Download new original works festival 2012

NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL 2012
HEATHER WOODBURY, MELANIE RÍOS GLASER
AND EMILY MAST
AUGUST 9–11, 2012
8:30 PM
presented by
REDCAT
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
California Institute of the Arts
NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL 2012
HEATHER WOODBURY: AS THE GLOBE WARMS
Written and performed by Heather Woodbury
Directed (and dramaturgy) by Michael Yawney
Lighting Design: Gary Lund
Quoted in the text: The King James Bible
Program Note
Heather Woodbury’s As the Globe Warms originated as a web-cast soap opera publicly
developed for live audiences in weekly installments throughout 2010 and 2011 at Los Angeles’
venues Echo Curio, Bootleg Theatre and Wordspace. These 33 original half-hour installments
were posted online for video subscribers as they were generated.
(https://vimeo.com/album/165248). Tonight’s New Original Works exclusive features a
condensed episode from the forthcoming distillation of this development process into a
six-evening length solo play. Just weeks ago, Woodbury and Miami-based director Michael
Yawney wrangled all six nights into shape in a workshop at Florida International University’s
Alternative Theatre Festival. Woodbury premieres Globe in its entirety this fall at Austin’s
Vortex Theatre. She records an audio - play version in January in Captiva, Florida where she
has been invited to participate in the Pilot Residency Program of the Robert Rauschenberg
Foundation.
The Story: As the Globe Warms follows Lorelei Ray, the home-schooled daughter of
a Pentecostal preacher who finds herself mysteriously “speaking in the tongues” of
endangered animals and sharing these possessions on-line with a growing following of
Evangelical youth. When she meets handsome herpetologist Reed Ferris, who arrives in her
small town of Vane Springs, Nevada, determined to try to save the local Butterscotch frog
from extinction, an unlikely friendship forms and has far-reaching consequences. In the mix
are Tea Party zealots, closeted gay evangelicals, a working class family itself on the brink of
extinction, and eyewitness reports from whales, polar bears, bees, bats and frogs.
Tonight: In the condensed episode being presented tonight, Lorelei travels to a festival
sponsored by a Christian teen website to find her followers and meet her online boyfriend. A
fun plot point to know (!!!!) for this episode: Lorelei has been secretly visiting “unsanctified”
web-sites, among them the web-site of the deceased 80’s NYC performance artist Laura
Walden Ferris (Reed’s sister). She finds particularly compelling Laura’s profane 1983 poetry
rant, entitled “It’s a Lie.”
As the Globe Warms is a project of Heather Woodbury’s Fomenting ARTS Unlimited, Inc. It
was developed with the in-kind support of The Echo Curio Gallery, The Bootleg Theater and
Wordspace and funded solely by the MacEverybody Foundation - individual supporters and
on-line donors. Subsequent support was provided by the Alternative Theatre Fesitval at
Florida International University’s CARTA Theatre Department.
Special Thanks: SOLAR ENERGY WORX, Los Angeles, Marilyn Skow, Chair of FIU Theatre,
Mariette Gallor, FIU stage manager, Alison O’Daniel, Megan Daalder, David Robkin, Stephan
Avalos, Rosanna Gamson and Barnaby Levy and Kelly Hargraves for their professional
support, and Tim Kennelly, Stephanie Meckler, Hedi El Kholti, Anna Warwick Sears, Jill
Soloway, Phil Norwich, Roberto Palazzo, Brian, Juniper and Moss Woodbury, Elma Mayer, Chris
Breyer, Christopher Rauschenberg, Janet Stein and Justin and Grant of Echo Curio for their
unflagging support, and SavetheFrogs.org, Center for Biological Diversity, Elizabeth Kolbert
and Sojourners (Faith in Action for Social Justice) for the crucial work they do. Thanks to the
fabulosa REDCAT staff. Extra special thanks to the Holocene Era for making a habitat we can
survive in. Long may it thrive!
