, she has been an assistant director to Yves Beaunesne, Denis Marleau and Matthias Langhoff. In addition, she served an internship as an observer for one of Robert Wilson’s productions. Her research focuses on the process of theatrical creation (rehearsals, dramaturgy, directing actors, notation of the theatrical work, authors’ rights.) From 2008 to 2010, she is a Visiting Scholar in New York, invited by Marvin Carlson then Daniel Gerould, at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (CUNY), in order to pursue her research on the creative process. She is also a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. Proust is currently working a book project entitled The Creative Process of US Stage Directors.

MADE HERE is a new documentary series and website devoted to the challenging and eclectic lives of performing artists in New York City. Over two seasons, the series explores ten essential issues confronting the artists that make this city the creative capital of the world. A collage of intimate interviews, performances and behind-the-scenes footage, MADE HERE mirrors the rich diversity of the artists and communities they serves. Season One rolls out from May through September 2010 with three episodes each month on topics related to: Creative Real Estate, Day & Night Jobs, Family Balance, Activism, and Technology. In the first season, MADE HERE will feature more than 25 performing artists representing the disciplines of theater, dance, opera, music, puppetry, media arts and other performing arts genres. Season Two will premiere Winter 2011.

In keeping with the MADE HERE mission of hosting an event in each of the five boroughs of NYC, the final Season One event will be at CAVE Arts Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm (58 Grand Street, between Kent and Wythe). The event will be a screening of three episodes of the MADE HERE series on technology in the performing arts and a public discussion.

The event will be moderated by Andy Horwitz, the founder of Culturebot.org and a Curator at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Featured artists in the Technology episodes include: Moe Angelos (Theater Artist), Jess Barbagallo (Theater Artist), Anne Bogart (Artistic Director, SITI Company), Toni Dove (Media Artist), Melanie Joseph (Artistic Producer/Founder, The Foundry Theater), Taylor Mac (Theater Artist), Paul D. Miller (a/k/a DJ Spooky – Writer/Artist/Composer), Vernon Reid (Musician/Composer/Multimedia Artist), Charlie Todd (Founder, Improv Everywhere), and Marianne Weems (Artistic Director, The Builders Association).

On September 1st, 2010 over 300 arts institutions worldwide will be participating in <a href=”http://www.askacurator.com”>Ask A Curator</a> Day via twitter. This unique worldwide question and answer session which will let interested members of the public put questions to museum and gallery curators. Check out the website for information on how it works or simply follow the hashtag #askacurator on September 1st to follow the questions other people are asking.

“La MaMa Puppet Series IV — Built to Perform,” the latest in La MaMa’s celebrated annual puppet program, will premiere five adult puppet theater productions and remount a popular children’s attraction this fall, exploring the artistic and creative possibilities of puppetry in all its forms. The series will run from October 14 to November 28, 2010.

The series will open with the latest work by Italy’s Dario D’Ambrosi (Pathological Theater), “Bong Bong Bong against the Walls, Ting Ting Ting in our Heads,” from October 14 thru October 31. There will be two works from Poland presented in association with The Polish Cultural Institute, “Chopin-An Impression” by Bialystok Puppet Theatre October 21 to November 7 and “Broken Nails. A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue” by Wiczy Theatre from November 11 to 21.  From Brooklyn comes “Wake Up, You’re Dead,” directed and designed by Aaron Haskell, October 29 to November 7. The family and children’s puppet theater attraction will be “Folktales of Asia and Africa” by Jane Catherine Shaw October 23 to November 7. The festival will conclude with “In Retrospect” by LOCO7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company, directed, choreographed and designed by Colombia-born Federico Restrepo with music composed by Elizabeth Swados, November 11 to 28. There will be Gallery Exhibit at La MaMa’s La Galleria, 6 East First Street, with puppets displayed from artists of the series, from October 21 to November 7.

La MaMa will have its fall gala October 25, celebrating its 49th season by honoring Cheryl Henson of the Jim Henson Foundation.

The La MaMa Puppet Series is now an annual event, curated by Denise Greber. It carries on La MaMa’s tradition, since its inception, of supporting puppet theater artists from all over the world.

The series is supported by the Jim Henson Foundation, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, NYSCA and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

To encourage audiences to see multiple productions during the festival, La MaMa will offer a Festival Pass subscription and incentive pricing for the Series (to be announced). Tickets can be purchased online at www.lamama.org. The phone number for audience information is (212) 475-7710. La MaMa is located at 74A East Fourth Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery, in the East Village.

