thesbian pulp

I have a website!

2009-06-11T15:53:00.001-07:00

Yoga Thugs 3

2009-03-27T08:35:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svir-Z5xix0

CoMotion

2009-03-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

http://blessedunrest.org/whatson.phtml#comotion

CoMotion

Saturday April 25 at 8:00
Sunday April 26 at 2:00 and 7:30

Frederick Loewe Theatre
New York University
35 West 4th Street
(between Washington Square East and Greene Street)

Two worlds collide as Blessed Unrest and the New York University Percussion Ensemble combine classical percussion and physical theatre. This explosive show is Blessed Unrest's second percussive theatre collaboration with NYU, following our sold-out run last year.

Music and Text by
John Cage, Thierry De Mey, Phillip Glass, Manfred Menke, Matt Opatrny, Emmanuel Séjourné, and Sam Shepard

Director Anna Kepe
Musical Director Jonathan Haas
Dramaturg Matt Opatrny
Stage Manager Jaimie Van Dyke
Lighting Design Benjamin C. Tevelow

Actors
Davina Cohen, Jason Griffin, Eliza Lay, Koji Ohashi, Margaret Perkins, and Hannah Wilson

Ticket info coming soon!

stay tuned...

2009-03-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

updates on

blessed unrest/nyu experimental perucssion ensemble collaboration @ NYU - April 25 and 26

I'll Crane For You adaptation performances at the nEW Festival (Philadelphia) and FURY Factory (San Francisco) - June 3-4 and 23-24

new yoga teaching schedule

and

random musings

with blogging love,
D

24 degree weather

2009-02-20T04:24:00.001-08:00

There is an irritating Dentyne ad on the weather.com that says:

"It's 24 degrees and sunny in New York City! Perfect weather to make some face time."

and it features a photo of two people in spring/summer garb sucking face in the grass

There is absolutely nothing perfect about 24 degree weather in NYC. Ice climbing, reindeer spotting, skiing, and glacier watching (or glacier-melt watching as the case may be) are among the handful of activities I can think of that are actually enhanced by 24 degree weather.

Commuting by bicycle in Manhattan is not among them. I know, I know, it's been colder this winter by far; but I was so spoiled by yesterday.

brr.

finally, an update!

2009-02-15T01:27:00.000-08:00

I'm in London. Yep, London again. And plans may be in the works for me to return in the spring and perform my adaptation of I'LL CRANE FOR YOU. Funding and scheduling permitting, of course, which they very may well not do...but I've got my fingers crossed for this possibility!

When I return to New York I'll enter rehearsals for CoMotion, a collaboration between Blessed Unrest and the NYU Percussion Ensemble, which performs at NYU on April 25 and 26.

I'm also looking for a new home (not my actual home, that is) in which to practice and refine my CRANE adaptation.

Currently scheduled CRANE performances:

nEW Festival in Philadelphia - June 3-4
FURY Factory in San Francisco - June exact dates TBD
The Society of Dance History Scholars Conference @ Stanford University - exact dates TBD

I'm in London on my way back from Paris, where I met with Mathilde Monnier, spent several joyous days in the company of my fantastic friend Ben Evans, and fell in love with the Velib' system and the Mariage Freres tea house.

I also saw a delightful, hilarious performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObMC2dxvAI0

(this is the "family friendly" version)

In London I've had the pleasure of seeing the most recentComplicite show, my friend and fellow CRANE-r Genevieve Grady's performance at the Resolution! festival at the Place, and a great storytelling/monologue performance by the inspiring Jerome Bel.

I'm on my way out the door shortly to meet my friends Cloo and Guy and their lil' bebe for brunch before checking out a new (to me, anyway) yoga studio in Notting Hill and then meeting my friend Peter to see The Cholmondeleys and the Featherstonehaughs

http://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/cgi-bin/page.pl?l=1227791136

at the Riverside Studios theatre.

Tomorrow I'm CRANE-ing and, well, planing as I head back to NY and hit the ground running (hopefully, without actually hitting the ground myself at any point without deliberately intending to do so). Rehearsals, Rachel's in town from California, finding a new space in which to practice CRANE-ing, preparing to go to Philadelphia, starting to teach a new class.

I will post the details for the class in a separate blog entry. Please join us and send your friends!

a bientot,
D

Duncan

2009-01-03T19:51:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking more and more about my Duncan years and I came across this very cool, inspiring video on youtube:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ct9m4TwXVwQ&feature=related

I can't figure out how to embed the video in my blog.

hmm.

Anyway, watch it - it's gorgeous.

I see myself inviting being seen while seeing

2009-01-02T14:52:00.001-08:00

watch this!

2008-11-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

1) Layard Thompson talking about the solo commissioning project adaptation process

http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=253B82FE01E311DD86FB000423CF385C&type=

2) Katie Duck talking (about what, precisely, I cannot say because my internet connection is too unsteady to permit me to watch beyond the first minute and a half, but I know it has something to do with posting material on the internet - the interview is on dance-tech.net so it probably has something to do with dance and media/technology)

http://www.jumpcut.com/view/?id=F9E7BCCE006D11DDB072000423CF385C

I just took a short workshop with Katie at Movement Research. It was fantastic and entirely too brief.

Among the things I'm contemplating are:

*nobody gives a shit about you making art, what they care about is you creating the space for art to happen

*it's never your turn ---> this, it seems to me, speaks to the crux of what CAN be interesting in the viewpoints (it's never your turn, or, perhaps put another way, it's always your turn to support what is really happening)

Katie talked quite a bit in the workshop about seeing and hearing. And how the seeing and hearing is great for the first maybe 10 seconds that we enter the stage, but then immediately, we look for a place to go, a thing to do, we carve out the space and essentially cut off our aural and visual fields. Pretty cool stuff.

I have been so remiss!

2008-11-16T13:26:00.001-08:00

in updating my blog, but a reminder that people whom I don't see on a regular basis actually read this thing has prompted me to add a new entry.

EVERYONE DIES...RIGHT? has come and gone.
It was a free performance on the 11th at the SITI Company studios created by and featuring:

Heather Acs, Amanda Capobianco, Davina Cohen, Alisa Matlovsky, Tina Mitchell, Jeremy Pickard, Evan Prizant, Maya Ray-Schoenfeld, and Sophia Remolde

sound design and live performance by: Christian Frederickson

stage management: Stephanie Pistello

direction and dramaturgy: J. Ed Araiza

***

My SEE buddy Adam Brock, who's pursuing his MFA in the Brooklyn College Performance and Interactive Media program videotaped the performance. I'm looking forward to watching it in full.

***

Sophia and I getting back into the swing of things with FINDING OM (aka the SIDDHARTHA thing). And I'm CRANING more.

I'm also gearing up for a workshop with Katie Duck later this week. And I've been reading the work of Irene Dowd and incorporating my understanding of it into the way I discuss alignment with my yoga students. Dowd teaches a drop-in class through Movement Research and I'm looking forward to attending it now that fall training is done.

I'm on hiatus from teaching public classes for the moment, but I'm assisting Julie Dohrman this Tuesday evening at Virayoga (www.virayoga.com) and should be teaching my own classes again soon, so stay tuned.

Jill Bolte Taylor TED Talk

2008-10-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

?

It's Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain researcher, talking about her own experience of having a stroke. Leon Ingulsrud from the SITI Company forwarded this to me and others in conversation about making (aesthetic) choices and coexistence with people/architecture/sounds in space/time.

I hope you enjoy it.

I'LL CRANE FOR YOU, meet Viewpoints; Viewpoints, I'LL CRANE FOR YOU

2008-10-08T04:56:00.002-07:00

I am not sure what I want to say about this meeting yet. I mean, clearly they've met before - their dialogue, or at least the dialogue between the practice of performance and the Viewpoints started a long, long time ago (in the universe at large and in my own body).

But now that I'm back in training with the SITI company, the dialogue is especially energetic.

The questions are SO alive.

"When I see you, I see you doing what I'm doing." - D Hay

"Try to do more writing when you are reading and more reading when you are writing." - B O'Hanlon

photos of our final day in the Universal Hall, Findhorn, 2008

Verdensteatret

2008-09-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

This afternoon my mother and I saw this rather remarkable performance by a Norwegian company called Verdensteatret. I don't really want to describe it, but I do want to say:

it was quite mysterious, defying most sense-and-narrative-making while engaging the senses in a deep and inescapable way.

I dug it a lot.

practicing with achilles tendonitis

2008-09-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

My cycling adventure the other day has ... blessed? me with my first - and hopefully only - experience of achilles tendonitis. I probably raised my saddle a little too high and overtaxed my achilles over the course of the long ride. I'm being as generous and kind to my achilles as I know how to be and it will, in turn, hopefully heal swiftly and without too much difficulty.

While walking is a bit of a pain, practicing I'LL CRANE FOR YOU with this new limitation is actually a gift in disguise. It has helped me to discover that practicing in the living room is a secret treasure. I initially found the smaller space troublesome after the expansiveness of the Universal Hall; but now I realize that the living room is more than enough.

Less is more, not less.

on practicing

2008-09-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

Practicing continues and one of my fantastic patrons has offered me studio space one day a week! Hooray! Plus I've been moving furniture around to make more room in the living room. And next week I start training again with SITI so hopefully I'll be able to get in a practice session before we train every morning.

In other news, in case you were wondering: a sheep-poop covered mountain top in Yorkshire with freezing winds and sweaty hikers all around you is NOT a great place to practice the dance. Glad I figured that one out.