—BRIEF INTERMISSION—
MELANIE RÍOS-GLASER: LA TRIBU
Choreography and Improvisational Scores: Melanie Ríos Glaser in collaboration
with the dancers
Performers: Karinne Keithley Syers, Rebecca Bruno, Jmy James Kidd, Melanie Ríos Glaser Set Design: Luke Hegel-Cantarella
Costume Design: James Kidd
Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls
Sound Design: Karinne Keithley Syers
Music/Sound Credits: Michel Peraza and Bohemia Suburbana
With much gratitude to the following people/entities that made this project possible through
their generosity; The Wooden Floor, Pieter Performance Space, Casa Comal, James F. Ingalls,
Luke Hegel-Cantarella, Rebecca Bruno, Karinne Keithley Syers, Jmy James Kidd, Michel
Peraza, Elias Jimenez, Rosina Cazali, Maurice Echeverria, Javier Payeras, Regina Jose Galindo,
Anibal Lopez, Bohemia Suburbana, Lucy and Roberto Ríos, Mary Ellen Glaser and Brian Glaser,
George Lugg, Edgar Miramontes, JaNelle Weatherford,the entire REDCAT team and Barbara
Dilley for the red square score.
—BRIEF INTERMISSION—
EMILY MAST: B!RDBRA!N
Creator: Emily Mast
Performers: Aramazd Stepanian, Beau Ray, Beck Bat, Davie-Blue, Lisa Reynolds, Robert
Ingraham, Talyan Wright
Collaborators: Chris Kuhl (lights), Jake Viator (sound)
Music/sound credits: Oliver Lyons, Yoshimio, Joseph Haydn, Tuxedomoon, Nouvelle Vague,
Ata Kak
B!RDBRA!N is supported in part by an ARC grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI).
Program Note
B!RDBRA!N was originally conceived of for the Pacific Standard Time Public Art & Performance
Festival as a live response to the legacy of the historical French artist Guy de Cointet. De
Cointet, who was based in Los Angeles from 1968 to 1983, made text and sculptural works that
he often integrated into stage sets and props in theatrical performance pieces. B!RDBRA!N
investigates and interrogates Guy de Cointet’s work while incorporating the true story of Alex,
an African Gray parrot who was the subject of a thirty-year avian language experiment that set
out to prove that birds can reason on a basic level and use words creatively.
Special thanks: Karl Haendel, Lauren Mackler, Andrew Berardini, Liz Glynn, Marty Schnapf,
Megan Daalder, Jane Pickett, Betsy Seder, Ratatat and everyone at REDCAT.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The New Original Works Festival is funded in part by a generous grant from the National
Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT AS THE GLOBE WARMS
“Standup novelist” Heather Woodbury’s solo and ensemble play cycles combine the pulse
of performance art with a novel’s scope. Her works echo 19th century serial fiction while
throwing down a live-wire storyteller’s challenge to the remote-controlled seductions of
contemporary cable TV. Woodbury’s novel-length plays have been published by Farrar, Straus
& Giroux and Semiotext(e). Her 8-part solo play What Ever, originally performed in the back of
a New York City bar in the East Village, toured widely from Chicago’s Steppenwolf to London’s
Royal Festival Hall and was broadcast as a radio-play, hosted by Ira Glass. Her ensemble play
Tale of 2 Cities: An American Joyride won an OBIE for performance; She has been awarded
an NEA for Playwriting and was the first recipient of the Spalding Gray Award for “fearless
theatrical innovators.” Other awards include the C.O.L.A. (City of LA) Award and LA Weekly’s
Best Solo of the Year (1997). A segment of As the Globe Warms will appear in the new anthology
Animal Acts edited by Una Chaudhuri and Holly Hughes to be published by University of
Michigan Press.
