Solo Performance | Performance Space New York

But, What’s It All About?

But, What's It All About?

Ole Mads Vevle is a controversial and award-winning artist working within the fields of art/performance/video/text and music. At the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, his short film, Love is the Law, was feted with not one but two awards during Critics Week. In But, What’s It All About? Vevle performs his own text accompanied by a video montage. A dialogue between a father and his son ensues. The son’s refrain of “But, what’s it all about?” elicits ever-more elaborate answers from his father. Vevle channels the language of the television, bombarding the audience with a continuous stream of information, mixing the high with the low, the comic and the tragic, the serious and nonsensical.

December 3 & 4, 2005

Part of PS122’s NORWAY Festival

From Dakota

Dakota Dakota

“…what’s on display here is tantalizing… and powerful in itself. And it augurs well for the mixed-genre performance forms in which Mr. Gantner seems to take a special interest.”
– John Rockwell, The New York Times

In an excerpt from the Shane Belles film Dakota, performer Colin Gee – a former principle clown for Cirque du Soleil – combines experiments in identity with deft physical characterization to recreate the film’s climactic scene as a riveting solo performance. The scene portrayed is the cathartic arrival of a father to negotiate the exchange of his abducted daughter from former associates, having failed all demands. Introduced by a video installation that provides narrative context and a synopsis of the film, from Dakota also features live vocal and electronic accompaniment from acclaimed composer Erin Gee.

PS122’s Sunday Afternoon Discovery takes back the talk-back and reinvigorates it with in-depth and engaging exchanges with the artists, from interactive lectures to full-on workshops.

On September 11, check your personality at the door and join Colin for “Transparent Portraits: Identity as a Function of Time Place and Learning,” free after the performance.

Click to read John Rockwell’s full review,
“A Movie’s Climactic Scene Reimagined for the Stage”(.pdf) in The New York Times.

September 7-11, 2005
Wednesday-Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
Sunday Afternoon Discovery:
September 11 5:30 p.m.
$20($10 Members)

The GoTour Road Show

Groundbreaking artist service organization The Field celebrates the first anniversary of its GoTour.org website with The GoTour Roadshow, a weekend-long multidisciplinary mini-festival of independent artists from across the country.The evening runs from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. with seatings at 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

Erin Lee &Marci (MUSIC – New York, NY)

Erin Lee &Marci are New York’s hippest, new singing duo for kids and their grown-ups.Playing acoustic guitars and various percussion instruments and singing in genres ranging from bluegrass to klezmer to ’50s rock ‘n’ roll Erin Lee &Marci will have the whole family on their feet and dancing!

Relative Truth (excerpt)
Jessica Hirst (SOLO PERFORMANCE – Washington, DC)

In Relative Truth Jessica Hirst begins to unpack the fantastical story of her grandmother’s late-in-life affair with a dashing and mysterious Frenchmen by the name of Pierre-Franz Chapou.

Il trionfo della fedelta (An excerpt from Maria Antonia’s 1754 opera)
The Maria Antonia Project/April Lynn James (MUSIC – New York, NY)

The Maria Antonia Project is dedicated to restoring music by historical women composers, especially opera, to the living repertory through performance, lectures, publications and recordings. It takes its name from Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony (1724-1780), a librettist and composer of two operas. Maria Antonia’s 1754 opera Il trionfo della fedelta takes place in Arcadia, that mythical paradise where love, peace and beauty reign.

The Dragons Project (excerpt)
Laura Schandelmeier and Stephen Clapp (DANCE/THEATER – Mt. Rainier, MD)

The Dragons Project asks “Who are the Dragons in the fairy tale of contemporary global culture?” Combining the ancient and mythical iconography of dragons with contemporary pop culture and counter-culture personifications of warriors, damsels and demons, The Dragons Project draws from mythologies and folk tales from across the globe.

Akosua Mireku (MUSIC – Oakland, CA)

Akosua Mireku is an Oakland, CA based Ghanaian-American singer-songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, flutist, and psychic healer. Akosua’s music is fusion of African Folk, American Folk, Jazz, and Latin rhythms.

8:30 p.m.

None of the Above (excerpt)
Jennifer Lanier (SOLO PERFORMANCE – Honokaa, HI)

None of the Above is a solo comic roller coaster about Jennifer’s struggles with identity (racial, gay-straight, gender) as a tail-end baby-boomer.

Spin
Kathy Dunn Hamrick (DANCE – Austin, TX)

Spin is an athletic quartet of perpetual motion, grace and shifting focal points, set to an original score by Austin musician Tim Kerr. Choreographed by award-winning Austin-based choreographer Kathy Dunn Hamrick with dancers Cherami Conley, Kathy Dunn Hamrick, Marlo Harris and Morgan Nutt.

Congregation (excerpt)
Julie Troost (MOVEMENT-THEATER – New York, NY)

Congregation tells the story of a family, God’s presence, and the beauty in death. Developed in collaboration with performers Courtney King and Camilla Maling.

The Shana and Mary Show
Mary-Elizabeth Holby &Shana David (MUSIC – Cambridge, MA and Jacksonville, FL)

Music, comedy and some lovely cake provided by Shana’s grandma.

9:30 p.m.

The Switch (MUSIC – New York, NY)

The Switch is a NYC-based band, combining electronic music with an infectious pop twist. The Switch strikes a delicate balance between computerized beats and the youthful freedom of pure rock ‘n roll energy. With Kai Altair (lead singer), Joe Pepitone (guitarist,keyboardist), Dan Onori (drummer) and Chris Loh (bassist).

Waking Down
Carrie Sargavakian (DANCE – Seattle, WA)

Waking Down is a duet moved by a restless 3am. Tangled in bed sheets hours past the chamomile tea sipping, the steamy bath taking, the sheep counting, and the soft piano music listening we find ourselves wide-eyed and heavy. Performed by Carrie Sargavakian and Katrine Behrend.

Parable
Lotta Lundgren (DANCE – Washington, DC)

Parable speaks of a man who tries to own women’s minds while letting prisoners of his war color their bodies with their own excrement. It speaks of a shape created by one, for all to fit into.

Three Greek Women (excerpt)
Thelos Theater Group (THEATER – Miami, FL)

Three Greek Women works from the classic Greek texts of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, intertwining the stories of Clytemnestra, Antigone and Medea to create a new story.

This Way That Way
Parallel Exit/Mark Lonergan (THEATER – New York, NY)

Inspired by the films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, This Way That Way is a silent live-action road movie that follows the story of two con men who meet in a train station and choose to travel across the country together.

July 8 &9, 2005
7:30 p.m.
$10

Taylor Mac’s “Young Ladies Of”

Schoolhouse Roxx presents Taylor Mac’s Young Ladies Of…

In Vietnam 1968, Texan born 2nd Lt. Robert Mac placed an ad asking “young ladies” to write him. Hundreds replied. Almost thirty years after Robert’s death, his son Taylor Mac manhandles these found texts into a show about war, romance, and fathers. Partially sung, the 80-minute solo performance contains original songs and text, along with the letters. By juxtaposing the images and circumstances of his father in Vietnam, with Taylor’s own screwball gender-bending visuals and New York lifestyle, the work bridges the gap between perceptions of masculinity and femininity, fathers and sons, and red and blue states.

Written and Performed by Taylor Mac
Directed by Tracy Trevett

June 2 – 4, 2005
9pm
$12