I thought practicing outside would be really liberating, but I can't say that it has been the joyous experience I anticipated, especially when I had to watch out for uneven surfaces and animal feces. But then again, it's a mistake to think that this whole enterprise is about joyous experiences.

my body likes rest and play

2008-09-21T06:09:00.000-07:00

I've finished reading Deborah's My Body, the Buddhist (gorgeous text - go and read it immediately) and I am taking my inspiration from her chapter titles.

I've worked out suitable places to practice for about three of the five hours of practice per week - still looking for more options that are not the living room or a concrete-floored and/or outdoor and/or public place.

Meanwhile, today I am stretching my body - particularly my right leg - back to a state of ease and calm after completing my longest single-day bike ride yesterday. Somewhere around 112-114 miles, give or take (not sure how long my detour was). It was an ambitious undertaking after being off the bike for the full duration of my trip to the UK. I was moving like molasses by the end - lots of achilles pain, which makes me think I may have had my saddle too high - but I did it. And then I hopped - filthy and aching - on the 1 train to ease my way home.

I found some journal entries from Scotland and England that I meant to post to the blog. I'll take care of that later.

a photo from Findhorn

2008-09-16T01:49:00.000-07:00

Karl, our man in Findhorn, showing us the ice age landfill (at least, that's what I think is happening here) during our lovely walk on the beach

transit

2008-09-15T20:37:00.001-07:00

on the plane at Heathrow, feeling contemplative

in the bath, feeling at home

I am river

2008-09-15T06:38:00.001-07:00

"I am river" - that's what it says on the front of the card I bought from The Phoenix Shop at the Findhorn community ecopark.

I've been meaning to excerpt parts of a letter to my friend I wrote inside the card for over a week now, but I just haven't spent enough time in front of the computer to do so.

I am soon to depart for New York - 6:30 pm flight from Heathrow - and before I do, I'll take a moment to type some of the contents of the letter into my blog.

I wrote it on September 6 on the train from Forres to Kyle of Lochalsh.

***

My train has just pulled into Strathcarron Station and "Third Self-Portrait Series" from Music for Egon Schiele (an album by the fantastic Rachel's) has just come on my iPod. When I look up from this card I see something close to perfection. Sheep. Shrubs. Pine trees. Rock face. Little pools of clear water. Adorable country houses. No, it is perfection. It's the real deal.

Sitting on the table next to the Lonely Planet guide I borrowed from my friend and dancing cohort Rebecca is Deborah Hay's MY BODY THE BUDDHIST.

I want to share some of the questions that are - from Deborah - shaping (or maybe "unshaping") my dancing right now. But first! Just to let you know, Stephin Merritt and his ukulele have taken over since I started writing, then passed the musical torch to Rhianna, and now, in hardly any time at all, "Water From the Same Source" has taken command and I'm less than 100 feet away from a beautiful loch or river.

WHAT IF "What if where I am is what I need" is not an examination of what I need but an examination of the question "What if where I am is what I need?" What if less is more not less?

WHAT IF my choice to surrender the pattern of fixing on a singularly coherent idea, feeling, or object when I am dancing is a way of remembering to see where I am in order to surrender where I am?

with love from the Scottish Highlands,
Davi

I am river.
I see the sea
as I flow
and know
to where
my heart belongs

(a card picturing the River Findhorn)

there is, as usual, much blogging to be done

2008-09-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

and I'm not going to do it now.

I will, however, post this lovely photo taken at Offline - my friend Mike's gig night in Brixton - last Thursday.

Back to NY tomorrow.

I'm definitely ready - my body is ready to be back in NY, but I've also just met a whole wonderful slew of people out here whom I'm only just getting to know. And Val will be out here in a few weeks. And I love living in Caspar's flat.

I love it so much that I'm nearly falling asleep as I type this entry from the sofa. When I used to come to London in the late 90s and early 00s it was routine for me to see the sunrise on a Sunday morning. Not so much anyore. Except last night. One side of Southwark bridge was the moon, the other side the pulpy, settling juicy sunset.

On that note, (in)coherent as it may be, we sleep

on the train again

2008-09-11T06:38:00.001-07:00

There is much blog updating to be done. I'm on a train from Leeds to London right now. I've been hiking (and successfully hitchiking! Pretend you didn't read that, mom!) on the Isle of Skye and in the Yorkshire Dales, driving through the highlands and spotting Scottish children's television celebrities (well, okay, one celebrity), listening to music in Leeds, dancing in the rain in the Glasgow Botanic Garden, and skinny dipping at midnight in a swimming pool in Ingleton.

I have some writing from my journal that I'll put up here when I have the inclination.

I hope the postcards have reached their destinations.

This afternoon I'm meeting my friend Caspar to check out his baby brain lab at Birkbeck College and this evening I'll be in Brixton at a fun, free music event organized by my friend Mike. A friend I met in Brazil who now lives in Amsterdam should be in London this evening too - it's going to be a pretty packed day!

x

and...

2008-09-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

I just read Bondo's blog, which is kinda crazy since he's sitting about 5 1/2 feet away from me, but I was reminded today of Anne B's (that's Bogart, not Annie-B Parson [just in case you were going there for some reason]) description of what she wants from going to the theater vis a vis going to the movies.

If I were super on the ball I'd quote her directly, but it basically amounts to wanting to sit back and have it all come to her in the movies and to lean forward in her seat and meet the work/enter into it in the theater (that's my take on it, anyway).

And I was thinking this morning about the difference between mystery and befuddlement.

There's mystery, which Deborah implores us to cultivate and which enables an audience member to lean forward and engage - meet the work and behold the infinite possibilities. And makes it possible - indeed inevitable - that one audience member's perception will be different from the perception of another's. And then there's linearity, which often demands that the audience think or feel a certain way. And then there's utter and incessant confusion and/or overanalysis - the state of the audience being caught up in trying to figure out what's going on and just going, "What is this? I can't find a way in!"

and with that, I am off to make dinner or walk on the beach or figure out where on the Isle of Skye I will go in a couple of days.

So, yep, Skye's where I'm headed before I return to London.

something else

2008-09-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

We often practice as a group without doing I'LL CRANE FOR YOU - just practicing with the questions, practicing performing...just effin' dancing.

And those times are SO joyous and explosive and amazing and FUN.

And I said to myself and to Deborah today: "Why doesn't my solo feel like this? Just even a few moments of the incredible possibility and freedom of the group practice with music in my solo would make it so much more fun?"

Do you know what she said?

"It's No Big Deal. Remember that. In your practice in particular I think this will prove very helpful to you."

In a matter of just a few days I went from practicing and learning and noticing the feedback all around me to practicing and learning and noticing and judging, which I think is premature. Maybe inevitable. And maybe where you ultimately want to go when the adaptation comes into play.

But Deborah pointed out to me that she's been doing this work for 38 years. I've been doing it for 8 days.

smiles,
D

today

2008-09-04T10:19:00.001-07:00

In the interest of surrendering the pattern of facing a single direction and also just because I can't really be arsed, as they say, to construct a more coherent piece of prose, I am not going to write this entry in a linear fashion. But, of course, just by saying that, I've already started creating a cogent and repeatable line in the space that is the internet. But if you change your perception of it as you're reading this, you'll realize that within the writing there are many, many non-linear possibilities as well.

Anyhow.

Conversation turned to some refining and, appropriately, blurrying of the details of the actual shape of I'LL CRANE FOR YOU. Which parts of the score in terms of spatial relationship are fixed, which are being removed, which are entirely open to the performer.

Deborah also mentioned something like: remember that nothing is repeatable and everything is actually new. When you're performing rep, I presume, or, in my experience, an 8 show week, this perception of novelty is essential - this recognition that, in fact, despite superficial appearances or your best efforts as a performer to stick to the choreography established, what you do in today's performance is not and cannot possibly be the same as what you did in yesterday's (and that's to say nothing of anyone else who may be involved!).

It's astonishing to me how easily one can forget to perceive the newness when faced with the burden of needing to create something new. And so much of this work is about surrender, but not, to quote one of my cohorts, "a kind of beatific surrender" - more like, to quote another, "a submission". A maintenance of tension while at the same time letting go - noticing and letting go. The practice of presence and performance, not the practice of physical virtuosity or making up songs or stories or entertaining an audience (though, certainly, all of those things may be involved).

The simplest things can be so hard.

I am quoting what I wrote in my notebook based on what Deborah said here:

living and dying at once ---> aha nada

seeing

2008-09-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

My friend and yoga teacher sent me this tidbit in an email:

"I am not showing anybody anything, I am inviting being seen in the practice of performance.

What if how I am seeing changes me? ---> This is something of great interest. In attempting to expand my visual field and to see on a 'cellular level' I have come to think about seeing as something that engages and encompasses all the senses. If every cell of my body is involved in the act of seeing, than the act of seeing involves all the functions of my body."

(the above is taken from my blog and below from her email)

"BKS Iyengar talks about this alot - in reference to our ability to use our senses stronger, better. It's what John simply calls "sensitivity" within Opening to Grace.
Iyengar says "develop eyes in each of the cells of your body, so when you turn inward on this Journey (he always capitalizes it), you have millions if not trillions of eyes
from which to work".

workplaytimespace continues

2008-09-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've performed the solo as a solo three times now. Deborah does such an amazing job of, among other things, easing us into what it will be like for the next few months of practicing. We will not be in beautiful Findhorn, we will not have the group - "the lab" - to inspire and support us, we will have all the responsibilities and inspirations and fatigue and dimensions of the rest of our lives. And chiefly we will have ourselves - alone - in a studio/apartment/park/abandoned parking lot/etc and the choreography and the questions.

