Drag Show Video Verite IV 2010 (#97)
November 6, 2010 at 3:00 p.m.
It’s the ultimate NYC drag show… on video tape.
This annual NYC drag video mash up screens rare footage capturing the faces and places, past and present, of the city’s vibrant male and female impersonation scenes. A quick-cut who’s who of NYC drag performers drawn from contemporary and archival footage including Mimi Imfurst, Sherry Vine, Ethyl Eichelberger, International Chrysis, Zondra Foxx, Linda Simpson, Lypsinka, Flloyd, Rollerena, Rose Wood and many many more.
A special slide show of Leee Black Childers drag portraits opens the screening and a Q&A with project producer Joe E. Jeffreys and featured performers follows.
Waiting For The Dream
By Compagnie Irina Brook
November 3 – November 7, 2010
“i have one piece of simple but essential advice to give you: Go! Run to see this with your young ones and less young ones: for no one could resist such a delight!…..the most magical of Shakespeare’s imbroglios.” (Telerama.France)
Based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream and featuring a cast of six male actors who interpret all the roles: the young lovers in Theseus’ court; the fairies and their Queen Titania in conflict with Oberon, King of the Elves; Puck, a funky, disjointed rapper; and the motley band of mechanicals, sub-amateur thespians cobbling together The Most Lamentable Comedy, and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby. With next-to-nothing the actors transport the audience to Ardenne Forest and breathe life into a tale that abounds with poetry as well as slapstick.
http://waitingforthedream.wordpress.com/
Supported in part by culturesfrance; Embassy of France, Cultural Services, New York Office.
Puppet Series IV Exhibit
October 21 – November 7, 2010 at 1-6 p.m.
“La MaMa Puppet Series IV — Built to Perform,” the latest in La MaMa’s celebrated annual puppet program, curated by Denise Greber, presents original puppet performance from around the world, exploring the full creative range of contemporary puppet theatre. The gallery exhibit displays puppets from artists of the series. Featuring works from leading puppet artists Dan Hurlin, Theodora Skipitares, Federico Restrepo of LOCO7 Dance Puppet Theatre Comany, Erik Sanko of Phantom Limb, Lake Simmons, Tom Lee and Jane Catherine Shaw.
Enjoy these photos from the Puppet Series IV exhibit.
New Russian Drama: A Staged Reading
By CEC ArtsLink
November 2, 2010 at 7:00pm
Award-winning Russian playwrights and theater directors present a staged reading (in English) of two new plays: “Pavlik Is My God” by Nina Belenitskaya and “The Ides of March” by Marina Krapivina. The readings will be staged by directors Marat Gatsalov and Mikhail Ovchinnikov. They will be followed by a Q&A with the playwrights and directors, who are in the US as part of a residency co-hosted by CEC ArtsLink and the Yale School of Drama.
“If you are interested in Russia for any reason, and you are not paying attention to what new playwrights are writing, you are missing much of this country’s story,” wrote John Freedman of the Moscow Times last December in a review of the Moscow production of “Pavlik is my God.” Indeed, for audiences mostly familiar with the classics of Russian drama such as Chekhov, these plays will offer an insight into what Freedman calls “one of the most vital art forms in Russia for most of the last decade.”
Perhaps tellingly, both plays focus on the protagonists’ difficult relationship with a parent, and through that prism their relationship with their country and its history is also revealed. The protagonist of “The Ides of March” is enjoying herself with a lover when she receives news of her alcoholic mother’s sudden death, spurring her to look back on their family’s rocky past. In “Pavlik is my God”, it is the father who cold-heartedly abandons his young daughter. Feeling betrayed and yearning for justice, she turns her prayers to the iconic figure of Pavlik Morozov, a Soviet national hero. According to official propaganda, the 14-year-old Pavlik was so devoted to the higher good of communism that he turned in his own father, an enemy of the people, and died a martyr’s death at the hands of his family. However, as both the play’s Pavlik and actual historical documents reveal, the truth is much less clear-cut and heroic. Orphaned by life circumstances and by history, the characters of both plays have no higher authority left to appeal to but themselves.
Pavlik Is My God,” currently running at Moscow’s Teatr.doc theater, gained wide exposure when it was presented as part of the 2010 Russian Case program of the Golden Mask theater festival. Krapivina’s “Ides of March” made it into the short list of “Lyubimovka,” Russia’s most prominent competition for young playwrights. The two young directors of the staged reading are also making their names known on the Russian and international theater circuit. Gatsalov has had two recent productions featured at the Golden Mask, one of which won the special jury prize and was named as one of the top three plays of the season. Ovchinnikov, 25, already has two avant-garde productions, one of which is currently running in Moscow, and a Russian award for experimental theater under his belt. Both began their theater careers as actors and appeared in a number of Moscow productions before making the transition to directing.