Schedules and descriptions of eight events follow:

“Bong Bong Bong against the Walls, Ting Ting Ting in our Heads” by Pathological Theatre, Italy
October 14 thru October 31, First Floor Theatre
Written and directed by Dario D’Ambrosi
Set and Object/Puppet design by Aurora Buzzetti
Thursdays through Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sundays at 2:30; $18
Running time: 60 minutes.

“Bong Bong Bong against the Walls, Ting Ting Ting in our Heads” is the kind of play that could only be written from the experience of Dario D’Ambrosi, who for over 30 years has worked with mentally disabled people in Italy. It is the American debut for Set/Puppet Designer Aurora Buzzetti (Rome).  Translation is by Celeste Moratti.  It is a theatrical fantasy about mentally ill children in institutions, whose thoughts are cloudy but whose souls are clear, who are bespattered with pain but whose dignity shines.  In fairy tale style, it dramatizes how their imaginations are limitless and how they flourish when they are loved.  The story is told with live music, singing, dance and puppets.  Although it deals directly with lives of most troubled people, the play is fantastical and nonthreatening.  It is recommended for audiences of all ages.

In the ’80s and ’90s, Dario D’Ambrosi marched irresistibly into the forefront of Italy’s theatrical ambassadors, a cohort led by Pirandello, DiFilippo and Dario Fo.  In 1994, he received the equivalent of a Tony Award in his country: a prize for lifetime achievement in the theater from the Instituto del Drama Italiano.  D’Ambrosi first performed at La MaMa in 1980 and has been in residence there nearly every year thereafter. Rosette Lamont wrote in Theater Week, “The yearly appearance of the Italian writer/performer Dario D’Ambrosi at La MaMa is cause for celebration.”

Last October, D’Ambrosi opened a new theater in a converted warehouse in a norther section of Rome.  Named The Pathological Theater, it is home to his resident company of professional actors and a drama school for psychiatric patients.  Set/Puppet Designer Aurora Buzzetti, a fast-emerging artist of Rome’s theatre crafts community, is a resident artist there.  This world premiere, however, will be performed by American actors, as has been D’Ambrosi’s practice in each of his New York productions since 2004.
“Chopin-An Impression” by Bialystok Puppet Theatre
Presented in association with The Polish Cultural Institute in New York
October 21 thru November 7, Ellen Stewart Theatre at The Annex
Conceived by Wojciech Szelachowski
Written by Leslaw Piecka, Wojciech Szelachowski
Directed by Leslaw Piecka
Set and puppets designed by Joanna Braun
Choreographed by Jolanta Kruszewska
Music by Fryderyk Chopin
Thursdays through Saturday at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 2:30; $25
Running time: 60 minutes.

“…it is absolutely inconceivable how two genius abilities became united in Chopin’s person: that of the greatest melodist and of the most original master of harmony.” –Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Presented with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York “Chopin-An Impression” is an essay for the stage that unites music, visual art, and marionette performance. This extremely challenging technique in puppetry requires unusual mechanical design and extraordinary skill in animating the marionettes. Compositions by Fryderyk Chopin will be rendered both by a pianist and by a marionette representing the composer – a marionette controlled with strings, measuring about a foot and displaying agility and virtuosic perfection in the hands of its master.

The production premiered March 7, 2010, in Bialystok, Poland. The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage commissioned the work as part of the worldwide celebration of The Year of Chopin 2010, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Poland’s greatest composer. The official opening of this year-long celebration took place on January 1 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, where the artist was born and where his father worked as a tutor for a local aristocratic family.

The Bialystok Puppet Theatre, one of the best puppet theaters in Europe introduces the audience to Chopin’s world through a series of Muses who serve as guides through the worlds of dreams and sounds produced by his music. They also present his artistic friendships, musical impressions, and life experiences. The show refers to Chopin’s fascination with Paganini, his friendships and relationships with George Sand, with his fiancée Maria Wodzinska, his longings for the lost “country of his childhood,” his creative dilemmas, Impressions, artistic visions, moods that range from the poetic to the paranoid, the feeling of success, and the sense of despair. Apart from Chopin’s music performed live by one of Poland’s most talented pianists, Krzysztof Traskowski, the show features actors, marionettes, art objects and visual presentations.
“Wake Up, You’re Dead!” by Brooklyn Art Department
October 29 thru November 7, The Club
Directed and Designed by Aaron Haskell
Fridays and Saturdays at 10:00 PM, Sundays at 5:30 PM; $15
Running time: 45 minutes.

