Cultural Capitol Review: Ritter, Dene, Voss
Posted September 27, 2010 at 4:02 pm
CULTURAL CAPIOL REVIEW
by Bonny Prince Billy
The title of Thomas Bernhard’s play “Ritter, Dene, Voss” comes from the surnames of the three actors who premiered the roles in 1986: Ilse Ritter, Kirsten Dene and Gert Voss. It is worth noting as well that Ritter means “knight” and Voss is an aristocratic surname from the fourteenth cenutry. This is significant because “Ritter, Dene, Voss” is a play about the death of the Viennese ideal of urbane aristocracy and the horrible, beautiful flowers that bloomed in the rotting dung heap of post-World War I Austria.
Broadway World Review: Ritter, Dene Voss
Posted September 26, 2010 at 4:04 pm
RITTER, DENE VOSS OR WHEN YOUR FAMILY I TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
BROADWAY WORLD REVIEW
by Trish Vignola
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in association with Toronto’s One Little Goat Theatre Company presents the New York premiere of Ritter, Dene, Voss. Written by Austrian playwright, Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) and directed by One Little Goat’s Artistic Director, Adam Seelig, Ritter, Dene, Voss explores the greatest threat to a family’s existence – itself. Ritter, Dene, Voss runs from September 23 to October 10, 2010 in a limited engagement at the La Mama E.T.C.’s First Floor Theatre.
Heritage of Off-Broadway Theatre in Greenwich Village
December 19, 2010 at 7pm
PLEASE NOTE: This event will be held at the Provincetown Playhouse, 133 MacDougal Street
Tony Award-winning playwright Edward Albee, Obie Award winner and founder of the Living Theatre Judith Malina, and director of the archives of La Mama Experimental Theater Ozzie Rodriguez, will join in discussion with Village Voice theatre critic Michael Feingold on Sun., Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Provincetown Playhouse, 133 MacDougal Street.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Off-Broadway League and NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Please RSVP here or by phone at 212 998 5000.
Stage Mage Review: Ritter, Dene, Voss
Posted September 24, 2010 at 3:59 pm
STAGE MAGE REVIEW
by Jon Sobel
Canadian company One Little Goat, which specializes in poetic theater, has brought to New York a textbook case of how an exceptional production can spin a brilliant “poetic” script into a crackling drama.
Thomas Bernhard may be one of Europe’s great postwar writers but his plays are rarely seen in the US. This is a shame. The production of his Ritter, Dene, Voss which opened last night at La Mama has percolated since 2006, and it is a thing of finished beauty.
Globe and Mail Review: Ritter, Dene, Voss
Posted at 3:58 pm
ONE LITTLE GOAT TAKES A BITE OF THE BIG APPLE
THE GLOBE AND MAIL REVIEW
by Adam Feldman
“Histrionic perversity”: such is the judgment rendered by Ludwig, a half-mad and wholly maddening philosopher, in regard to his two sisters, both dilettante actresses, who have just welcomed him home from the sanitarium. It is an opinion that could just as well apply to the entirety of Thomas Bernhard’s 1986 anti-comedy Ritter, Dene, Voss, which is now receiving its New York premiere courtesy of Toronto’s visiting One Little Goat Theatre Company.
NYTheatre.com Review: Ritter, Dene, Voss
Posted September 23, 2010 at 4:07 pm
NYTHEATRE.COM REVIEW
by Chris Harcum
Toronto’s One Little Goat Theatre Company brings an Austrian writer’s family feud to kick off La MaMa’s 49th season. Thomas Bernhard’s three-hander was named after the play’s original actors—Ilse Ritter, Kirsten Dene, and Gert Voss—whom the lauded novelist (Georg Buchner Prize) and playwright admired. Written in the mid-1980s, it was intended that this piece would be revisited by the same cast every other year for several decades. (This collaboration continued for the next 12 years.) Since Bernhard did not want publication or performances of his work to be done inside Austria’s borders after his death in 1989, it is fitting that this Canadian company premieres this play in one of NYC’s hotbeds of international theatre.
La MaMa Family Show
December 16 – January 2, 2011
The Annual La MaMa Family show. Each year during the holiday season Artists that have worked at La MaMa throughout it’s history contribute a piece of artwork, with no media restrictions. The result is a salon style exhibit that truly represents the La MaMa spirit.
Coffeehouse Chronicles Holiday Party (#99)
December 18, 2010 at 3:00pm
Annual holiday party for kids & big kids!
Haiti, Me and the World
December 13, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.
