Daily Life Everlasting
By Witness Relocation
Written by Chuck Mee
Directed & Choreographed by Dan Safer
Original Music by Heather Christian
The third collaboration between Witness Relocation and acclaimed writer Charles Mee, in which people meet, fall in love, make out with each other, find being alive awkward but funny, and dance quite a lot. With original songs by Obie-winning composer Heather Christian and costume design by Brooklyn-based maverick fashion designer Brad Callahan.
Witness Relocation combines dance and theater with the energy of a rock show, exploding contemporary culture into intensely physical, outrageous, poetic, and sometimes brutal performances.
Costumes Designed by Brad Callahan
Performed by Alexa Andreas, Aziza Barnes, Nikki Calonge, Philip Gates, Tori Khalil, Vanessa Koppel, Mike Mikos, Dan Safer & Chinaza Uche
Video and projections by Kaz PS
Set design by Jay Ryan with Andrew Bordwin
Lighting design by Jay Ryan
Sound design by Michael DeAngelis
Charles L. Mee is known for his work with SITI Company, for which he wrote “Orestes,” “bobrauschenbergamerica,” “Hotel Cassiopeia,” “Under Construction” and “soot and spit (the musical).” He was Signature Theater’s Playwright-in-Residence in 2007-2008 and last collaborated with Witness Relocation on “Eterniday” at La MaMa in 2013. That play tried to encompass the complexity of human experience into one exceptional day. The production inspired mostly rhapsodies of joy and gratitude in its reviews. (See excerpts below.)
Witness Relocation (http://witnessrelocation.org) has been called “a dance theater anarchist’s utopia” (Performing Arts Journal, 2006). The Village Voice called it “[one of the] ensembles who now lead the city’s progressive theater scene.” Its productions vary between small punk rock shows and giant epics. The New York Times wrote that Witness Relocation’s work “aggressively blurs genres and makes high-low culture distinctions obsolete.” The company is ensemble-based and makes shows ranging from fully scripted plays to original, devised dance/theater pieces and many things in between. Founded in 2000 by director/choreographer Daniel Safer, it has created about 15 original productions, engaged in a two year residency in Bangkok and performed in theaters, nightclubs, rock videos and a Thai TV Soap Opera.
Dan Safer is Artistic Director of Witness Relocation and specializes in genre-bending works. He originally hails from the wild suburbs of New Jersey. He recently choreographed and co-directed the acclaimed “Ubu Sings Ubu” with Tony Torn and Julie Atlas Muz. Beside Witness Relocation shows, his work as a choreographer has been seen at the BAM, DTW, St. Mark’s Church and the Ash Lawn Opera. He has choreographed plays, operas, rock videos, fashion shows, and films. In 2011, he choreographed Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” for Philadelphia Orchestra with the Obie-winning New York based Ridge Theater. He was a 2007- 9 recipient of the Six Points Fellowship (Performance) and has won two NY Innovative Theater Awards. Artforum Magazine called him “pure expressionistic danger” and Time Out NY called him “a purveyor of lo-fi mayhem.” He is the Head of Movement Training at NYU/ Playwrights Horizons Theater School and a frequent teacher at The Norwegian Theater Academy. He used to be a go-go dancer and once choreographed the Queen of Thailand’s Birthday Party.
Heather Christian received a 2014 Obie for her music to “The World is Round,” directed by Rachel Dickstein at BAM Fisher. Her musical ensemble, Heather Christian & The Arbornauts, pulls from the traditional gospel canon in tandem with circus music, noise rock and good old fashioned feeling good. She is a veteran of many Witness Relocation shows, including “Heaven on Earth” (2011), “Haggaddah” (2009), “Vicious Dogs on Premises” (2008) and “Dancing vs. The Rat Experiment” (2006).
“The vibe is rowdy and playfully surreal. Actors throw themselves around the stage with abandon, leaping into each other’s arms to kiss or fight. They convene for a strobe-lighted bacchanal (joined by a couple of saucy Easter bunnies). The urgency is key: Daily life, humdrum in its routines, can feel everlasting — until, suddenly, it’s over.”
– Jacob Gallagher-Ross, Village Voice
“Part experimental theatre, part dance show, and part pop music video the young cast is brightly colored, aggressive, and passionate, providing a highly entertaining roller-coaster of an evening.”
– Victoria Teague, New York Theatre Review
“raucous and joyful”
– Alexis Soloski, The New York Times
“The line between theater and performance gets another cheerful nudge from Witness Relocation’s Daily Life Everlasting, a party-cum-show that fizzes with a thousand dance breaks—and then effervesces…like Easter on ecstasy.”
– Helen Shaw, Time Out New York