I had a big "aha!" today, which manifested itself variously in the forms of joy and freedom and a feeling that I'd figured something out, only to discover, of course, that I hadn't and was boring myself and was working so hard at seeing that I could barely see what I was doing at all.

This paradox a good thing, I think.

It was a day of frustration and exhaustion for many, concluded with an absolutely transcendent and hilarious performance by one member of our group. She couldn't escape her own critical eye, but she really shifted the cloud - a beautiful, billowing, magnificent cloud, but a cloud nonetheless - that had descended upon me.

***

Last night we went for a walk through the dunes and onto the beach. Karl, an utterly lovely man whose organization Bodysurf coordinates our work here, showed us an area that had been essentially an Ice Age landfill/garbage dump. It's also the spot where local youth presently go to party and so it's littered anew with bits of broken beer bottles. Of course, many are saddened by the debris, but others hold the view that it's simply a continuation of a human utilization of the land that began 12,000 years ago.

The sand felt like marbles ground and melted into a cool, dense foam. Sensational experience to walk in it. I went for a dip in the glorious ocean as well - very refreshing (and made the subsequent hot tub soak that much more enjoyable).

We went to one of the pubs in the village of Findhorn for some tasty food and I sampled the local whisky, Benromach (a single malt made in Forres). It was mild and smooth.

I'm meeting with my Dutch and Luxembourgish (?) cohorts this evening to sing for a while before we surrender to the temptation of the hot tub once more.

I have more to say about the work with Deborah, but it'll have to wait!

SPCP - Findhorn update

2008-08-31T15:26:00.001-07:00

I'm in Findhorn, Scotland. It's gorgeous. Just to give you a little idea:

This is the Universal Hall (our "lab" where we practice every day).

There is heather all over the place. Little purple bubbles dot the landscape.

This is what I saw when I went running through the sand dunes and got terrifically lost on my first day here. Sand dunes next to forest next to more forest and more forest.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, Banquo, "how far is't called to Forres?" Not too far, about 6-8 miles, in fact.

oh, and this is me in London before all this stuff began

Although I'm here - and grateful for the generosity that has made that possible - I'd love to hear from those of you who are receiving this email who didn't contribute financially if you're still interested in contributing (a number of you asked for pesky reminders). If you have already contributed or you're not in a place to do so, please know that this email is NOT a plea for financial help. I am not in some sort of pound/dollar-induced spending crisis or anything like that. Read on to discover why I'm uncouthly asking again:

I've come to discover that the patrons who underwrite this commission function in a really important symbolic way (so, in other words, a totally symbolic $1 would be great, also in kind donations such as studio space usage or bodywork or something else you think might be relevant). Every day when I go into the lab to practice now - and for the months of daily practice to come - I go there with the support of each of the people who contributed to my getting here. Of course, I know regardless of the financial aspect of things, that I have your support as an artist and friend; but it would mean a great deal to me to be able to put your name on the document that I and 19 other dancers will present each and every time this solo is performed. That's really what it comes down to in the end. An amazing record of the people who enthusiastically say, "Yes!" to new and different ways of making art. And "yes!" to the particular artists involved.

Deborah is changing certain aspects of the project. In years past, the contract signed by the commissioners/adapters of this new work required 3 months of daily practice before any public performance. But Deborah has become more adamant about the collaborative/adaptive aspects of this project. In other words, she now insists that each adapter truly adapt the work by creating their own frame - simply practicing and performing the choreography is not enough. In her words:

"I can recognize my choreography when I see a dancer's self-regulated transcendence of her choreographed body within a sequence of movements/images [*] that describes a particular dance."

*NB: I have heard her say it using both of these words

In other words, we - as the adaptors - must edit, add film/costumes/set/music/whatever we need to have a dialog with the work and step up to meet it.

So the terms of the contract may be different this year (it's the 10th year of the project). We began our discussion of these possible changes yesterday - it was quite an interesting conversation, with a lot of different perspectives and experiences of contracts and what they represent among the group.

***

The work itself.

Where to begin.

I guess I will begin with a couple of the questions.

The questions go like this:

What if every one of the cells in my body can get what it needs in the lab while surrendering the pattern of facing in a single direction?

What if where I am is what I need is not an examination of what I need but an examination of the question "What if where I am is what I need?" What if less is more is not less?

What if the depth of the question is on its surface?

We are working with a written choreographic score - I'LL CRANE FOR YOU - and we practice performance with these - and other - questions and ideas to guide us - without the shape of that score and within the shape of that score. Sometimes we practice as a group - the whole group or smaller groups - sometimes and increasingly more right now as the solos they will eventually become.

So, in the micro sense, nothing is fixed. The description of things is set, but the experience and manifestation of them are not.

Aspects of this have made me think of wanting to ask a playwright to write a choreographic score for me and then for me to practice - in this way - with that score. And, of course, they've made me think about Chuck Mee and the physical scores he has written.

Here are some other thoughts:

I am not showing anybody anything, I am inviting being seen in the practice of performance.

What if how I am seeing changes me? ---> This is something of great interest. In attempting to expand my visual field and to see on a 'cellular level' I have come to think about seeing as something that engages and encompasses all the senses. If every cell of my body is involved in the act of seeing, than the act of seeing involves all the functions of my body.

I'm sure those of you who practice the Viewpoints can chew on that for a while. :)

This is all a lot of fun as well as being impossible. At the end of each day I need a little while to unwind (or maybe re-collect) myself, but then I really do feel incredibly alert and alive and engaged.

Thankfully, we've also got a hottub and in an hour, an apparently decadent Sunday brunch prepared entirely by kids, mostly under the age of 10 (child labor, you ask? No, evidently they love it and it's a community tradition to have the kids prepare brunch). [I wrote this post much earlier today]

So, in conclusion (of this email, if nothing more): thank you all for being who you are and reading/watching/listening/dancing along with me.

If you are a patron of the dance and I do not have your postal address, please send it to me so I can send you a postcard!

If you would like to underwrite the commission, please pledge via email or visit The Field at http://www.thefield.org/t-sponsoranartist.aspx. If you are donating in kind, please give an approximate monetary value to the donation.

For everyone concerned, the amounts will not be made public. Independent Dance, the producing body of this enterprise, does ask that I provide a breakdown of the patronage.

Love,
D

woe is my tardy blogging! (Edinburgh Day 6 update and Day 7)

2008-08-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

So, after seeing the Dorian Gray, I went to the "Russian Riviera" themed Gilded Balloon Loft Bar to dance for several hours to the swing/hip-hop/drum 'n bass stylings of this duo:

The Correspondents

My first encounter with the two lovely chaps behind the irresistibly dance-inducing music was at a place called "Proud" in Camden. When my friend Dean suggested that we meet there I thought, "Wow! That sounds like a really horrible gay bar!" but it turned out to be much better than that (can you believe it? there are things, indeed, much, much, much better than that). It's a little gallery/gig space attached to a bar in a beautiful, converted stable. The stalls are still in tact, the ironwork is polished, everything is pristine (this is perhaps principally attributable to the newness of the place). I even danced barefoot! In a bar!

When I discovered that The Correspondents would be in Edinburgh during my sojourn there I knew I had to go to their gig. The bar in Edinburgh was a little strange - apparently a 'members only' place, though all I had to do to pretend membership was utter the name of the band (a secret password devised by someone really unimaginative?).

I didn't manage to get anyone to dance with me in a way that involved bodily contact...though I did enjoy a lot of shared space.

Speaking of dancing, bodily contact, and shared space - I am now in Findhorn and have just completed the third day of work with Deborah Hay. I will endeavor to write something intelligible about it later tonight.

Okay, on to Edinburgh Day 7.

My final day in Edinburgh I saw the remaining Czech companies at the festival and something really special that called into question for me the whole nature of what constitutes a performance.

Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre's WHEELS OF LIFE - an extraordinary array of mechanical creations accompanied by lights and music (Russian and Jewish folk songs and classical music) - creating a 'mechanical ballet' without any visible human involvement. The audience sits with binoculars to see the details of the machines. It's eerie and beautiful. There's no story, per se, though there are things like vignettes within each contraption. Each one is intensely personal for the artist, connected to a dimension of Russian and post-Soviet history (and the artist's specific experiences). The work has never - to my knowledge - toured to the States, where it would surely be of great interest to many.

Later that day I saw THE WEEPERS. ... (that ellipse is all I need to say about that performance) and then POLARIS, a stunning duet. Performed without words - though with a terrific auralscape - by two enchanting Czech actors, it's a story about two explorers stranded in the North Pole. The actors transform into seagulls, penguins, fish, glaciers - the entire environment in which these men are marooned. They relied extensively on blackouts - too much for my taste (hello! I can see you anyway!); but they had so won me over with their adroitness and heart that I forgave the uninspired use of blackouts by the end.

Now I'm in Findhorn at the end of my fourth day of work with Deborah Hay and a lovely group of 19 other dancers. I will endeavor to write something intelligible about our work in the coming days.

x

Edinburgh day 6 (dance day)

2008-08-24T07:27:00.001-07:00

1) HOLDIN' FAST -

http://www.dot504.cz

gorgeous dance performance inspired by Milan Kundera's THE INCREDIBLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

I loved every second of it.

Coming up tonight - Matthew Bourne's DORIAN GRAY

Edinburgh Day 5 - 2 for 2!

2008-08-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Fringe forage yielded most nutritious fruits!