This is the first time any of the playwrights’ and directors’ work is presented in the United States. The residency and readings are part of of the Open World Cultural Leaders Program, an endeavor of the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress with partnership and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Renova Group of Companies.
Wake Up You’re Dead
By Brooklyn Art Department (B.A.D.)
October 29 – November 7, 2010
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.
Chopin – An Impression
By Bialystock Puppet Theatre - Poland
October 21 – November 7, 2010
“…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 Żelazowa 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.
Presented in association with The Polish Cultural Institute in New York.
New Work by Jun Maeda
October 18 – November 12, 2010 at noon-5pm
DID WE KNOW THE EARTH WAS ROUND 65 MILLION YEARS AGO?
MYSTERIOUS ENGRAVED STONES OF ICA THROUGH THE EYES AND HANDS OF JUN MAEDA, LA MAMA ARTIST AND RESIDENT DESIGNER
Jun Maeda’s Exhibit at The La Mama Archive will introduce us to his new work based on the images from the engraved stones of Ica, Peru. This exhibit will open on October 18th through October 31st. The exhibit hours will be from 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm.
While browsing in a second-hand book store in 2005, artist, Jun Maeda came across a curious Japanese book “The Hidden Mysteries of The Ica Stone Designs”. The book originally written by German journalists Cornelia Petratu and Bernard Roidinger, was translated into Japanese by Yoko Akane. The images in this out-of-print book ignited his artistic instincts and his desire to pursue the mystery of the glyphs.
La MaMa Fall Gala Honoring Cheryl Henson
October 25, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.
For Cheryl’s sustained commitment and continuing support of contemporary puppet theatre that has significantly elevated the form to new levels of artistry and accomplishment
With
Basil Twist, Roman Paska, Federico Restrepo, Tom Lee,
Erik Sanko & Jessica Grindstaff, Lake Simons & John Dyer
Speakers: Dan Hurlin, Mark Russell, Theodora Skipitares, Leslie Carrara Rudolf & Lolly
Special guests Caroll Spinney & Oscar the Grouch
Festive Dress
In 1962, Ellen Stewart, Artistic Director/Founder of La MaMa, invited puppet artists from Korea to perform their production of Head Hunting by Pagoon Kang Wouk. This began La MaMa’s love affair with the form, and puppetry has been an integral part of La MaMa’s artistic vision ever since. Cheryl Henson and the International Festival of Puppet Theatre has contributed significantly to the continuing evolution of puppet theatre here at La MaMa and around the world.
BENEFACTOR ($5,000) click here
- 4 tickets to coctails, performance & reception
- Your name in the Season Program
- 2 Season Passes to La MaMa
PATRON ($2,500+) click here
- 2 tickets to cocktails, performance & reception
- Your name in the Season Program
- 1 Season Pass to La MaMa
SPONSOR ($1,000+) click here
- 2 tickets to cocktails, performance & reception
- Your name in the Season Program
- 2 Puppet Series passes
FRIEND ($500+) click here
- 2 tickets to coctails, performance & reception
- Your name in the Season Program
- A Puppet Series pass
SINGLE TICKET ($150) click here
- Admission to the performance and post-reception
Benefit Committee
Alberta & Edward Arthurs
Leslee Asch
David Belafonte
Adam Bernstein
Tom Birchard
Louis Borodinsky
Andy Brimmer
Derek Brown
Frank Carucci
Poogene Chai
Ping Chong, Bruce Allardice & Sara Zatz
Kevin Clash
David Diamond
Edwin Finn
Una and Chris Fogarty
Mary Fulham
Heather Henson
Jane Henson
Lisa Henson
David Herskovits & Jennifer Egan
William Kelley
Gary Knell
Paula Lawrence
Mark Levenson
Jennifer Ortega
Kerri Scharlin & Peter Klosowicz
Will Schwalbe & David Cheng
Andrew Solomon & John Habich
Bonnie Sue Stein
John Wessel
Jaime Wolf
La MaMa Puppet Series Oct 14 – Nov 28, 2010
La MaMa Puppet Series gratefully acknowledges support from:
The Jim Henson Foundation, Trust For Mutual Understanding, Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.
Folk Tales of Asia and Africa
October 16 – November 7, 2010 at 12:00PM on Saturdays and Sundays
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.
America Hurrah Revisited & The Mother’s Return
By Theatre Research Ensemble (TReE)
October 15 – October 24, 2010
“It is, all in all, an evening of theatre that challenges and stimulates.” - nytheatre.com
Jean-Claude van Itallie (“The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” “The Cherry Orchard,” “The Serpent,” “Master and Margarita”) is writing “The Mother’s Return” as an addition to his seminal work of modern drama, the trilogy known as “America Hurrah.” Theatre Research Ensemble (TReE) will perform “America Hurrah Revisited & The Mother’s Return.”
