WHAT'S UPCOMING
as of July 27, 2010

This month, we're looking forward to two free Shakespeares, seven works of puppetry, one opera, one classical music (violin) concert, one festival of new plays, one autobiographical solo show and one free street theater tour.

 

Marc Antony (Ivory Aquino) discovers the dead body of Caesar (Hamilton Clancy) in "Julius Caesar." Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

JULY 29 TO AUGUST 14
SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKING LOT
CORNER LUDLOW AND BROOME STREETS, MANHATTAN
"JULIUS CAESAR"
Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot continues its 2010 season with "Julius Caesar" set in a contemporary urban school system. Shakespeare's historical drama asks, do we govern ourselves, through plurality or charisma? Is it individuals who lead or systems that work? A big city's school system seemed to be a suitable microcosm for a fresh look at this timeless question. It will feature Ivory Aquino, cousin to the former Philippine president Corazon Aquino, as Marc Antony and Selena Beretta, a member of The Amoralists and The Drilling Company, as Cassius. The piece is directed by Hamilton Clancy, Artistic Director of The Drilling Company, which annually produces the popular, gritty, outdoor New York attraction.

JULY 31 TO SEPTEMBER 12
IN NYC STREETS, PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS
"GONE FISSION," THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY STREET THEATER TOUR

Father Neptune’s great summit meeting with the Creatures of the Sea is threatened by an influx of oil. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company opens its 34th annual tour July 31 with "Gone Fission, or Alternative Power," an Operatta for the Street. The rip-roaring production will tour City streets, parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs through September 12. The production, free to all New Yorkers, will have book, lyrics and direction by Crystal Field and musical score composed by Joseph Vernon Banks. In the show, an out-of-work Account Executive takes a survival job as a Census Taker and he visits a fish restaurant. A hurricane transforms the place to a Louisiana Bayou, where Father Neptune is conducting a summit with the creatures of the sea over the horrible Gulf Oil Spill. The Census Taker learns to appreciate the powerlessness of his neighbors through the plight of the undersea community and transforms into a community organizer. The sea creatures are played by actors in gigantic fish costumes made by Hollywood special effects maven David "Zen" Mansley. There are seven production numbers, a live five-piece band and a company of 50.

AUGUST 7 TO 8, GOVERNORS ISLAND
"MACBETH," PERFORMED BY PULSE THEATRE ENSEMBLE
(SITE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE)
Pulse Theatre Ensemble, under the direction of Alexa Kelly, will present a site-specific, Free Shakespeare production of "Macbeth" in Governors Island at Nolan Park. For a summer outing, pack a cold lunch, take the seven-minute ferry ride and watch the tragedy unfold from lawn seating.

Nolan Park plaque	Governor's House

Pulse's adaptation will also be presented the following week (August 12-28) in Riverbank State Park, Manhattan, as the sixth annual production of Pulse Ensemble's Harlem Summer Shakespeare. It sets the Scottish tragedy in a fictional occupied Islamic country where Macbeth is a power hungry U.S. Army officer, King Duncan is a warlord co-operating with the US troops and the witches are local war widows.

 

AUGUST 12 TO 28
RIVERBANK STATE PARK - HARLEM SUMMER SHAKESPEARE
"MACBETH," PERFORMED BY PULSE THEATRE ENSEMBLE
(STAGED PERFORMANCE)

Macbeth (R, Brian Richardson) and the three witches (L-R: Regina Gibson (lower), Leigh Ellen Caudill, Erica Chambers). Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

As the culminating event of its twentieth season, Pulse Theatre Ensemble, under the direction of Alexa Kelly, will present a Free Shakespeare production of "Macbeth" in Riverbank State Park. The innovative adaptation sets the Scottish tragedy in a fictional occupied Islamic country, where Macbeth is a power hungry U.S. Army officer, King Duncan is a warlord co-operating with the US troops and the witches are local war widows. The tension mounts until Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are brought down by their own greed, guilt and fear. Pulse Theatre's Harlem Summer Shakespeare productions are known for updating the visual aspect of Shakespeare's plays while keeping the Bard's language intact.