1) LILLY THROUGH THE DARK - http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=54661974

First I cried because their skills were so inspiring. Then I laughed and cried because the story was so moving. Then I cried some more because these things became inseparable and that's what makes art. Utterly beautiful. I chatted with them after the show. They should come to NY and CA and meet the fools(Furyans).

2) PHANTOMYSTERIA - http://novy.tnf.cz/wwwroot/?M=Repertoir/Phantomysteria&lang=en

Within the first 45 seconds of the performance - well, even that's debatable...when, exactly, the extraordinary site-specific piece 'begins' is hard to say - a man sets himself on fire. That's a very auspicious start, I'd say. Frank Zappa, ice skating on gravel, explosions. Immense and vivid meta-narrative. Endlessly fascinating and often elusive (to me, anyhow) moment-to-moment work.

Wow.

FYI - some writing from Deborah Hay

2008-08-23T06:17:00.001-07:00

I have cut and paste this essay from Deborah Hay's website (www.deborahhay.com). All words to follow are hers, not mine.

How do I recognize my choreography?

The Solo Performance Commissioning Project began in 1998 at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, in the town of Langley, WA. It took place for ten days annually for five summers before it was relocated to the Findhorn Foundation Community in Scotland in 2004 where it has since been administered by Gill Clarke and staff from Independent Dance in London and by Karl Jay-Lewin of Bodysurf Scotland, at Findhorn.

Of the eight SPCPs that have taken place, about 140 solo adaptations have been realized. I have been an audience member at only a few public performances. It is at these public showings, however, that I am coming to learn what
xxxxChoreography: Deborah Hay
xxxxAdaptation and Performance: [example: Lindsay Doe]
means. This is how the credits appear when an adaptation is being performed.

What I mean by my choreography includes the transmission from me to the dancer, of the same set of questions I ask myself when I am performing a particular movement sequence that ministers shape to a dance. I will not talk about my movement choices here, except to say that as an aspect of my choreography they fall almost exclusively into three categories: 1) impossible to realize, 2) embarrassing to “do”, or, idiotic to contemplate, 3) maddeningly simple. These movement directions are not unlike my questions that are 1) unanswerable, 2) impossible to truly comprehend, and, at the same time, 3) poignantly immediate.

History choreographs all of us, including dancers. The choreographed body dominates most dancing, for better or for worse. The questions that guide me through a dance are like the tools one would use for renovating an already existing house. Like a screwdriver being turned counter-clockwise, or a crow bar prying boards free from a wall, the dancer applies the questions to re-choreograph his/her perceived relationship to him/herself, the audience, space, time, and the instantaneous awareness of any of these combined experiences. The questions help uproot behavior that gathers experimentally and/or experientially.

When I see a singularly coherent choreographed body, performing a solo adaptation, I know that the dancer is not choosing to exercise the re-measuring tools needed to counter-choreograph the predominance of learned behavior. I use the words “choosing to exercise” because most of us know exactly what is required when we choose to train the physical body to adapt to a choreographer’s aesthetics. Training oneself in a questioning process that counter-choreographs the learned body requires similar devotion and constancy.

Every dancer who learns one of my solo dances, signs a contract, committing to a minimum three months of practice before the first public performance of his/her solo adaptation. Three months is not an estimate. It is based on my experience with new material. In order to recognize all the ways I hold onto ideas, images, suppositions, beliefs, the ways my body attaches to what I think the material ‘is’, or should feel like, or look, I need to be alone in a studio, noticing the infinitely momentary feedback that arises from my daily performance of a reliable sequence of movement directions, influenced by the immediacy arising from the same questions day after day after day.

I recognize my choreography when I see a dancer’s self-regulated transcendence of his/her choreographed body within in a movement sequence that distinguishes one dance from another.

Edinburgh days 2, 3, and 4

2008-08-22T16:33:00.001-07:00

I'm still aghast at the gorgeousness of this city, my enthusiasm remarkably untempered by the persistent cold and rain. (think, um, mid March in NY, maybe?)

Wednesdays festival offerings:

1) KRAPP'S LAST TAPE - one of my favorite Beckett texts, performed in a very inspiring and moving way by Peter Dineen. Dineen is a very accomplished Irish actor and I had the pleasure of chatting with him for a little while after the performance. He may be headed for NY in the not-too-distant future.

2) THE ALUMINUM SHOW

Thursday:

Carpetbag Brigade's YOU DON'T KNOW JACK

Friday:

1) Fishmable's FORGOTTEN - awesome performance of a very touching series of stories handled quite artfully

http://www.fishamble.com/productions/forgotten.html

2) RUHE (not in the Fringe, but in the Edinburgh International Festival) - what a mysterious thing. It's a performance that counterposes Schubert songs, sung immaculately by a 12-member male choir, with testimony taken in the 1960s from two Dutch nationals who voluntarily joined Nazi ranks during World War II.

That's all rather straightforward - the music is beautiful and adeptly performed. The testimony is obscure and compelling, the subjects peculiar in their apparent lack of remorse.

The real mystery is the aesthetic project of the piece itself. What the heck are they doing? Structurally, it's incredibly simple. There is little relationship between the actors - who are both convincing and very connected to the audience (though I had trouble hearing the first one and they're both mic-ed, which disappointed me a little and led to some strange variations in volume) - and the singers. There is little direct relationship between the songs and the monologues. It all feels rather informal - the audience and the singers are seated in a kind of circular arrangement in mismatched chairs - as if we're at a meeting in a community hall. Which, in a sense, we are because what we're watching is distinctly not theatrical. At least the event that we're all there ostensibly to see is not theatrical on the surface of things. But there's an awful lot of stuff going on outside and underneath (quite literally, since the singers stand on chairs when they're on) the singing and the monologuing that's just as engaging and just as much a part of what's happening - if not more. You cannot help watching your fellow audience members shift and squirm and nod off and look at their watches and mouth along with the Schubert and stare and crinkle their brows.

I can't say that I enjoyed the performance much end, but it certainly made me think and induced a certain eagerness to discuss it with others (and so I chatted for quite a while with a venue steward who had seen it). And it raises questions for me about art and performance and what is required for those things to be made. And what I expect when I go to a big international arts festival. And, like, what the heck those dudes were wearing (some of them plaid workshirts, some of them trendy hoodies, some of them crisp collared shirts) - clearly, costume design was not an aesthetic priority in the making of this production.

***

In other news, I love the Edinburgh Leisure Council's Commonwealth Pool Gym. That's where I work out and practice the beginning bits of the D Hay solo every day. It looks like this:

The pool (and, I assume, accompanying fitness center) was built in 1967. I don't think they've changed much of anything since then.

Edinburgh Day 1

2008-08-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh is a breathtaking city. Up there with Quito, Cape Town, Rio, San Fran (and, really, SF proper pales in comparison with the others) in terms of verdant lushness combined with actual urbanity. Even though the city is choked with people right now, it feels spacious.

I took the train from London this morning on very little sleep so I'll keep this update brief.

As well as walking all over the place, I saw:

1) Fall @ the Traverse Theatre (on which I will, at least for now, reserve comment)
2) the fantastic Shazia Mirza at the Baby Grand venue at the Pleasance Courtyard (not to be confused with the Pleasance Dome, which I keep wanting to call the "Pleasure Dome").

another little update

2008-08-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

My first residency at The Field's fantastic FARSpace has almost come to an end.

I am so grateful to have been able to call the beautiful studio my home for the last several months.

Yogurt and Jam - my drop-in, weekly, all-levels yoga class for artists was a terrific experience. Thank you all so much for diving with such energy into your practice and helping me to cultivate my teaching skills in such a supportive and exploratory environment!

Sophia Remolde and I also used the space to train and to create the beginning of our piece inspired by Siddhartha, which we premiered (in its very early stages) at the Inbred Hybrid Collective's Book Club Burlesque on July 25th.

Thank you to Dominic Cloutier and Zarah Kravitz for prompting this collaboration!

We're going to develop the piece further and are seeking funding and an appropriate venue in NYC.

***

In other news, I've been assisting Julie Dohrman's Thursday night class at Virayoga, which has been another excellent experience all around. I expect I will continue to assist when I return from the UK.

I also had the opportunity beginning in early April and carrying on through June to participate in Lauren Flanigan's Viewpoints class for opera singers - I'm thrilled to be connected to this community of courageous and generous performers.

I'm teaching privately and am actively seeking new students of all levels. And I'm looking for the right studio environments for teaching group classes when I return from the UK.

Other than that, life's been full of culinary adventures (I've cooked and eaten ostrich and pork for the first time), cycling adventures (the trip to Saratoga Springs was a blast), and simple adventures of an uncategorizable sort (last night a stunning pink flower fell from a box and landed right next to me).

Okay, kids, that's all for now.

x

Deborah Hay Solo Performer Commissioning Project Update

2008-07-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hello friends, family, partners in art and adventure:

I have met my fundraising goal and am going to Scotland to create a solo with Deborah Hay! Hooray!

Endless thanks to the following generous souls for their financial support:

UK
Catherine Burton-Cartledge
Adrian Carvalho
Bahia Dawlatly
Helen Shemilt

FRANCE
Ben Evans
Emilie Rosenvallon

GERMANY
Viktor Bedo

NEW YORK
Akiko Aizawa
Elena Brower/Virayoga
Iris Cohen Selinger
Phyllis Cohen and James Wagner
Jeffrey Frace
Maria Kelly and Matthew Stucky
Shira Milikowsky
Susan Myhr-Fritz and Dan Fritz
Sophia Remolde
Gregory Serdahl
Gabriella Szabo
The Field

CALIFORNIA
Brion Charles
Brad Crowell and Gary Koehler
foolsFURY Theater
Mick Mize
Mei Ann Teo
Paul Traina
Takahiro Yamamoto

FLORIDA
Philip Cohen and Susan Rudd Cohen
Gertrude Rudd

I leave New York on August 10 for some travel in England and a stop at the Edinburgh Festival before I arrive in Findhorn to work with Ms. Hay. I will return to NY in early-mid September.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Look here for reports, reflections, and, hopefully, photos.

x
D

fundraising update

2008-05-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

I'm at $1325!