This past summer director Josh Adler and two of his Theatre Research Ensemble actors, Helen Nesteruk and Noelle Neglia, took an “Acting and Being” workshop in Western Massachusetts at playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie’s Shantigar Foundation for Theater, Meditation and Healing. Van Itallie and Adler were inspired to collaborate on a new production from van Itallie’s legendary “America Hurrah” (to contain “Motel” and part of “Interview”) plus a new play of van Itallie’s, “The Mother’s Return,” based on van Itallie’s recent political dreams. READ MORE >>
Bong Bong Bong Against The Walls, Ting Ting Ting In Our Heads
By Pathological Theatre - Italy
October 14 – October 30, 2010
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.
I Am Going To Run Away
October 1 – October 10, 2010
“I am a fan of POOR BABY BREE. I love her.” — Lou Reed
“A haunting, deeply touching, spot-on evocation of a moment in the distant theatrical past, yet with a very cool and effortless post-modernist twist. It is also profoundly funny.” — Charles Busch
“Astounding….Her voice, her songs about things people just 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
“The most magnificent cabaret act I have ever seen. Submit to the exquisite musical tragedy that is Poor Baby Bree.” — Paul Shaffer
“A peculiar thing of beauty; like being inside a music box from the turn of the last century. Haunting, hip, and unusual.” — Jackie Hoffman
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.” READ MORE >>
I Fioretti In Musica – Opera In Danza
By Pioneers Go East Co.
September 30 – October 17, 2010
“I Fioretti in Musica- Opera in Danza” is an original Italian Opera that imagines St. Francis of Assisi as a character in modern New York.
The libretto and concept by Gian Marco Lo Forte is based on the 14th century book of poems in vulgar Italian Little Flowers and includes an original polyphonic score for 5 voices called mottetticomposed by Sasha Zamler-Carhart layered and juxtaposed with electroacoustic live voice processing and music inspired by New York City’s street noise composed by Ryan Carter. The intimate setting will include art and projections by visual artist Mark Tambella, choreography by Philip Montana and puppetry and masks made with garbage and savaged materials by Cathy Shaw and Abby Felder to evoke ancient festivities in Umbria and in Medieval Italy.
“I Fioretti in Musica- Opera in Danza” includes 4 important events in the life of Saint Francis: Assuming a life of Simplicity, Preaching to the birds, Taming the wolf and Welcoming the thieves to the monastery. These chapters are an exquisite expression of the religious life of the Middle Ages. Their peculiar charm and atmosphere comes from the early Franciscan spirit: a childlike faith, a lively sense of the supernatural and a simple literalness. READ MORE >>
Ritter, Dene, Voss
By One Little Goat Theatre Company
September 23 – October 10, 2010
In Ritter, Dene, Voss (named for the three actors who premiered the original 1986 production in German), Thomas Bernhard explores sexual repression and sibling rivalry with characteristic tenacity and wit. The play involves two sisters – both actresses – and their attempts at reintegrating their volatile brother into their home. The brother, a tormented genius (loosely based on last century’s great, idiosyncratic philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein), has just returned from a mental health institute, complicating the dynamics between the three siblings.
Playwright and novelist Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) has been called “Austria’s most provocative post-war writer” (The New Yorker) and a “virtuoso of rancor and rage…a corrosively funny master of lyrical nay-saying” (Bookforum). Distinctive in his style – writing entirely without punctuation, but in accessible, down-to-earth language – Bernhard has been both revered and reviled for his provocative plays.
One Little Goat presented the English-language world premiere of Ritter, Dene, Voss in Toronto in 2006. Hailed by Canadian Theatre Review as “flawless” and by Eye Weekly as a “breathless, two-hour Beckettian farce…intensely mannered and exquisitely controlled,” the production toured to Chicago’s Trap Door Theatre in December 2007, where Newcity Chicago ranked it as its #1 production.
The cast includes three of Canada’s leading young actors, Maev Beaty (Africa Trilogy, Luminato Festival), Shannon Perreault (If We Were Birds, Tarragon Theatre) and Jordan Pettle (Stratford Festival, Soulpepper Co.). Original set and costumes are designed by Jackie Chau, with lighting by Kate McKay. READ MORE >>
Acting Together on the World Stage: Theatre and Peace Building in Conflict Zones
By Theatre Without Borders
September 23 – September 26, 2010
Theatre Without Borders and the Coexistence Program at Brandeis University launches a year of gathering and distributing information about ongoing theatre work – research, performance, workshops, and artists’ exchanges – centered on the relationship between the arts and peace building.
Artists from: Afghanistan, Argentina, Belarus, Burma, Cambodia, Colombia, Cyprus, England, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Korea, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Romania, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda, United States, and Zimbabwe will discuss their work, give workshops and perform from their work.
For artists, students, service organizations, funders and diplomats, this is the place to meet the international artists at the front of this innovative approach to peacebuilding. READ MORE >>