Series of One: Mermaids Howl
Written, Directed & Performed by Marina Celander
Mermaid’s Howl by Marina Celander is a fantastical One-Woman piece, full of magic and dreams. The characters are WOMAN and DAUGHTER. They speak to each other through time and space, through ocean divers and earth creatures, through madness and memories, remembering their way back to their matriline in Korea.
Ultimately this evocative and strong play speaks of love that reaches beyond the here and now, love between and mother and daughter, love through generations that went astray and finally found its way.
CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
Written, Directed & Performed by MARINA CELANDER
Music & Soundscape by INFINITE DÅKOT-TA
Projection Design by YOUN JUNG KIM
Live Music by NEJMA NEFERTITI
Costume Design by JANE CATHERINE SHAW
Set Design by GIANMARCO LO FORTE
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Marina Celander is a theatre artist, singer, dancer from Sweden. A graduate of London contemporary Dance School she has performed in both dance and theatre nationally and internationally. She performed in Fred Ho/Ruth Margraff’s Deadly She Wolf Assassin at Armageddon at LaMama Theatre, to glowing reviews. Her working relationship with the composer, writer and activist Fred Ho spans two decades. Marina performed under Ellen Stewart’s direction in Dionysus Filius Dei 2002.
Marina has worked with Yara Arts Group for the past 17 years, and she is developing a new piece with artistic director, Virlana Tkacz, about the last speakers of Old Swedish in Ukraine, US premiere 2018. Marina received the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre’s annual Red Socks Award for her contribution to Asian American theatre in 2014. In 2016 Marina performed her solo show Mermaid’s Howl at the Stockholm Fringe Festival, and was nominated for the Stockholm Fringe Innovation In Performance Award.
Youn Jung Kim is New-York based artist, telling stories through diverse media such as film, theater, photography and music. She was selected as honoree of 40 for 40 at American Museum of Natural History’s Margaret Mead Film Festival 2016. As a theater artist, she has created original works integrating mixed media. She had the honor to direct Fred Ho’s multimedia-music-martial arts ballet The Sweet Science Suite: A Scientific Soul Music Honoring of Muhammad Ali which was a part of 2013 BAM Next Wave Festival. Acting credits include Ensemble (Jew vs. Malta/La Mama ETC) Gertrude (Hamyul:Hamlet/La Mama ETC), Ensemble (Women in Yeats/Crossing Jamaica Avenue), Menead (Karaoke Bacchae, New Ohio Theater), Capulet, Prince (R+J, Paradise Factory theater) and more. Vocal works has been shown at Brooklyn Academy of Music, BAM cafe Live, the speakeasy Ginny’s Supper Club/Red Rooster, Spectrum Music, Brooklyn Commons and more.
An independent filmmaker, Kim has directed a short film The Opposite of a Fairy Tale, which was screened as an official selection of 2016 Asian American International Film Festival and SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s NY Short Film Showcase. Other film credits include Cooking with Granny (Co-director, Editor), Film Lab’s Look Deeper: Beauty (Director, Co-writer). She holds an MFA in theater from Sarah Lawrence College and a BA in theater and drama from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The tireless Marina Celander, as the Narrator, speaks all the dialogue; the other actors express only the occasional battle cry preceding a sword thrust.”
-NY Times on Deadly She Wolf
“It is told, like the first installment, in narration written by Mr. Ho and Ruth Margraff that was delivered with melodramatic relish by an elegantly costumed narrator (Marina Celander.) The narrator shifted between high-flown storytelling and slangy retold dialogue, with glints of humor, while the martial artists rocketed across the stage.”
– New York Times on Shaolin Secret Stories
“The first stroke of genius lies in the use of disturbingly talented Marina Celander as The Narrator for all characters. Presenting the inner thoughts and speeches of each character in this way mimics the dramatic style of an animated show. Celander’s virtuosity is disturbing because of her range.”
-Woman Around Town on Deadly She Wolf