What puppeteer doesn’t wonder what will happen to him as he impersonates the creator?  In “Wake Up, You’re Dead!,” Aaron Haskell of Brooklyn Art Department, one of the original designers of Nightmare: NYC’s Haunted House, gives us a Halloween-flavored creation myth.  It’s performed as a dark ceremony by a weird tribe.  The Ancestors–Haskell’s own version of the Greek Titans–are life-sized skeleton creatures that create great balls of light (the life force).  Mankind is born by sliding down a Jungian sluice to the earth.  There are black light effects, dancing skeletons (that show the cyclical nature of life), primal movement (costumed creatures locomoting on all-fours, animal-like), bass-heavy loud music, Butoh and technical modern dance.  Puppets bring puppeteers to life and vice-versa.  Following this spectacle of evolution, an ultimate being is created at the end of the show.

It’s all staged as a De La Guarda-type event and spectacle:  a boisterous party that will have you on your feet!

Haskell has invented myths since childhood.  “It’s a cool way to make up your own stories, especially since you can also make up your own creatures.”  In “Wake Up, You’re Dead!,” they’re all constructed from eco-friendly, greenlist ingredients, including skeletons of sawdust and cardboard that look like bones dressed in cornflakes.
“Broken Nails. A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue” by Wiczy Theatre
Presented in association with The Polish Cultural Institute in New York
November 11 thru 21, The Club
Conceived and performed by Anna Skubik
Written and directed by Romuald Wicza-Pokojski
Set designed by Romuald Wicza-Pokojski
Music arranged by Igor Nowicki
Puppet designed by Anna Skubik and Barbara Poczwardowska
Thursdays through Saturdays at 10:00 PM, Sundays at 5:30 PM; $15
Running time: 45 minutes.

Beautiful, determined, intelligent, controversial–Marlene Dietrich was a transcendent symbol of femininity, a lady of strong character and clear mind, a woman with claws. A fascinating figure to both men and women, Dietrich’s personality has also seduced Anna Skubik, a young Polish actress and puppeteer who brings this German star to life by animating her as a life-size doll. Presented with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, “Broken Nails. A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue” portrays Dietrich and her maid Gloria (both played by Skubik) in a co-dependent relationship during the star’s last days in her Paris apartment.

Ms. Skubik slips back and forth between her roles as meek servant and haughty star with such virtuosity that it is easy to forget there is only one woman on stage. The play is a compelling study of womanhood – from all that is eternal and archetypal about women to their more ephemeral, fragile, and unsustainable personal qualities. The actress, under the direction of the play’s author, Romuald Wicza-Pokojski, is less interested in resurrecting Marlene Dietrich than in showing the legendary star as she deals with her fading beauty and imminent death.

Anna Skubik is a one-woman tour de force in this show, always in intimate contact with the puppet. Skubik gives Dietrich a deep, slightly hoarse voice, while Gloria’s voice is shy and girlish. The dynamic of the dialogue, the rapid shifting of views and opinions, the transition from high emotion to peace and tranquility, as well as Dietrich’s diverse costumes and singing gives the audience no choice but to fully immerse itself in Skubik’s theatrical fiction.
“Folktales of Asia and Africa,” created by Jane Catherine Shaw (Children’s Puppet Theater)
October 23 & 24, October 30 & 31 and November 6 & 7, Ellen Stewart Theatre at The Annex
Saturdays and Sundays at Noon; Tickets $10 Adults/$5 Children
Running time: 45 minutes

While she is making bread, the hostess discovers that she has guests. As they all wait for the dough to rise she tells them three stories using kitchen utensils to play the characters, in the style of found object puppetry.

Audiences love to see egg beaters hop into cloth napkins to become Japanese sisters dressed in kimonos, or watch as a flour sifter becomes an old man, with a cookie cutter for a pet rabbit. Among the many notable characters are wooden salt and pepper shakers as sisters in “The Dragon with Five Heads” from Zimbabwe, 4 steak knives that become the wise man in the Japanese tale “The Lantern and The Fan,” and an unusual doughnut maker becomes the moon goddess disguised as an old women in “The Old Man and the Moon” from Burma.

This one woman show was created, designed, and performed by Jane Catherine Shaw nearly twenty years ago and has been an audience favorite wherever she has performed it. Children and adults delight in the imaginative use of everyday objects to portray the characters in the three stories. “Folktales of Asia and Africa” brings puppetry to its essence, in which common objects of daily use assume fantastic character through the artistry of puppetry and the puppeteer.
“In Retrospect” by LOCO7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company
November 12 thru November 28, First Floor Theatre
Conceived by Denise Greber and Federico Restrepo
Directed, choreographed and designed by Federico Restrepo
Music composed by Elizabeth Swados
Thursdays through Saturday at 8:00 PM, Sundays at 2:30 (no show Thanksgiving Day); $18
Running time: 60 minutes.