I only need $475 more for the commissioning fee!

Thank you

Viktor Bedo - Germany
Paul Traina - California
Iris Cohen - New York
Mick Mize - California
Gregory Serdahl - New York
Jeffrey Frace - New York
Gertrude Rudd - Florida
Brion Charles - California
Takahiro Yamamoto - California
Gabriella Szabo - New York
Shira Milikowsky - New York
Vira Yoga - New York
Susan Myhr-Fritz and Dan Fritz - New York
Bradford Crowell and Gary Koehler - California
Benjamin Evans - France
Helen Shemilt - England
Mei Ann Teo - California
Akiko Aizawa - New York
Emilie Rosenvallon - France
Philip Cohen and Susan Rudd Cohen - Florida
The Field - New York

To donate, please go to The Field website:

http://www.thefield.org/t-sponsoranartist.aspx

Enter "Davina Cohen" in the box that says "Artist Name" and then an amount of your choosing in the appropriate box below.

With gratitude,
Davi

More funds!

2008-04-10T03:10:00.001-07:00

I'm now up to $630!

yay!

Deborah Hay SPCP Fundraising update

2008-04-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

I have already received an offer of a frequent flier ticket and about $555 (in dollars and euros!).

That's about a quarter of the commissioning fee!

Big thanks and squishy hugs to:

Viktor Bedo
Brion Charles
Iris Cohen
Philip Cohen and Susan Rudd Cohen
Mick Mize
Paul Traina
Takahiro Yamamoto

And I have some fantastic pledges from folks too!

I will continue to update the blog to acknowledge your generosity and let you all know how things are proceeding.

Deborah Hay Solo Performance Commissioning Project

2008-04-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

Dear friends, artists, yogis extraordinaires,

I have a fabulous proposition for you. You can be an integral part of the creation of a new solo piece and a unique, community-supported act of radical art-making.

Or, to put it another, less glamorous way: I NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT!

About two months ago, an artistic event changed my life. I saw, for the first time, the work of choreographer Deborah Hay.

http://www.deborahhay.com

I was absolutely blown away and I immediately set about researching how I could learn from and work with her.

I discovered the "Solo Performance Commissioning Project." The way this project works is that a group of performers commission a solo dance from Deborah Hay. She guides and coaches them in the creation of the solo during an 11-day period in a residency setting. At the conclusion of the residency, each participant signs a contractual agreement to do a daily solo practice of the new piece, for a minimum of three months before their first public performance.

An exceptional aspect of this project is that the dancers must raise the commissioning fee from within their own communities. Community members
-- family, friends, other artists, granting agencies, small businesses, corporations, etc. -- become the patrons for each dance. All patrons receive program acknowledgment every time the solo is performed.

That's where you come in.

I've been invited to participate in the Solo Performance Commissioning Project this summer in Scotland.

In order to go, I need to raise $1800 to cover the cost of the commission itself, as well as my own travel and accommodation expenses. My goal is to have raised all the necessary funds by June 8th, 2008.

Anything you can offer to this end -- be it $1000, $100, $10, a frequent flier ticket to get me to and from Europe, friends in Findhorn who might host me for the duration of the residency -- would be invaluable to me.

I've set up a PayPal account to make things as convenient as possible
for you. Donate safely and securely online anytime at: http://www.paypal.com. If you would prefer to make a tax deductible donation, I am also part of The Field's Sponsored Artist Program. As a result, any donation you make to me via The Field is tax deductible. If you are interested in this option, please contact me before making your donation.

I'm honored to have the opportunity to work on this project and it
would mean a great deal to me to have your support. Please contact me with any questions you may have.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Davina

It's going to be 54 degrees on Monday!

2008-03-01T21:08:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about it I've decided to dedicate my first blog post in over a month to that prediction.

I'm so ready for winter to be over.

Persepolis

2008-01-20T07:02:00.000-08:00

SEE IT NOW!

Marjane Satrapi's books are mindblowing and the film is no less spectacular.

Just gorgeous. Some moments of weird editing, but in a way those moments are part of the magic of a graphic-novel-to-film adaptation.

http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/

Incidentally, the movie phone guy mispronounces the title "PersOpolis". Harumph.

global toasting

2008-01-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

It's presently warmer in NYC than it is in SF.

That is totally fucked.

That's all for now.

by the way...

2008-01-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Culturemart @ HERE

2008-01-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

Come see Water, part of Culturemart at HERE Arts on Jan 8 and 9.

I'll be there in image and voice, but not in the flesh because I'll be out of town.

I have a cameo as an Australian standup comic in this fantastic collaboration by Sheila Callaghan, Daniella Topol, and Bill Cusick.

http://www.here.org/who/artists/Water/

There are plenty of other exciting works-in-progress (all part of the residency program at HERE) in Culturemart as well. I'm hoping to catch the South Wing performance.

If you do go on the 8th or 9th, let me know your thoughts after the performance.

For more info, and to preview clips of artists’ work,

visit http://www.here.org/see/now/cmart08/.

Tickets ($15) are available online or by calling 212-352-3101. Performances are at 8:30 at HERE on Spring and 6th Ave.

Intimate Distance

2007-12-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

here is a vitality,
a life force
a quickening
that is translated through you
into action
and because there is only one of you
in all time
this expression is unique
and if you block it, it will never exist
through any other medium
and it will be lost,
the world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine
how good it is
nor how valuable
nor how it compares with other
expressions.
It is your business
to keep it yours
clearly and directly
and
keep the channel open.

-Martha Graham

East Village calacas 10/31

2007-11-13T19:37:00.001-08:00

On my way to

a party

a funeral

a job interview

taken at Le Petit Versailles and the Telephone Bar

foolsFURY's fabulous write-up in the SF Bay Guardian

2007-11-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

My peeps (did I just say that? Yep, I did) in San Francisco just won the Goldie Award for Theater. Yay!

Check out this fantastic write-up:

http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=4938

Goldie winner -- Theater: foolsFURY
Where kinetic energy meets darkly alluring words
BY ROBERT AVILA
Wednesday November 7, 2007

One of the first things to strike you about a foolsFURY production is its sheer kinetic energy and rigorous physical vocabulary. Hovering somewhere between modern dance and mime, or maybe the fashion runway and the circus, the movement of the actors onstage suggests tightly coiled regimentation and an unpredictable, acrobatic freedom. Bodies rewrite the most seemingly inconsequential gestures as larger than life or in an altogether different register, so that you might suddenly see and wonder at them.

But the next thing to strike you will surely be the words. From its first outing nearly a decade ago to recent San Francisco and New York runs of artistic director Ben Yalom's translation and staging of The Devil on All Sides (French playwright Fabrice Melquiot's magic-realist rumination on Yugoslavia's civil war) and the remounting in September of its exquisite version of the Henry James ghost story The Turn of the Screw (directed by company member Rod Hipskind), foolsFURY remains wedded to deep, often darkly comical, and alluring texts steeped in the mysterious potency of words.

The physical athleticism and stylization onstage — grounded in a unique, evolving synthesis of techniques from Tadashi Suzuki and Viewpoints to commedia dell'arte and Jerzy Grotowski — are, of course, inseparable from the company's approach to such texts, whether they're Martin Crimp's silky and sinister ellipses (Attempts on Her Life), Don DeLillo's gloomy, incantatory wisecracking (Valparaiso), Kirk Wood Bromley's neo-Shakespearean, post-American rag (Midnight Brainwash Revival), or even Shakespeare himself (in one inimitable take on Twelfth Night that went solely by its telling subtitle, What You Will). This pairing of soaring physicality and textual depth has been a driving force behind the success of the small but restlessly active, ambitious company (which has also become a vital teaching center in the theater community) since its noteworthy debut in 1998.

Together with other choice elements — including the sensitive use of music, sound, and scenic design — foolsFURY's heightened theatrical language is, at its best, a surprise and a challenge to audiences, inspiring and even requiring them to develop new ways of receiving a performance. Yalom concedes that it has taken some time to achieve all of this, including a stable group of like-minded, technically practiced actors. He claims he wasn't thinking beyond a single play when he almost inadvertently founded the company. "I had no idea what it meant to be a professional theater director or artistic director," he recalls. "I was working with a couple of companies, trying to get them to hire me to direct a play — specifically The Possibilities, the Howard Barker play. After a while I started to get to know the scene, and it became pretty evident that that wasn't going to happen. So I decided I was going to produce it myself."

Novice though he was, he had long been thinking about what makes theater different and vital, a train of thought the company members have since taken up together. "After spending a lot of time experimenting, we started to find certain aesthetic forms that were interesting. But to me it really comes down to the larger question 'What should be the role of this art form in our contemporary culture?' Because, frankly, if it doesn't have a specific value and something that is unique about it, then, much as I love doing it, it would be irrelevant. I don't think that's the case [with foolsFURY], though it's taken me a long time to figure out how and why."

And the name? "I made it up," says Yalom. "It really fit the Barker piece, and I think to a certain extent it fits [the company].