Michael Yawney’s production of Something Something Uber Alles, was seen in New York as
part of the Iranian Theater Festival. Yawney was also co-curator of the festival which brought
together a dozen productions of work by Iranian theater artists. Miami New Times named his
production of Three Angels Dancing on a Needle the Best Theatrical Production of 2007. This
production also won an award for Best Foreign Language Production at the Brooklyn Brick
Theater’s Pretentious Festival. Yawney’s work has been seen at New York’s Public Theater,
Dixon Place, BMI Musical Theater Workshop, HERE, Downtown Art Co. Ensemble Studio
Theater, Indiana University, and the Pittsburgh Performance Art Festival. As a playwright-inresidence at New York Stage and Film/Vassar Powerhouse in 2006, he developed the script
for 1,000 Homosexuals. The play debuted in November 2008 at Miami’s Arsht Center. The
production returned for a run at Miami Beach’s Colony Theater in 2009. Yawney currently
teaches directing at Florida International University. He was Artistic Director of New York’s Bad
Neighbors Theater.
ABOUT LA TRIBU
Melanie Ríos Glaser, Choreographer/Improvisor, (b. 1970, Guatemala City) serves as the
Artistic Director of The Wooden Floor in Santa Ana, California, a nationally renowned dance
based youth program. She received her BFA from The Juilliard School in 1994, was named a
Kennedy Center Fellow in 1998 and was a Fulbright Scholar in Europe from 2003-2004. She
has danced for Sally Silvers and Dancers, Odile Duboc and Ivan Favier and as a guest artist
with Pilobolus. Her choreographic, improvisational and performance art work has been
supported by the NEA and performed at the Montpellier Dance Festival in France , the Sao
Paolo Art Biennial and in places around Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama,
France, Colombia, Philadelphia, New York and in Southern California at the Irvine Barclay
Theatre, the Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theatre and Pieter. Melanie enjoys volunteering as a
consultant for other nonprofits on issues of nonprofit management, governance, fundraising
and programming. She is thrilled to be working alongside this team of collaborators.
Luke Hegel-Cantarella (Scenic Design) designs scenery and space for stage and film
productions. His work has been seen in theater, dance and opera companies across the
United States. Prior work with Melanie Rios-Glaser include projects for The Wooden Floor
where he has also designed for choreographers Mark Haim, Jeff Slayton and Susan Rethorst. In
New York his credits include work at The Atlantic Theater Company, Lucille Lortel, HERE, The
Lambs, and Noemie LaFrance’s Noir for 2004 Whitney Biennial. Internationally, his work has
been seen in London, Amsterdam and Cairo. Upcoming projects include a new production of
Don Giovanni for Baltimore Lyric Opera and a radical re-imagining of The Rite of Spring to be
performed at Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts in May 2013. After several years of
running the scenic design program at UC Irvine, Luke now heads a new program in Design for
Performance at Pace University in New York City. Jmy James Kidd, (b. 1979, San Francisco) dancer, choreographer and costume designer works
out of her studio in Los Angeles, Pieter. She makes work in Los Angeles with Nick Duran as
NICK+JAMES. She has danced for Stanley Love Performance Group, luciana achugar, Nancy
Meehan, Sarah Michelson, Neil Greenberg, Walter Dundervill, The Mel Wong Dance Company
and apprenticed with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She has made work with
Elizabeth Ward, Amy Granat and Eleanor Hullihan. She is part of the trio MGM Grand, which
has been presented by Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Creative Time at Miami Art
Basel, The Kitchen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Theater Department, Pacific
Northwest College of Art, Highways and Pace Wildenstien as well as many private homes,
galleries, gardens and garages. Kidd designs dancer-wear for the stage, the studio, the street
and the domestic world. She makes dancer-wear and dance costumes under the label James
Kidd and designed for John Jasperse, Melanie Rios Glaser, Rebecca Bruno, Dawn Kasper,
Sarah Michelson, Neil Greenberg, Anna Sperber and Ben Asriel.
James F. Ingalls, Lighting Designer, has designed eleven concerts for The Wooden Floor since
1996. Recent projects include the Toni Morrison/Rokia Traore Desdemona for the Olympic
Arts Festival/Barbican Concert Hall and Oswaldo Golijov’s Aindamar at the Teatro Real/Madrid,
both directed by Peter Sellars; Onegin for American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera;
Jorma Elo’s Double Evil for Finnish National Ballet; Don Quixote, with scenery and costumes
designed by Martin Pakledinaz, for Helgi Tomasson/San Francisco Ballet; and The March for
Steppenwolf Theatre and Camino Real for the Goodman Theatre, both in Chicago.