This dramatic monologue by Gina Athena Ulysse considers how the past occupies the present. Ulysse weaves spokenword with Vodou chants to reflect on childhood memories, social (in)justice, spirituality, and the incessant dehumanization of Haitians.
Gina Athena Ulysse is an anthropologist/poet/performance artist. Born in Haiti, she migrated to the States in her teens. She has published in various places. She has presented her one- woman show, “Because When GOD is too Busy: Haiti, me and THE WORLD” at various colleges and universities throughout the States as well as Bluestockings, The Bowery, Brecht Forum, Brooklyn Museum, LaMaMa, Lyric Stage Theatre in Boston, Center Stage in Santa Barbara, among other places. When she is not expressing her eloquent rage on the stage, she is an associate professor of anthropology, african-american studies and feminist gender and sexuality studies at Wesleyan University in CT.
Director Sande Shurin returns to La MaMa in Anna Fishbeyn’s “Sex in Mommyville” (#98)
December 11, 2010 at 3:00pm
Sande Shurin 30 year veteran acting coach developed her own technique, “Transformational Acting” (Her first book) and has coached/directed such names as Mathew Modine, Sylvia Miles, Anthony Rapp, super model Shalom Harlow and music legend Method Man. On Broadway she directed “The Price Of Genius” also directing at such venues as BAM, Playwright’s Horizons, Carnegie Hall & Lincoln Center and many off-off Broadway theaters throughout her 35 year directing career. She also directed two films written by husband Bruce Levy. Shurin was celebrity acting coach on “America’s Next Top Model” and cuts of her work were seen on OPRAH. She has lectured at many Universities. Shurin teaches here in NY as well as Woodstock, NY. Her newest book is “Star Power…Defining Your Individual Signature”. She most recently worked with the brilliant Anna Fishbeyn directing her new play SEX IN MOMMYVILLE at the Flea Theater in New York City. Shurin was honored at Lamama’s Coffee Chronicles for her contribution as one of the founding members of the off-off Broadway Theater movement in New York.
Anna Fishbeyn is a writer/performer who recently did a solo show at the Cornelia Street Café called Conversations With My Breasts that tackled breastfeeding challenges and humiliation, current fads in diaper changing in public and parental whining about sexual deprivation. She had been an actress/singer in Russia as a child but had not been on stage since ten until that fateful night at the Cornelia Street café when she realized it was about time she returned! The Flea Theater offered her an opportunity to perform on its stage and with the help of Ms Shurin “Sex In Mommyville” was born. She is currently working on her first novel “The Matrimonial Implications of Emma Kaulfield” (a.k.a Elana Kabelmacher, A Russian immigrant torn between her devotion to her family and her wild love affair with an American man. Her article “Whoa Mama!” was recently published in the NYPress.com. Ms Fishbeyn holds a B.A from the University of Chicago, an MFA in fiction from The New School University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University where her dissertation was entitled Evil in the Novel and It’s Implications for Moral Education.
Sherman Town: Baseball, Apple Pie and the Klan
December 6, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
Every Labor Day in Shermantown – a town named by blacks freed by Union Army Gen. Sherman after he took Atlanta in 1864 – thousands of Klansmen gathered for an annual national meeting at Stone Mountain where a large relief memorial depicts Confederate Heroes. This play is about the co-existence of the town’s black community with the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s.
The Gaza Mono-Logues
By ASHTAR Theatre-Palestine
November 28, 2010 at 8:00pm
The Gaza Mono-Logues were written by 33 young Gazans in the aftermath of a 22 day attack on the Gaza strip between December 2008 and January 2009. In October 2010, 60 cities around the world witnessed a rendition of The Gaza Mono-Logues performed by their youth.
This November 28 young actors from partnering countries around the world are meeting in New York City to perform The Gaza Monologues, all bearing in mind that the authors could not join them on stage, due to the blockade still imposed on them.
Directed by: Iman Aoun (Ashtar Theatre, Palestine) & Shauna Kanter (VOICETheatre, NYC)
Graphic Design: Troy Hahn
General Coordination: Olivia Magnan De Bornier
Press: Najwa Mubarki
Free Admission. Please call 212 201 9337 for reservations.
- The Gaza Monologues
Schiele-Kelly
November 23 – December 12, 2010
In connection with the Pass the Blutwurst, Bitte performances at Ellen Stewart Theatre, a solo exhibition of Kelly’s newest self-portraits, based on the art and life of Egon Schiele, will be on view in La Galleria. This exhibition, Schiele~Kelly, will include small and large-scale black & white and color photographic prints.
The gallery hours will be extended to 7:30 Thursday through Saturday for the run of this exhibition to give Pass the Blutwurst, Bitte audience members an opportunity to view the art before the curtain.