With its newest production, “In Retrospect,” LOCO7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company investigates how we each construct our personal memory box:  how we keep our memories fresh and preserve the things that made us who we are.  These include our mothers’ embraces, lost loves, childhood dreams, ideals of youth and struggles of age, loss and birth.

The production features giant puppets, marionette scenery, masks, choreography, acrobatics, live original music and video.  A large marionette tree dangles fruits high above our reach which, when dropped, grow into our memories.  Some of them summon feelings of being loved and secure, others evoke the opposite.  For example, one scene depicts a huge Mother marionette and her little children, revealing the pleasure of hiding within the safety of her giant legs.  Another scene has a puppet telephone and a character waiting for a call with a mixture of dread and excitement.  We are reminded of our emotional dependence on the appliance as a “life line” which can be either a comfort or a monster.

Reflecting the compartmentalization of our feelings, the stage will have a room-within-a-room where a person lives her life locked behind a wall. With this self inflicted alienation, she watches the world living yet remains cut off, unable to interact with society, hiding behind to safety zone of technology.

The production will be designed, choreographed, and directed by Federico Restrepo, a Colombian-born master of puppet theater and physical theater. The piece is being written and developed by Federico Restrepo and Denise Greber. Music will be composed by Elizabeth Swados; this is her fourth collaboration with Restrepo.
Gallery Exhibit at La Galleria, 6 East First Street.

Exhibition of puppets by Federico Restrepo, Theodora Skipitares, Jane Catherine Shaw, Dan Hurlin, Lake Simmons and more, October 21 – November 7, 2010.
La MaMa Fall Gala honoring Cheryl Henson
Ellen Stewart Theater, Monday, October 25, 8:00 PM

The evening will honor Cheryl Henson of the Jim Henson Foundation for her contributions to the art of puppetry.  The evening will have performances by Basil Twist, Dan Hurlin, Erik Sanko & Jessica Grindstaff, Federico Restrepo, Lake Simmons & John Dyer, Roman Paska, Tom Lee, Mark Russell, Theordora Skipitares and surprise guests.  (Note:  time has been changed from 7:30 to 8:00 PM.)

Doug Varone and Dancers’ highly popular series of pared-down, informal showcases entitled Stripped returns to the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center for a second season with four intimate studio showings beginning September 24, 2010 and running through May 6, 2011.  Featuring a new work-in-progress along with an exciting mix of excerpts from Varone’s signature dances and guest appearances by some of his renowned collaborators, these evenings will allow audiences to gain a continuing, first-hand look at the company’s artistic process, drawing them viscerally into Varone’s choreographic world.

The centerpiece of this year’s series will be the creation of Carrugi. The title is taken from the Italian word for the narrow and often steep lanes that penetrate the heart of Italy’s Liguria region where Varone recently studied on a Jerome Robbins Fellowship.  Inspired by the patterns and energy of these labyrinths, the dance will visually and architecturally rise and fall against the beauty of selected Italian arias and operatic choral selections. Caruggi will be developed over the course of the Stripped series, changing and evolving at each showing. The complete work will be premiere during 2011-2012, the company’s 25^th anniversary season.

In addition to Carrugi, September’s showing will include an extended excerpt from the wintery, darkly-jagged Victorious (2007), set to an Edward Elgar concerto.  Like the cello and piano lines that come into relative then perfect harmony and then pull away, the dancers continually coalesce and retreat in a piece that pours out onto the stage.  Victorious was commissioned by the Bard College Summerscape Series.

Other repertory pieces to be shown throughout the season include revivals that haven’t been seen in many years including Care (1989), Sleeping with Giants (1999), and Cantata 78 (1986) among others; signature pieces such as the exhilarating Lux and Bessie-Award winning Boats Leaving; other new works-in-process, and performances by guest artists.

The Stripped series will take place at the 92^nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, 1395 Lexington Avenue, at 8pm on the following Fridays: September 24 & November 5, 2010; January 7 and May 6, 2011.  Single tickets are $20 in advance or $25 cash at the door.  A cash bar will be available at each performance.  The Stripped series is general admission.

[photo by Phil Knott]

This September, Poland’s Stefan Zeromski Theatre unleashes on Los Angeles In the Solitude of Cotton Fields, a theatrical tour de force described by Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza as “A combination of a concert, disco, poetic slam, and club event.” Co-presented with The Polish Cultural Institute in New York, performances will be held at REDCAT on Thursday, September 23, 2010 and runs through Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 8:30 pm with an additional matinee on Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 7:00 pm.