Karinne Keithley Syers is an interdisciplinary artist working in performance, audio, video,
and paper. She collaborated as a performer and designer with Chris Yon, Sara Smith, David
Neumann, Young Jean Lee, Big Dance Theater, Sibyl Kempson, and many others, co-hosted
the Acousmatic Theater Hour on WFMU, co-founded two playwrights posses of revolutionary
verve and long-haul mutual succor (JOYCE CHO, Machiqq). She founded and co-edits the
53rd State Press, publisher of new writing for performance, and estimates she will finish her
Ph.D. in English by next year. Her show/museum Montgomery Park, or Opulence, won a 2011
Bessie Award. Her next project, [another tree dance], will premiere at the Chocolate Factory,
NYC, in fall 2013. She lives in Modjeska Canyon with her family, newly grown by one. Whenever
possible she works at The Wooden Floor, and is grateful that that has led to this current
collaboration with Melanie, Jmy, and Rebecca.
Rebecca Bruno is a dance-maker, movement facilitator, and bodywork practitioner. In the past
3 years she has had the pleasure to work with Jmy James Kidd, Jill Stein, Erin Beneze, Amanda
Furches, Rebecca Pappas, and Melanie Rios Glaser. Rebecca Bruno practices bodywork
drawing from Cranial Sacral Unwinding, Chakra balancing, Polarity Therapy and Massage.
Studies include IPSB of Culver City and The Life Energy Institute of Topanga. BA in dance
from UC San Diego and studies at The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance from ‘05-’06.
Rebecca is showing her newest work in the Pieter Summer series on August 18th.
ABOUT B!RDBRA!N
Emily Mast is a visual artist who makes performances and ephemeral installations that
incorporate bodies, movement, sound and idiosyncratic experience to exhibit uncertainty as
live sculptural material. At the heart of her practice is a distrust in the ideal of truth, which
manifests itself through collaborations in which the co-construction of knowledge is key. By
working with a diverse range of people in a very personal way, Emily aims to create new truths
through collective experience. For B!RDBRA!N Emily worked with a stuntman, a stutterer, a
sign-language interpreter, an actor, an auctioneer, a comedian and a child to investigate
and interrogate language as a prop onto which we project meaning, language that hides or
deflects meaning and all-out rebellion against words. In 2009 Emily presented a live looping
play called Everything, Nothing, Something, Always (Walla!) for Performa in New York. In 2010
she was part of a symposium at the Museum of Modern Art in New York examining the role of
the audience in contemporary performance art. Her work has been seen at Mains d’Oeuvres
in Paris, MUHKA in Antwerp, Samson Projects in Boston, and LACMA, REDCAT, the Velaslavasay
Panorama Theater, Human Resources, Steve Turner Contemporar, the Blackbox and 533 in
Los Angeles. Emily has an MFA from USC and has been an artist-in-residence at the Headlands,
Yaddo, Skowhegan, unitednationsplaza and the Vermont Studio Center. She was just awarded
a California Community Foundation (CCF) Fellowship for Visual Arts. She will be presenting an
Epilogue to B!RDBRA!N, along with a new series of works on paper, at Public Fiction in LA on
August 16th at 8 pm. For more information, please visit emilymast.com.
Christopher Kuhl is a lighting, scenic, and installation designer for new performance, theatre,
dance and opera. Recent work includes ABACUS. Early Morning Opera (Sundance Film
Festival, EMPAC, REDCAT); The Under Polaris. Cloud Eye Control (REDCAT, EXIT Festival Paris,
Fusebox Festival Austin); Watch her not know it now. Meg Wolfe (REDCAT); Author, Eclipsed
(Center Theatre Group); The Elephant Room. Rainpan 43 (Philly Live Arts, Arena Stage, St.