What underlies a lot of our sensibility is a collision of things that are uncomfortable and things that are funny because they're uncomfortable. We've done a couple of shows that would be categorized as comedies. The far greater amount of work has been things that have been funny but funny because they are challenging and thought provoking and, certainly sometimes, very upsetting. The Barker was a perfect example of that: the 'fool' and the 'fury' just sort of crammed together."

bike antics continued

2007-11-13T18:59:00.000-08:00

Usually, I'm fastidious about detailling my myriad biking-in-NYC-related gripes and gaffs; but I've been lax of late.

Incident 1:

last week I had plans to meet Larry for post-performance, post-yoga tea and dessert. I parked my bike on West 4th between 6th and Washington Square West and grabbed some food from what, it must be said, was definitely the wrong choice of two veggie Asian restaurants on that block (I went into Vegetarian Paradise, rather than Red Bamboo, and I think Vegetarian Paradise should probably be renamed Rastafarian San Antonio (as opposed to, say, Dallas) Seitan BBQ). When I emerged half an hour later and six tons worth of gelatinous sauce-covered wheat gluten heavier I discovered that someone had locked his or her bike TO mine. This offending bicycle had been parked at the same post when I arrived, but somehow in the duration it took me to suck down the hideous chow, the proprietor of said bike had thought it was a good idea (or, more likely, not thought at all) to take their chain lock and pass it through my frame rather than around the post. I went into every business on the block to see if it belonged to a delivery person, but, alas, it did not. It was too flash to be a delivery bike - a silver Mongoose with suspension. So I called the police. I waited two and a half hours during which time the folks who worked at the nearby dry cleaners emerged periodically with miscellaneous keys, hammers, and other devices in an effort to break the lock (not one passerby especially cared or noticed a white girl with pigtails with two very short, hammer-wielding Latino men, and a supervising Asian man smoking a cigarette and looking on skeptically as we bashed away fruitlessly at this padlock). The police eventually turned up, not having any idea why I'd requested their presence and, naturally, totally unequipped to deal with the problem.

I then learned that

a) there are only two patrol cars for the entire West Village on an average Monday night
b) 911 dispatchers do not provide any information to the officers on duty regarding the nature of the dispatch (which leads me to wonder what would have happened if I'd actually had a real emergency)

The police officers were very kind, but utterly useless so I then had to wait another 30 minutes for some emergency services folks to arrive with various lock-picking implements. Eventually, they unlocked the parasitic bike and I left a note that said:

Watch where you lock your bike, genius. It took the police and 2 1/2 hours to get your bike UNLOCKED FROM MINE. You're lucky I didn't trash the fuckin' thing.

***
Incident 2:

Moments after I left the house this morning my rack basically deconstructed itself on (and eventually off) my frame. It fell off with my panniers attached to it near 50th and 1st Ave. I need to buy a new one. Any recommendations? I have some research to do.

WATER @ CultureMart @ HERE

2007-11-09T06:16:00.001-08:00

Check out this neat photo of me that Sheila Callaghan, Daniella Topol, and Bill Cusick are using as publicity material for WATER, the project (on which I am a collaborator) they're creating at HERE.

http://www.here.org/who/artists/Water/

I love to blog at the airport

2007-10-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

It's true. I do. What the hell else is there to do when your flight is delayed by a minimum of 2 hours? I'm traveling to Miami (by way Fort Lauderdale) to participate in a workshop with Anusara founder John Friend and visit my parents when they return later this weekend from visiting my brother in Providence.

It's possible that the guy whose smashing white ensemble isn't emblazoned with the word "UNGAR" on it is my brother (it's also possible that the "UNGAR" guy is, but that seems unlikely). This photo appeared when I googled him and he is an Ivy League fencer.

The trouble with airport blogging, however, is that I infrequently have anything of interest to say while stranded in a noisy terminal. In fact, I have already blogged about Aunt Butchie's, a peculiar and perpetually closed vendor situated in the Jetblue retail nexus. I don't index my blog, though, so it appears impossible to search the blog archives for that riveting installment (undoubtedly made under similarly inspiring circumstances).

I have already eaten a salad with tuna and a luna bar and I remain absolutely, positively, menstrually ravenous. But it's 10 pm and I will do nothing but sit around in various positions for the foreseeable future. Energetically, I don't feel up to it; but it occurs to me that should I find myself in this situation again (and I surely will), I might try to start a group asana practice. That would be a great thing for a bunch of fidgety, airport-bound people still *waiting* to sit on a plane to do, no? Spontaneous "kula" and all that.

There's cute couple immersed in a heated game of backgammon behind me.

Well, I've got a grant application to finish, the Yoga Sutras to read, and an endless bounty of people-watching to keep me engaged until the flight shows signs of departing.

does someone want to stick a lion in there or what?

2007-10-18T19:47:00.001-07:00

Oh, and while you're inspecting my chops maybe you want to sign up for the foolsFURY adult intensive if you'll be in Northern California during November.

as always: http://www.foolsfury.org

two things related only by "huh?" and chronology

2007-10-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

Thing #1: Last night the grassy plaza area in front of the UN turned into a wildlife park. As I rode past I heard birds - definitely not pigeons or sparrows - schreeching. It sounded like a jungle. I stopped, hoping I might see one of these:

or one of these

but I didn't see anything other than some grass and the FDR drive on ramp.

Thing #2: Today I received my first official invitation to see a show for free because of my blog. Blogs = the wave of the present.

The final performance of Zen Cabaret!

2007-10-12T05:20:00.000-07:00

Check out our awesome review:

http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/nyclown_rev2007.php?0=S&1=239

And more importantly, check out the show!

http://www.zencabaret.com

Sunday night at 8:30 pm at the Brick Theater

575 Metropolitan between Union and Lorimer

Buy your tickets in advance because we will sell out!

http://www.bricktheater.com/clown/

the perils of curb-hopping in the rain

2007-10-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

I recently returned home from a thrilling 2+ hours stint at the Apple store and on the way home, my pedal caught the lip of the curb and threatened to:

1) injure me seriously
and, very nearly equally awfully:
2) undo all the accomplishments of the previous several hours

and this is why blogs exist, so I can moan about these things.

it's a city, but it still gets dark at night

2007-10-08T19:52:00.001-07:00

that's something I miss from Berlin. It's funny - I was actually a little tentative sometimes riding from Friedrichshain to Neukolln in the middle of the night ... down Schlesiche Str. past Treptower Park* and down Elsen Str. turning into Inn Str. and onto Stuttgarter Str... through the deserted streets and carrying my heavy bike over a tiny footbridge above the canal with scant, dim lighting obscured by endless bushes. And, of course, some people told me not to ride alongside the strange, still pool in Gorlitzer Park at night.

But now I am back in Manhattan, midtown Manhattan, and I long for respite from the neon, the ads, the unrelenting street lamps, the light when I am riding home at night.

I am very fortunate and eternally grateful for the circumstances that have led to my living in midtown, but especially after the summer in beautiful Berlin. I am quite ready to move to somewhere in Brooklyn where a tree grows and someone remembers to flip the switch at night.

*I just googled Treptower Park and found this fascinating Wikipedia entry on the Soviet War Memorial in the Park (something I don't believe I've ever seen because it was almost always nighttime when I rode past the park and I never explored the park itself during the day).

"Women of the (East) German wartime generation still refer to [the memorial] as the "tomb of the unknown rapist" due to the mass rapes by Red Army soldiers in the years following 1945."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_War_Memorial_(Treptower_Park)

thesbians in Denmark

2007-10-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken in the garden behind the house where Andrea (brown hair on the right), Sara (to the right of me), and I lived during Odin Week. The house and garden were beautiful. Unfortunately, our presence seemed to terrify their owner.

Iphigenia 2.0 at the Signature

2007-10-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.signaturetheater.org/

It closes on October 7. There are still $20 tickets available every night. See this show. And be prepared to walk out in a weepy, heart-pounding haze. It was, for me, emotional and sensory overstimulation of the distinctively Chuck-Mee-mayhem-done-to-precision variety.

And also, go get yourself a ticket to Hotel Cassiopeia at http://www.bam.org/events/08HOTE/08HOTE.aspx if there are still tickets available. I love this play, as anyone who's read my blog or, uh, ever spoken to me knows.

I'm definitely back in NY

2007-09-30T06:14:00.000-07:00

On Saturday evening, my first full night back in the city, I saw my friend Ally's play "The Will of the Cockroach" at Chashama. Then I came home and picked up the mail to discover that this week's Time Out has a special feature on NYC critters and I read the section on cockroaches. Then I went to another room in the apt to look for a shirt and when I turned on the light I heard, "t-k-t-k-t-k" and looked by the dresser to see a positively massive cockroach attempting to hide from the light.

I dug out a pair of black latex gloves (so multi-purpose! though originally purchased for activities deemed inappropriate for blog content by the central authorities at thesbian pulp, I have in the past used these gloves to sterilize small wounds and retrieve fallen jewelry and menstrual cups from the toilet) and the old can of Raid and went to town. I'm glad I didn't pass out. I wish there were something akin to a pooper scooper for picking up dead cockroaches so I wouldn't have to get so close to them and the horrific fumes. I speak from experience when I say that vacuuming a cockroach you've just drowned in poison doesn't work.

Welcome home!

homeward bound

2007-09-28T02:31:00.001-07:00

I am enjoying my final few hours in Europe, slurping down a cup of tea I brought with me from Berlin while I see the sun subtly peeking between the clouds over South London. I see the Crystal Palace radio tower, dwarfing a nearby steeple that's infinitely lovelier.