A catalogue of John Kelly’s body of work inspired by Schiele will be available for purchase at La Galleria and online. To purchase the catalogue click here.
John Kelly
John Kelly (Choreography, Direction) is a performance and visual artist who has created over 30 performance and dance theater works that have been performed at many performance and alternative venues, including The Tate Modern, The Kitchen, The Warhol Museum, the Whitney Biennial, Dance Theater Workshop, The Sundance Theatre Lab, La MaMa ETC, Performance Space 122 and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival.
Originally trained as a dancer with American Ballet Theatre and the Harkness House for Ballet Arts, Kelly performed with modern dance pioneer Charles Weidman and studied with James Waring. Among the many awards Kelly has earned are two Bessie (New York Dance and Performance) Awards; two Obie Awards; the American Choreographer Award; a 2001 CalArts/ Alpert Award in Dance/Performance. Fellowships include a 2006-07 Rome Prize in Visual Art at The American Academy in Rome; The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard; The Guggenheim Foundation; The New York Foundation for the Arts; The National Endowment for the Arts; and Art Matters, Inc.
A Tribute to Jim Neu
November 20, 2010 at 2:00pm
A Tribute to Jim Neu
PROGRAM
1. LA MAMA WELCOME – Nicky Paraiso
2. MC — Keith McDermott
3. COMMENTS — Carol Mullins
4. AS THE CLOTHES TURN — Jacob Burckhardt & sk dunn
5. THE CORNER OF HERE AND NOW from MONDO BEYONDO, sung by Kristine Lee, accompanied by Neal Kirkwood, music by Neal Kirkwood
6. COMMENTS — Robert Simonson
7. VIDEO EXCERPTS – Part 1
8. HIM OR ME — Ron Jones and Clio Young
9. BREAKING THE BEHAVIOR BARRIER from OPTIMISMO LOUNGE — Black-Eyed Susan
10. AEROBIA — Douglas Dunn
11. THE OPTIMISMO BLUES Music by Harry Mann, with Deborah Auer, Neal Kirkwood and Harry Mann
All join in for chorus:
check the lounge
check the lounge
check the Optimismo Lounge
check the lounge
check the lounge
check the Optimismo Lounge
next to the No Problemo Café
the No Problem Cafe
12. VIDEO EXCERPTS — Part 2
13. GANG OF SEVEN — Agosto Machado, Chris Moresco, Kristine Lee
14. MUSICAL TRIBUTE — Neal Kirkwood & Harry Mann
15. VIDEO EXCERPTS — Part 3
16. CONTINUISM from MONDO BEYONDO — Roberta Levine
17. ACOUSTIC MOVER from OPTIMISMO LOUNGE — Terry O’Reilly
18. KISS SHOT POSITION vocal, Mary Shultz, music by Neal Kirkwood, text spoken by Charles Allcroft
19. STILL PHOTOS —by Tom Brazil, Jacob Burckhardt, sk dunn, Jessie Dunn-Gilbert, Jim Dikel, Niles Dolbe and many others.
20. NO PLACE I’D RATHER BE from TARGET AUDIENCE vocals and guitar by Deborah Auer, words spoken by Harry Mann, music by Harry Mann, photo by Jonathan Slaff
RECEPTION IN LOBBY
Thanks to all the performers, dancers, actors, designers, videographers, composers, musicians and Jim’s mom who were a part of the video excerpts (edited by Jacob Burckhardt):
John Allaire, Charles Allcroft, Deborah Auer, Roger Babb, Gabriel Berry Black-Eyed Susan, Rocky Bornstein, Rick Brintzenhof, Jacob Burckhardt, Lavinia Co-op, John Costelloe, Dan Crozier, Charles Dennis, Douglas Dunn, sk dunn, Donald Eastman, Russell Ellison, Bob Feldman, David Fritz, Michael Galasso, Paul Galasso, Mimi Gross, Jennifer L. Howard, Ron Jones, Neal Kirkwood Christopher Knowles, Diane Lambertson, Kristine Lee, Roberta Levine, Keith McDermott,, Agosto Machado, Harry Mann, Hope Mohr, Carol Mullins, John Nesci, William Niederkorn, Jim Neu, David Nunemaker, Tony Nunziata, Terry O’Reilly, Andrew Perret, Lenny Pickett, Becca Prescott, Richard Rutkowski, Mary Shultz, Sue Sheehy, Beth Simons, Mary Tepper, Byron Thomas, Terrell Robinson, Bill Rice, Eve Sorel, Mark Tambella, Howard Thies, Michael Thomason, Angela Wendt, Christopher Williams, Bill Wolf, Clio Young, And thanks to all those who worked with Jim, who are not in these video clips.