Anns Warehouse), John Cage Song Books (SF Symphony, Carnegie Hall); How to Completely
Disappear. Ovation Award (Boston Court Theatre). Chris has also had the pleasure of working
and making art at On the Boards, New York Live Arts, The Kennedy Center, The Walker, YBCA,
BAM, Jacob’s Pillow, LA Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Beijing Music Festival, Queer Zagreb, KVS
Belgium, and MAC France. In 2011 Chris was the recipient of the Sherwood, Drammy, Horton,
and Ovation Awards. Chris is originally from New Mexico and a graduate of CalArts.
Jake Viator is a sound artist/engineer based in Hollywood, CA. He has designed sound for film
and installations presented at LACMA, the Pasadena Museum of California Art and Steve Turner
Contemporary, and archived sound for organizations like CalArts, SASSAS and Pacific Standard
Time. He is the chief engineer and resident DJ for the non-profit internet radio station dublab.
com, and maintains a freelance recording/post-production business primarily servicing the
Los Angeles avant-garde.
Aramazd Stepanian moved to California for two reasons: to forget something unpleasant
and to make a million dollars so he could go and live somewhere else. He now plans to leave
as soon as he has paid his debts and remembers what it was he was trying to forget. He ran
for city council in Glendale, refused to raise funds for the election, chided the Homeowners
Association members for their greed and came in last.
Beau Ray was born and raised in southern Missouri and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a
career in film. He studied movement training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in
New York City. He is stage combat certified, and trained in jazz, ballroom, yoga, gymnastics
and martial arts. An avid parkour practitioner, Beau was suspended in elementary school for
hanging off of ceiling rafters.
Behee Batjargal AKA Beck Bat, originally from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, came to Los Angeles to
make it big as a stand-up comic… or, if that didn’t work, as a real estate property-flipper. A
member of the National Stutterers Association, he was approached last summer when Emily
was looking for a stutterer to perform at LACMA with KCHUNG radio. He later worked with
Emily on B!RDBRA!N for Pacific Standard Time. He occasionally wears his bird costume to bed.
Davie-Blue is an actress and writer. Some of her work with others have lit up screens at
Sundance, Cannes and SXSW. Davie-Blue studied acting at the London Dramatic Academy and
was recognized as a semi-finalist (top 10 in nation) by the English Speaking Union’s National
Shakespeare Competition. DB is excited to be working with Emily Mast and the huge-hearted
B!RDBRA!N cast. She lives with a small monkey named Roger and eats organic kale everyday.
Lisa Reynolds has been a performer for 15 years. She is also an NIC Certified ASL Interpreter
and works for FuturePerfect, a performance and technology initiative. This is her third time
working with Emily Mast, previously at Performa ’09 and at the Black Box this past winter. She
holds an MFA from Brooklyn College’s Performance and Interactive Media Arts program. She
will be a HMC Artist in Residency this August in Budapest, Hungary.
Robert Ingraham has over 24 years of auctioneering experience and is recognized as one
of the best in the industry for reputable service and sales achievements. Mr. Ingraham is
President of Robert Allen Auctions, specializing in inventory liquidations and charity auction
galas. He works with several local and national charities and sits on the board of Serve The
People, a long standing charity in Santa Ana. Robert lives in Mission Viejo with his wife and 3
daughters.
Talyan Wright is an 8 year old actress who has guest starred on popular television series,
been in feature films, national commercials, and theatrical plays. She is the guardian of a very
exceptional Pirate Bear named Sally and has a steady relationship with Peter Pan. She often
parades around in fine dresses calling herself Elizabeth and speaks in a British accent. Tea
parties and sword-fights are daily occurrences.
NOW FESTIVAL 2012 TECHNICAL STAFF
Technical Director: Bill Ballou
Assistant Technical Director: Eric Nolfo
Assistant Technical Director Sound/Video: Ian Burch
NOW Festival Coordinator: JaNelle Weatherford
Stage Manager: Christian Johnson
Lightboard Op: Tiffany Williams
Stage Crew: Kenny Valera, Matt Stroud and Israel Mondaca
Sound Crew: Pete Pace
Load-in Crew: Rolando Fernandez, Joe Wall and Bryce Hall
PARTY WITH US DURING NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL 2012. EACH THURSDAY POSTPERFORMANCE THE LOUNGE FEATURES DJ SETS BY DUBLAB!
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