This is the sixth season that Pulse Ensemble Theatre's Harlem Summer Shakespeare program will present a free production in Riverbank State Park. This year, performances will be in the park's indoor theater facility, since the park's (newly-renovated) Amphitheatre is closed this year due to budget constraints. The play is free to the public on a first come, first served basis. It is a feature of Harlem Week.

AUGUST 8 TO SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
DREAM UP FESTIVAL

"It Ain't No Sin" by Michael Patrick F. Smith, directed by Meghan Finn, will be presented August 8 to 15 in Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival. L-R: Ben Jaeger-Thomas, Michael Patrick Flanagan Smith, Julie Turner. Photo by Victoria Rimerman.

From August 8 to September 5, 2010, Theater for the New City (TNC), under the direction of Crystal Field, Artistic Director, will present its first "Dream Up Festival," a theater festival of plays from artists across the country and abroad. It is curated by the theater's Literary Manager, Michael Scott-Price. "Dream Up" is an all-premiere festival with 22 world premieres and two American premieres, offering a month long anthology of wide-ranging and original theatrical visions. The Festival opens up Theater for the New City to artists from the country at large and to artists from overseas. Both Ms. Field and Mr. Scott-Price feel it is especially important for the world to know of these artists, whose work needs to be done and needs to be seen. These include emerging writers, whose work will likely become an important contribution to American culture and whose work is already stimulating and enlightening. There are also mid-career artists whose work is already of great importance and should be viewed by the public, even in a time of declining donations to the arts, when grants not being awarded due to market conditions and there are arts funding cuts on almost every level all across the country and abroad. Tickets prices range from $12 to $15 (roughly the cost of a movie). Audiences will have the opportunity to view most of the productions at least five times.

 

AUGUST 13-29
VANDAM PLAYHOUSE
(PART OF NY INT'L FRINGE FESTIVAL)
DIANA YANEZ IN "VIVA LA EVOLUCIÓN!"

Poster of "Viva la Evolución!" with Diana Yanez (photo by Kurt Hall)

In "Viva la Evolución!" comic actress Diana Yanez, a first-generation Cuban-American, takes us on her journey from Castro to Disco in a one-woman comedy of growing up Cuban and queer in Miami. Directed by Marjorie Duffield.

With a few classic Caribbean cocktails and an arsenal of outrageous, well-woven tales, Yanez traverses her childhood and her sexual awakening with riotous accuracy. The play won the First Annual Drama Queens competition in Los Angeles (2009) and is about to be featured in the 2010 Berkshire Fringe festival (August 5-9). This is its New York City premiere. Preceding the FringeNYC production, the show will be seen at Williams College Summer Theatre Lab, Williamstown, MA on August 1 and at the Berkshire Fringe Festival in Great Barrington, MA Aug 5-9. Part of the 14th annual New York International Fringe Festival - FringeNYC.

SEPTEMBER 30 TO OCTOBER 17
LA MAMA E.T.C.
"I FIORETTI IN MUSICA-OPERA IN DANZA"

Artist's rendition of a scene from "I Fioretti in Musica-Opera in Danza"

"I Fioretti in Musica-Opera in Danza" is an original opera with concept, libretto, direction and set design by Gian Marco Lo Forte and music composed by Sasha Zamler-Cahart and Ryan Carter. The piece transplants to New York rituals enacted in the towns of Umbria, Central Italy that are inspired by St. Francis of Assisi. Labeled an Opera in Danza, the work's form is inspired by Commedia Harmonica Italiana, a typical Italian stage form of the late 15th Century where the singers perform in concerto and the dancers are the visual interpreters of the music throughout the stage. The work is performed in Italian with English subtitles. This adaptation asks "What if St. Francis lived today in New York City?" and answers, "He'd probably be a homeless guy with a shopping cart, preaching to the pigeons." So the "little flower" poems based on his miracles are rendered with puppets made of recycled materials and refuse from the streets, joined by four dancers and five singers.

