The Transfiguration Of Benjamin Banneker

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January 23 - February 02, 2020

BUY TICKETS

Ellen Stewart Theatre | 66 East 4th Street (2nd Floor)

Thursday to Saturday at 7PM; Sunday at 3PM

$25 Tickets; $20 Student/Senior Tickets [+$1 Facility Fee]

Purchase a Membership (Tickets Only $10)

World Premiere
Directed by Theodora Skipitares
Conceived and Directed by Theodora Skipitares
Music by LaFrae Sci
Choreography by Edisa Weeks
featuring the Soul Tigers Marching Band

The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker is a multi-disciplinary spectacle with a marching band, 12-foot puppets, shadow puppetry and moving projection screens. The band is an award-winning group, the Soul Tigers, young men and women who attend Benjamin Banneker High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
This event celebrates the life of Benjamin Banneker, a free black man living in Maryland from 1731 to 1806, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy, and made important scientific discoveries. In addition to Banneker's life, students from the high school contribute autobiographical material to the performance and will participate alongside professional performers.

 

Press

"With abundant ingenuity that brings to mind the wonders of Alexander Calder's circus, Theodora Skipitares makes of the Trojan War, a central saga of Greek tragedy, a puppet spectacular."
- The New York Times

"Her work is an illuminating exploration into the laboratories of life."
- The New York Times

"Skipitares' works have a bitter humor and dreamlike brevity...she is a possessed and clairvoyant miniaturist."
- The Village Voice

About the Artists

Skysaver Productions, a resident company at La MaMa, is an award-winning interdisciplinary performance group based in New York. Under the direction of Theodora Skipitares, the company has created 30 performance works, each featuring documentary texts, original music, video, and as many as 300 puppet figures. Ms. Skipitares and her group have worked in India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Brazil and Iran.