I arrived in London on Wednesday afternoon and headed to Mike and Em's in Brixton for a few hours of relaxation and an afernoon chat. Then I saw A Disappearing Number, the latest Theatre de Complicite show at the Barbican Centre.

Complicite's Mnemonic changed my life. I saw them in my final year at Columbia and wrote an essay about the show for Michael Janeway's superb arts criticism course. Seeing Mnemonic was one of the experiences that instigated my decision to become an actor. It blew my mind and now, several years, time with SITI and foolsFURY and other forays into devised and collaborative theatermaking later, it was such a delight to see and have my breath taken away by another one of their shows. I loved it and managed to get sixth row center seats off the cancellation line. One day I will meet them.

Yesterday I met my friend Jo, a dancer and teacher whom I met in Brazil, for late afternoon lunch and then strolled, tea-ed, and read along the South Bank of the Thames. In the evening I met Caspar and Alexis for sushi before bouncing around at Offline at JAMM, a very relaxed, homey performance night organized by Mike. I heard some entertaining poetry, fun music, and had some highly amusing conversations.

It's back to NY this evening and off to rehearsal for Zen Cabaret tomorrow morning in Williamsburg.

See you all soon, on one continent or another.

look!

2007-09-25T00:48:00.001-07:00

It`s another picture of me and Kajza.

Exhibit A on the left:

Red hair
Red eyes
Big red gums

Exhibit B on the right:

Blond hair
Lavender eyes
No gums

;)

Will this work?

2007-09-24T14:44:00.001-07:00

(D and Kajza)

I have covertly (well, not so covertly anymore) joined Facebook so I can look at my friend Anna-Karin's photos of our bizarre all-night adventure two Saturdays ago (culminating in an Eyes Wide Shut-esque party featuring an open bar with Prosecco yay! and minus the sex...except for the two people screwing in the toilets, one of whom was wearing orange shoes).

Here are some photos (for better or worse, not of the aforementioned toilet trysters) - if I can manage to download and upload them successfully.

Is this some kind of misguided attempt at motivating people or an effort to be body-positive?

2007-09-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

Since leaving Mitte for Kreuzberg and then Neukölln in early August I have gone almost daily to Elixia, a gym with multiple locations around Germany that is eerily similar to Equinox Fitness in NYC (except in a small number of very significant ways).

The class schedule is way smaller and overall the classes are less rigorous and the trainers/instructors less precise in their instructions (though in their defense it must be noted that vielleicht verstehe ich nicht alles). Also, there are inevitably different levels I, II, and III for each type of class, but I have yet to discern any meaningful difference among the levels.

I have gone several times to the "Hot Iron" class, which, apart from sounding like a cosmetology/hair styling/wafflemaking course (as opposed to the free weight workout it actually is), always has the same soundtrack. The first song on this soundtrack is "Big Girl" by MIKA.

Here are the lyrics:

Walks in to the room
Feels like a big balloon
I said, 'Hey girls you are beautiful'
Diet coke and a pizza please
Diet coke I'm on my knees
Screaming 'Big girls you are beautiful'

You take your skinny girl
Feel like I'm gonna die
'Cause a real woman
Needs a real man here's why

You take your girl
And multiply her by four
Now a whole lotta woman
Needs a whole lot more

Get yourself to the Butterfly Lounge
Find yourself a big lady
Big boy come on around
And they'll be calling you baby

No need to fantasize
Since I was in my braces
A watering hole
With the girls around
And curves in all the right places

Big girls you are beautiful (x4)

repeat xa million

Okay, now everyone in Berlin speaks English, so they can´t use the ole "oh, no one really understand the lyrics anyway" excuse. This means that someone made the very deliberate choice to make this the leading song in an hour long exercise class. What a curious choice...

Mika's official site is here. CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK. I believe you can even hear the song at the site, but be forewarned, it's an eyesore and it very nearly made my internet cafe computer explode. I don't think Mika has made it big in the States yet, but he's touring to Luxembourg! (okay, and all over Western Europe)

in Germany fire engines are like English divas

2007-09-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

Der Feuerwagen sagt "tatü tata!"

How cute is that?

Tatü tata, darlings!

I once was lost and now I'm lost...

2007-09-18T11:41:00.001-07:00

posting from an internet cafe in Wilmersdorf. I think.

My Berlin stadtplan fell apart and I basically lost the Western half of the city. Normally, this presents kein problem, aber heute musse ich nach Charlottenburg und Wilmersdorf von Mitte gehen und Neukölln züruckgehen. I have no idea if I said that correctly. But anyway, the point is, I have gotten fantastically lost. I had planned to go the gym in Wilmersdorf and it's possible that I'll still make it if I ever find my way back to Hermannplatz.

I am actually pretty confident that I know the most direct route back to Hermannplatz - I am on a street that should eventually turn into Yorckstraße and subsequently Gneisenau and Hasenheide...and then I am at the gym. But it's more spannend if I pretend I have no idea.

But this is the first time I've gotten disoriented in Berlin and it's delightful. Fortunately, it's not raining anymore.

I just tried and failed to document this historic moment with the nearby webcam.

I am not far from here/hier, in any case.

And the "da da da" (ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht) song by Trio (you know, the one from the Volkswagen commercial) is playing on the radio.

bis später

2007-09-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

I am still in Berlin. No surprise there, really, as my friend and colleague, dramaturg Laura Berman, can attest. Laura and I worked together three years ago at the San Francisco Opera under the direction of Thomas Langhoff in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.

Here is a rather comically unflattering review of the production. I was part of the "corp de bondage" among other things.

and another (comedy orgy! yay!)

But I didn't write this post just to unearth critical reviews of a four-year-old opera during which, it must be said, I only got to perform in ... one or two public performances because of my little ACL incident...

Here's what I want to say: Laura predicted then that I would move to Europe. You're only 23, she said, but you'll figure it out, you belong (t)here. And (t)here I am with her, four years later, contemplating whether I will turn up on her doorstep when I have to start paying rent in NYC.

Many, many projects are in the works here. I will wait a bit before publicly scribbling about them on the internet.

In the meantime, I have seen a lot of performance. I saw several shows in the Tanz im August festival, Georg Tabori's final, profoundly Beckett-like production at the Berliner Ensemble, Ein Sommernachtstraum and Emilia Galotti at the Deutsches Theater, Luc Peceval's Moliere at the Schaubühne, and the German premiere of the gorgeous, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am Medea directed by Sasha Waltz at the Staatsoper. I'm looking forward to Jess Curtis's upcoming show in Berlin and the Robert Wilson Dreigroschenoper at the Berliner Ensemble.

I have begun to identify some of the cliches of contemporary institutional German theater ... much of which is evidently a lot less formalistic than its predecessors (though to most Americans, I suspect, it would appear highly stylized and non-naturalistic). There is always a point, for instance, when actors start to shout at the top of their lungs...unfortunately, that is also often the point when previous attention to physical specificity seems to fly out the window or down the trap and it becomes virtually impossible to hear and understand what they're actually saying (such as I can understand things anyway...I estimate my verbal comprehension at somewhere around 20-30%). There may be an effort to adhere to a very strict tempo of line delivery or a certain technical device or repetition of gestures, there is often a very dramatic, forced-perspective, raked stage, a kind of box within the proscenium (which means, incidentally, if you happen to sit at orchestra/ "parkett" level and you're on the side, you're pretty well and truly fucked for anything that happens upstage on that side...in Emilia Galotti, for instance, I couldn't see a single entrance or exit, which I suspect in this show were pretty exciting). This sort of design was pioneered in part by Jürgen Rose, the designer for the Faust production at the SFO.

In any case, I can understand how many of these conventions become tedious...just as all cliches become tiresome...but I think they are, by and large, far more desirable than their American analogs because they all start from the notion that theater is something other than every day life...so that the fallback may be contrived, bizarre, extreme, or even quite cold and dead; but what it seems quite infrequently to be is a fallback to naturalism or familiarity...

And I've been blessed to attend many of these performances with Enrico, Alec, and Netti - three fabulous young German actors, all working in different contexts (Enrico is newly arrived in Berlin after several years in the stadttheater system, Alec is currently working at the stadttheater in Heilbronn, and Netti is working on a new ER-style television series).

I've been dancing - ballet and samba at Tangara Studio near Hermannplatz - and practicing yoga at City Yoga Berlin and Spirit Yoga in Mitte, and an Iyengar studio near Oranienplatz. There are some contemporary classes at Marameo that I want to check out when I return to Berlin. I found a super posh gym with a discounted membership near my flat in Neukölln. It didn't take long for me to figure out how and where I needed to be here to keep myself in shape and receptive. I also found a phenomenal massage therapist, by accident, when I was eating Vietnamese food one day and having my daily Grammatikskampf (grammar struggle), poring over a rather lackluster German textbook.

I've had one audition, many wonderful discussions, and a fantastic time.

I will return to NY on the 28th and prepare to perform in Zen Cabaret in the New York International Clown Theatre Festival at The Brick in Williamsburg.

Performance Dates: Sat., Oct. 6th 2pm, Sun., Oct. 7th 7pm, Thurs., Oct. 11th, 7pm, Sun., Oct. 14th 8:30pm

I am looking forward to my return to NY. And I am also looking forward to my return to Berlin.

more photos from Odin

2007-09-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

Why are all the Hungarians I meet so outrageously sexy?

I met Gergö at Odin Teatret. He lives in Debrecen, the second largest city in Hungary (though much smaller than Budapest). He's the bee's knees.

Sara and I walking in downtown Holstebro.

Thanks to the lovely Andrea (with Maria in the background) for these and other forthcoming photos.

a beach in Western Denmark, August 2007

2007-09-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

Turn your head (or computer) to the side, please.