 

OCTOBER 10
TENRI CULTURAL CENTER, 43A W. 13TH ST.
"THE WORLD BELOW G," CD LAUNCH CONCERT BY VIOLINIST MARI KIMURA

Mari Kimura. Photo by Noah Fowler

Violinist/composer Mari Kimura will perform "The World Below G," a concert to launch her CD by the same name, which will be issued by Mutable Music. Described as "A plugged-in Paganini for the Digital Age" (All Music Guide), Ms. Kimura is well known for developing the extended technique of "Subharmonics"--playing notes below the open-G string without lowering the tuning of the instrument. She has been awarded a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition and is presently a 2010 Composer in Residence in musical research at IRCAM in Paris. The New York Times has written, "Ms. Kimura is a viruoso playing at the edge" and New Music Conoisseur has written, "Mari Kimura is the the violin what perhaps Henry Cowell and later John Cage were to the piano in the 1920's and 30's--taking it into the future with extended techniques and sounds."

OCTOBER 14 TO 24
LA MAMA E.T.C.
"BONG BONG BONG AGAINST THE WALLS, TING TING TING IN OUR HEADS"

Left: Ashley C. Williams and puppet by Aurora Buzzetti (Italy); right: Dario D'Ambrosi. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

La MaMa's Puppet Series IV opens with "Bong Bong Bong against the Walls, Ting Ting Ting in our Heads," the kind of play that could only be written from the experience of Dario D'Ambrosi (Pathological Theatre), who for over 30 years has worked with mentally disabled people in Italy. It is the American debut for Set/Puppet Designer Aurora Buzzetti (Rome). Translation is by Celeste Moratti. It is a theatrical fantasy about mentally ill children in institutions, whose thoughts are cloudy but whose souls are clear, who are bespattered with pain but whose dignity shines. In fairy tale style, it dramatizes how their imaginations are limitless and how they flourish when they are loved. The story is told with live music, singing, dance and puppets. Although it deals directly with lives of most troubled people, the play is fantastical and nonthreatening. It is recommended for audiences of all ages.

Set and Object/Puppet design are by Aurora Buzzetti (Italy). Buzetti developed the concept of the puppets in collaboration with mentally-ill actors and theater artists of Dario D'Ambrosi's newly-established Teatro Patologico (Pathological Theatre) in Rome, based significantly on their ideas and drawings.

OCTOBER 21 TO NOVEMBER 7
LA MAMA E.T.C.
"CHOPIN-AN IMPRESSION" BY BY BIALYSTOK PUPPET THEATRE OF POLAND

Chopin puppet at the piano. Photo by Krzysztof Bielinski

"Chopin-An Impression" will be a kind of drama essay that unites music, visual art, and marionette performance. This extremely challenging technique in puppetry requires unusual technical design as well as extraordinary skill in animating the marionette. Fryderyk Chopin compositions will be rendered both by a pianist and a marionette representing the genius composer - a marionette controlled with strings, measuring a couple of dozen centimeters and displaying virtuoso agility and perfection in the hands of its puppeteer - combined with an attempt to find answers to questions on the sources of inspiration determining the work of every artist. Apart from Chopin's music performed live by one of Poland's most talented pianists Krzysztof Traskowski, the show features actors, puppets (marionettes), objects, plastic art forms and visual presentations. Part of La MaMa Puppet Series IV, presented in association with The Polish Cultural Institute.

OCTOBER 28 TO NOVEMBER 7
LA MAMA E.T.C.
"WAKE UP, YOU'RE DEAD" BY BROOKLYN ART DEPARTMENT

Sketch for "Wake Up, You're Dead"

With puppets, dance, film and aerial work, Brooklyn Art Department brings you "Wake Up, You're Dead," a new mythology about finding your light. In the spirit of Halloween and Day of Dead this theatre romp, created by Aaron Haskell who is also one of the original designers for Nightmare: NYC's Haunted House, is a boisterous party that will have you on your feet! Join the creatures of the "otherworld" in this high-energy event. The Club theater at La MaMa will be turned into a live installation. It's a boisterous, joyous romp in the spirit of the Halloween season. Aaron Haskell is one of the original designers of The Haunted House, a New York attraction. Part of La MaMa Puppet Series IV.