There is a memorial website for Jim. Please contribute photos or comments and see what others have sent. It is: http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/jimneu
Jim’s regular website is www.jimneu.com designed by Jonathan Slaff, who is also Jim’s Press Representative
George Ferencz
George Ferencz has been active in New York theatre as a director, producer and teacher for over four decades. Currently, he is a resident director of La MaMa E.T.C. where he has directed 31 productions during the last 29 years. Ferencz also continues as the Literary Curator of the La MaMa Experiments Reading Series for a 13th season. His most recent La MaMa production was the blues opera CONJUR WOMAN at Teatro La Communita in Rome. This fall Ferencz directs CAMINO REAL as a guest artist at Point Park Conservatory in Pittsburgh
Ferencz has directed the premieres of over 30 writers including Juan Samsul Allam, Amiri Baraka, Jimmy Breslin, Migdalia Cruz, Roslyn Drexler, Hanay Geigomah, Josh Greenfeld, Aisha Rachman, Yasmine Rana, Caradet Svich, Dan Thierreault,J Pieter-Dirk Uys, Jean Claude van Itallie, Mac Wellman, Edgar Nkosi White and Mike Zettler
In addition, Ferencz has directed classics from Shakespeare to O’Casey at regional theatres including Actors Theater of Louisville, Berkeley Rep, Cleveland Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public, San Diego Rep and Syracuse Stage. European productions include Mishima’s LADY AOI in Munich before a tour of Eastern Europe, Shepard and Smith’s COWBOY MOUTH in Berlin before a German tour and several jazz concerts in Italy for Max Roach Productions, including PERCUSSION SUMMIT with Roach, Tony Williams, Ginger Baker and a percussion orchestra M’BOOM. Notable New York productions as a director include the La MaMa productions of THE WARZONE IS MY BED, developed in the Experiments Series, SHEPARD SETS, an Obie-award winning festival of Shepard plays with music by Roach, GHOSTS: LIVE FROM GALILEE, the Scottsboro Boys Blue Opera, and MONEY a jazz opera; the Lincoln Center Serious Fun production of JUJU; and the Impossible Ragtime Theatre productions of O’Neill’s DYNAMO and THE HAIRY APE.
As the Founding Director of three New York non-profit theatres – The Impossible Ragtime Theatre, the New Living Newspaper and CEMENT inc – Ferencz produced over 30 shows.
Ferencz has taught directing at Yale School of Drama, Brooklyn College, N.Y.U., Columbia and Marymount as well as the Michael Howard Studio, the Lee Strasberg Studio and Playwrights Horizons Directing Lab. He conducted a Director-Writer Workshop at Columbia University for 15 years and served as a guest resident director at New Dramatists and Program Director for Intar’s Music-Theatre Lab. Ferencz has lectured on directing at Cornell, Ohio University, Kent State University, Syracuse University, a TCG Conference and an international directors symposium at La MaMa Umbria in Italy.
George Ferencz currently lives in Brooklyn with designer Sally Lesser and their son Jack.
For a full profile visit www.georgeferencz.com
Live/Work: A Painting Show
November 11 – November 21, 2010
Organized By Elizabeth Marshall and Caitlin MacQueen
Presented with The Bruce High Quality Foundation
Tomer Aluf/ James Brittingham/ Heidi Hahn/ Rebecca Watson Horn/ Kathryn Kerr/
Caitlin MacQueen/ Rose Marcus/ Elizabeth Marshall/ Leigh Ruple/ Damon Sfetsios
Opening reception Friday, November 12th, 6-10 pm
with performances by Seth Cameron and Sophia Knapp
This is the exhibition of 10 artists whom regard historical vocabularies of painting as a generative means to address the everyday. These artists have been pulled together because of their commitment to the image as a sustaining presentation of personal and social experience. Navigating language, history, art, trash, technology, social networking and subjectivity, this collection of work shows what a perverse privilege it is to make paintings in the open-source age, and how bizarre the questions of subject and style can be.
Does the painted rectangle reveal an antagonistic relationship to the passive demands of the glowing screen? Can one placate it? Can one sign off? Do paintings today threaten us with a touch- sensitive sleep or can we still negotiate an end point? What noise does a painting make when it restarts?
Live/Work is made possible by the inspiration and encouragement of The Bruce High Quality Foundation University, and is one of many curatorial expeditions by participants, facilitators, and friends of The BHQFU.