Imagining the Imaginary Invalid
The New York Times Critics' Pick
La MaMa presents
Imagining The Imaginary Invalid
A production by Mabou Mines and Trick Saddle
Using Moliere’s seminal play about the evils of the medical industry as a backdrop, Imagining the Imaginary Invalid takes you backstage as the cast prepares the set and tries to rehearse scenes from the play amidst personal discussions about money, medicine, politics, loss and the nature of inspiration. As the audience watches the action unfold in layers, ballets spontaneously spring out of costume fittings, scenes devolve into arguments about art, money, and health and the performers struggle to create something in the wake of the loss of a leading player.
Originally conceived by the late Ruth Maleczech in collaboration with Julie Archer, Clove Galilee, and Valeria Vasilevski
Inspired by Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid
Directed and Choreographed by Clove Galilee | Original Text and Dramaturgy: Valeria Vasilevski
Associate Director and Adaptation by: Jenny Rogers
Featuring Drama Desk and OBIE award winning actor Marylouise Burke as the Leading Player. The cast also includes Clove Galilee,
Brian McManamon, Christianna Nelson, Joe Tapper, Jake Lasser, Sr. Pedro J. Rosado Jr., and Bernadette Flynn.
The dancers, members of the New York Theatre Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, are Stephen Campanella, Carmella Lauer,
Steven Melendez, Melissa Sadler, Amanda Treiber-Scales and Elena Zahlmann.
The musicians are Marni Rice and Michael Scales
Mabou Mines is an artist-driven experimental collective, generating original works and re-imagined adaptations of classics through multi-disciplinary, technologically inventive collaborations among its members and a wide world of contemporary composers, writers, musicians, choreographers, puppeteers, visual artists and filmmakers.
Find out more about Mabou Mines on their website!
Led by the artistic team of Clove Galilee and Jenny Rogers, Trick Saddle is a collaborative company working within the realm of theatre, dance, film and visual art. The company’s work is equally at home in museums, galleries, theaters and site-specific venues. Visit the Trick Saddle website!
“See it – the extraordinary Marylouise Burke…plays both the titular hypochondriac and the French playwright”
~ New York Post
Marylouise Burke (seated) in rehearsal for “Imagining the Imaginary Invalid.”
Credit Ike Edeani for The New York Times
“Honoring Mom (and Molière) With ‘Imagining the Imaginary Invalid’” by Alexis Soloski
“Still Imagining The Imaginary with Ruth Maleczech” by Matthew Paul Olmos
“Sharon Fogarty” by Zachary Small
Review: ‘Imagining the Imaginary Invalid,’ About Absence and Art Making
by Laura Collins-Hughes