NOVEMBER 12 TO 21
LA MAMA E.T.C.
"BROKEN NAILS: A MARLENE DIETRICH DIALOGUE" BY WICZY THEATRE OF POLAND

Anna Skubik and Dietrich puppet. Photo by Filip Lupa.

Wiczy Theatre of Poland brings us a solo puppet show conceived and performed by Anna Skubik. Beautiful, determined, intelligent, controversial--Marlene Dietrich was a transcendent symbol of femininity, a lady of strong character and clear mind, a woman with claws, fascinating to both men and women. The phenomenon of her personality has also seduced Anna Skubik, a young Polish actress and puppeteer, who decided to bring to life this German star by animating her as a life-size doll. "Broken Nails: A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue" portrays Dietrich and her maid Gloria (both played by Skubik) in a co-dependent relationship during the star's last days in her Paris apartment. Part of La MaMa Puppet Series IV, presented in association with The Polish Cultural Institute.

OCTOBER 23 TO NOVEMBER 7
LA MAMA E.T.C.
"FOLKTALES OF ASIA AND AFRICA" BY JANE CATHERINE SHAW

Jane Catherine Shaw in "Folktales of Asia and Africa." Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

In "Folktales of Asia and Africa," Jane Catherine Shaw, while making bread, discovers that she has guests, so while waiting for the dough to rise, she tells three stories using the kitchen tools as found object puppetry. In a Burmese tale called "The Old Man and The Moon," a flour sifter becomes an old man, a cookie cutter becomes his pet rabbit and a donut maker is the moon goddess. This story explains why the Burmese see the shapes of an old man and a rabbit in the shadows on the moon. "The Lantern and The Fan" is a Japanese folktale that tells of how the traditional lantern and fans came to be a part of Japanese culture. Egg beaters dressed in cloth napkins become two Japanese sisters dressed in kimonos and four steak knives play the "sharp" wise men. The third story is an African tale, a very old version of Mufaro's "Beautiful Daughters" from Zimbabwe. Like the Cinderella tale, it has many variants, but in this one, wood salt and pepper shakers are the two sisters, a large barbeque basting brush is their father and there are many other characters, all found objects from a kitchen. Part of La MaMa Puppet Series IV.

 

Child puppet by Federico Restrepo

NOVEMBER 11 TO 28
LA MAMA E.T.C.
"IN RETROSPECT" BY LOCO 7 DANCE PUPPET THEATRE COMPANY
Federico Restrepo is Founder and Director of LOCO7, a dance/puppet theatre company that is creating a new work called "In Retrospect," which maps our life's journey of family love. The multi-disciplinary work will present vivid images and stories through spoken word, large marionettes, masks, body-puppets, dance, live music, unique lighting design, and video. Restrepo is a Colombian-born master of puppet theater and physical theater who stages epic thoughts using giant puppetry, acrobatic choreography and tempestuous music. Created with Denise Greber (concepts, costumes) and Elizabeth Swados (musical score). Part of La MaMa Puppet Series IV.

DECEMBER 2 TO 12
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER'S 2010 SPECTACLE AND CIRCUS

Bread and Puppet Theater in "Dirt Cheap Money Circus" (2009). Santa (Peter Schumann) and his Elves of Consumer Delight singing "Shopping Night," based on "Silent Night." Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

For the 39th year, Peter Schumann's Bread and Puppet Theater will return to Theater for the New City with two new works, one for adults and one for family audiences. Bread and Puppet Theater is an internationally recognized company that champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art that filled with music, dance and slapstick. Its shows are political and spectacular, with huge puppets made of paper maché and cardboard; a brass band for accompaniment, and anti-elitist dance. This year's shows are in development as of this writing. They will likely be based on Bread & Puppet's Summer 2010 productions, presented July 2 to August 27 at the Bread & Puppet Farm in Glover, VT, which includes "The Nothing Is Not Ready Pageant" and "The Decapitalization Circus."