Fueled by the live music of Poland’s cult rock band Natural Born Chillers, the searing text by late French writer Bernard-Marie Koltès takes on a visceral urgency when two seductive frontmen for an edgy art-rock band have more than singing on their minds. Under the direction of Radosław Rychcik , the enigmatic young men engage in an intense dance of negotiation.

They are dealer and client, but are clearly trading something deeper and more mysterious than ordinary goods and services. The high-stakes game is played out amid a powerful barrage of video and lighting effects, enhancing Rychcik’s masterful manipulation of raw power and emotional fragility–demonstrating why the young Polish director is gaining global attention.

Radoslaw Rychcik lives and works in Poland. He began his career as an assistant to renowned director Krystian Lupa on Factory 2 and later worked on Stanislaw Wyspianski’s drama Protesilas and Laodamia. In 2008, Rychcik directed Dictator, a performance based on Charlie Chaplin’s film, for the Wybrzeze Sztuki Festival in Gdansk. Most recently, Rychcik has presented A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments by Roland Barthes at the Drama Theatre in Warsaw and an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Versus: In the Jungle of Cities at the New Theatre in Krakow and the Under the Radar Festival in New York.

In the Solitude of Cotton Fields makes its Los Angeles premiere at REDCAT on Thursday, September 23, 2010 and runs through Sunday, September 26, 2010. Curtain for performances on Thursday-Saturday is 8:30 pm with a Sunday performance at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $20-25 ($16-20 for students with current I.D.) and are available at redcat.org or by calling 213 237-2800. REDCAT is located at the corner of W. 2nd and Hope Streets, inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex (631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012).

The performances at REDCAT are co-presented with The Polish Cultural Institute in New York. Generous support for In the Solitude of Cotton Fields was granted by the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Additional support comes from The Marshall of the Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship.

According to two different articles in the Tribeca Trib, 3LD has negotiated terms with the MTA and will be able to stay at its location at 80 Greenwich St. Dance New Amsterdam, however, is still struggling to negotiate terms on back rent that will allow it to stay at its home on Chambers St.

The two organizations have taken similar paths to end up where they are now. Both received significant grants from the LMDC to move into their spaces. Both ran into significant challenges in building out their spaces that put them over budget and behind schedule. The situations speak to the benefits, challenges and contradictions in using the arts as a tool for development. Certainly arts organizations help anchor neighborhoods, bringing in audiences and artists who use the local amenities and create energy and vitality in otherwise underutilized areas. Look at the transformation of DUMBO or the ongoing changes in Bushwick. However, arts organizations often suffer from financial instability and are extremely susceptible to fluctuations in the economy. It is hard for an arts organization to resist the opportunity to, finally, have a nice new home. But even under the best of circumstances, they are entering a tenuous situation. Small(ish) organizations from DTW to DNA to 3LD et al are constantly facing the challenges of meeting the needs of the artist community, the audience and the market without the wealth of resources that would accompany a for-profit enterprise. No doubt, non-profits are businesses, but they have very different needs and models than for-profits. Should there be safeguards in place to help arts orgs not only develop new spaces but STAY in new spaces?

Interesting stuff.

Read the 3LD article in Tribeca Trib
Read the DNA article in Tribeca Trib

Alec Duffy and Dave Malloy have joined forces again for a site-specific production of T.S. Eliot’s Murder In The Cathedral at The Church of St. Joseph in Brooklyn.

The drama recounts the last month in the life of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who faces certain death for his defense of the Church against the crown of England.  As Becket continues in his journey, he confronts the very human drama of individual integrity, the expectations of friendship, and the struggle of will.

This production presents a unique opportunity to experience Eliot’s work in its ideal context: an architectural wonder, built for the sweeping dramatic meditation that the play inspires. For the production, the newly refurbished cathedral of this century-old Prospect Heights institution will be filled with drama, music, and tremendous artistry, offering a unique theatrical experience in an awe-inspiring space.

Tickets are free, with a suggested donation price of $10.
No advance reservations are necessary.

Part of the proceeds from the production will benefit Brooklyn Arts HQ. Brooklyn Arts HQ is a brand-new non-profit educational organization that offers community-based performance experiences for audiences. With a special focus on cultivating engagement among residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, HQ will produce plays, offer arts workshops for young people, and host a range of programming designed to educate, challenge, and inspire. Brooklyn Arts HQ is committed to encouraging collaboration between artists from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences, and to maintaining professional and affordable theatrical productions and performing arts resources.

T.S. Eliot’s MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL
September 16th—October 2
The Church of St. Joseph
856 Pacific Street, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

For more information visit www.murderinthecathedral.com

[Photo Credit: Pictured: Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Photo by: Alec Duffy]