I am so backblogged!

2007-09-13T02:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.or-synagoge.de/

laptops make you famous in Germany

2007-08-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

clicky clicky

Schreibtisch mit Milchkaffee

how it is...

2007-08-18T13:26:00.001-07:00

You know how it is when you lose blogging momentum in the midst of experiences too extraordinary to waste a moment recapitulating them on a computer while they're still occurring...

I have spent the last week at Odin Teatret in the lovely, astonishingly quiet town of Holstebro in western Denmark.

Today we went to the sea. Tomorrow I return to Copenhagen via Vejle (pronounced Vy-leh, more or less) in the car belonging to my new friend Andrea. Andrea is from Nuremberg but lives in Berlin and, along with Sara from Malmø (actually, maybe its just Malmo or Mawithtwodotsoveritlmo, but I'm not sure) and Maria originally from Copenhagen and presently from Coventry, formed a fantastic crew of which I am thrilled to be a part. We have begun discussion of some possible future collaboration and had an altogether stupendous time getting to know each other.

The week has been an experience of continuous emotional and intellectual dilation and absorption...It is unfortunate that there wasn't much time within the structure of the week to permit comparable physical engagement (I managed to run and practice some yoga just about every day and we danced Orixa twice during the week), but all in all I am moved, grateful, elated.

Amazed, really.

I will endeavor to write more at a later stage, but now I will return to the lower level of the theater complex for singing and dancing on our final night.

And, if you should happen to read this, Brian: thank you for lending me the Paper Canoe. It was extra special to read it knowing that I had *your* copy of the book. I can't wait to discuss our summer art ecstasy/growth spurts.

Oh, and speaking of spurts, I learned a lovely Danish expression:

SLUTSPURT!

It has something to do with final sales at retail outlets.

I am here

2007-08-11T21:08:00.001-07:00

www.odinteatret.dk

and having a fantastic time

It's 6:08 in the morning, I've just run to the theater from the house near the Holstebro train station and I'm about to do a little yoga in the white room. No one else has turned up to join me.

It stays light until 10...maybe later, but the sun never really seems to come up in the morning.

I have so much to write, but no time right now.

So, instead, I'll just copy Odin member Julia Varley's words, which she shared with us yesterday morning in a vocal work demonstration called "The Echo of Silence":

"I have chosen silence for my vocal demonstration because I guess I would like silence to sing."

O Superman

2007-07-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

After several wonderful days in Berlin with Rachel, Stephanie, Viktor, and a host of Hungarians and anusaris I am in Kassel.

I am stuffed to the gills with Turkish food, which I enjoyed thoroughly in the company of Julia and Enrico and his mother (who drove to Kassel from a small town in Saxony).

I wandered all over documenta - http://documenta.de - today and had the foruitous opportunity to meet Nedko Solakov - http://nedkosolakov.net/content/index_eng.html - a fantastic artist whose series "Fears" is grabbed me, tickled me, and made me sigh today while I perused the offerings at the Neue Galerie.

It's back to Berlin tomorrow.

ttfn
(tomate, taschen, fruhstruck, nein)

D

and, yes, Julia and I are listening to Laurie Anderson. On a *record* player.

2007-07-26T09:28:00.001-07:00

ta ta for now!

The next post, whenever it may occur, will most likely be from somewhere in Germany or Denmark.

Some folks I look forward to seeing on the other side of the Atlantic

2007-07-26T09:23:00.000-07:00

look!

2007-07-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's Jesse.

warms the cockles, he does.

click

2007-07-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

My digital camera broke some time ago and the process of getting it repaired via warranty involved public notaries and affidavits and all kinds of bureaucratic absurdity so I put it off.

I'm about to embark on a journey that I'd love to document and, fortunately, Frank has lent me a camera.

(he is currently sans cast, I'm thrilled to say)

what an astonishingly beautiful night

2007-07-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

The webcam located closest to me does nothing to illuminate how stunning an evening it truly is...in fact, the UN webcam could very well be webcasting images of the inside of my sock, the image is just that vivid and exciting.

But outside: it's 69 degrees, clear, and just sensationally lovely

Heisei Nakamura-Za's Hokaibo @ Lincoln Center

2007-07-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen on stage.

Wouldn't it be great if artists in the United States could be recognized as "National Living Treasures"?

The story is disturbing - full of rape, murder, and unfettered greed; but the whole thing is pretty damn marvelous.The performances are unbelievable (vocally, physically, conceptually - everything about it), the comedy so well crafted, there is singing, dancing, acrobatics, exquisite costumes and makeup, severed limb puppets, cherry blossom petals falling from the sky...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/theater/15gure.html

whirlwind (or words, words, and more words)

2007-07-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

A long overdue blog update:

All of my houseguests are gone: the San Franciscans have returned westward and the Rhode Islanders (all in all, a staggering number: Mia and Dan, Enrique, and my brother and some unspecified array of his fraternity brothers, who had been in town for an event at Hooters [they claimed it was the only casual place that would take a reservation for that many people on a Saturday night...I think they were just following some unwritten - or, perhaps written, but written by the very same people who wrote Animal House - rules about fraternity gatherings]) have all zipped to various destinations north and west.

Since then, I've been in Anusara Immersion part 1 at Vira Yoga, taught by two wonderful and inspiring women, Zhenja La Rosa and Dana Covello. I will continue my immersion sequence, somewhat circuitously, with part 3 led by Noah Maze at Shri. Tonight I'm going to crack open The Bhagavad Gita in the Mahabarata as translated by JAB van Buitenen. The NYPL has exactly one copy in circulation and it's now sitting on my bedside table.

On a related note, I really dig this book The key muscles of hatha yoga. It's pretty expensive, but I think I'd like to get my hands on a copy.

***********************************************************************

Last weekend Enrique I went to the Gotham Girls Roller Derby bout at City College. The event featured the Brooklyn Bombshells versus the Queens of Pain in a kind of drag-show-meets-Incredibly Strange Wrestling-meets-Suicide Girls-meets-serious-athleticism extravaganza. Enrique came so he could see a bunch of lesbians on rollerskates beating each other up. It turned out to be more like a bunch of lesbians on rollerskates bumping into each other and skating really damn quickly. But it was loads of fun anyway. And after the event I met someone extraordinary, whom I look forward to seeing in ...

Berlin!

I will depart on July 26 to convene with Rachel and her sister Stephanie for several days of galavanting followed by arts-related stuff and meeting various people in Berlin and, subsequently, Kassel, where my friend Julia is performing at documenta.

I am not exactly sure what will happen after that, but I plan to be back in New York by August 20 for more training with SITI.

*********************************************************************************

Jumping back a bit, I also had the pleasure of seeing Fables de La Fontaine at the Lincoln Center Festival (where later this week I will see kabuki ensemble Heisei Nakamura-za). Now I can finally say that I've seen something directed by Robert Wilson and, moreover, that I liked it. Really outstanding, in some cases, breathtaking performances and some highly entertaining and charming vignettes. And poignant, sure, but in a sort of mellow, gentle way, even at their most assertive.

Last night Larry and I went to hear The Decemberists perform at the Central Park Summerstage. In addition to Red Right Ankle, they played Sons and Daughters near the end of the show.

Here are some lyrics:

When we arrive, sons & daughters
We'll make our homes on the water
We'll build our walls of aluminum
We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon now

These currents pull us 'cross the border
Steady your boats, arms to shoulder
'Til tides are pulled our hull aground
Making this calm harbor now home

Take up your arms, sons and daughters
We will arise from the bunkers
By land, by sea, by dirigible
We'll leave our tracks untraceable now

When we arrive, sons & daughters
We'll make our homes on the water
We'll build our walls of aluminum
We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon now

Hear all the bombs, they fade away

And suddenly, standing near the back of a throng at a concert where my bicycle helmet had been confiscated by security guards because "it might be used as a weapon", I realized where I was and what was happening. Hundreds of people singing "hear all the bombs, they fade away" - I was standing in a heaving, swaying, singing mass of people underneath a clear night sky in the park. And we were celebrating. And, as I do, I cried...because it was really, quite strikingly beautiful.

And here's Red Right Ankle, just because I love it:

This is the story of your red right ankle
And how it came to meet your leg
And how the muscle, bone, and sinews tangled
And how the skin was softly shed

And how it whispered “Oh, adhere to me
For we are bound by symmetry
And whatever differences our lives have been
We together make a limb.”
This is the story of your red right ankle.

This is the story of your gypsy uncle
You never knew ‘cause he was dead
And how his face was carved and rift with wrinkles
In the picture in your head.

And remember how you found the key
To his hide-out in the Pyrenees
But you wanted to keep his secret safe
So you threw the key away.
This is the story of your gypsy uncle.

This is the story of the boys who loved you
Who love you now and loved you then
And some were sweet, some were cold and snuffed you
And some just laid around in bed.

Some had crumbled you straight to your knees
Did it cruel, did it tenderly
Some had crawled their way into your heart
To rend your ventricles apart
This is the story of the boys who loved you
This is the story of your red right ankle.

***********************************************************************************

And now I'm here, listening to the whir of electronics, eating egg whites at midnight and sipping iced Roastaroma tea.

It sure is summer.

it just don't stop

2007-07-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

Joseph and Jesse have left. Enrique arrives tonight.

Brian, Deborah, Ben, Larry, and I just returned from a spectacular visit with NaCl, the North American Cultural Laboratory, in the Catskills.

I am a little bit tired, a little bit overfed (hours of discussion about the nature and future and essence of foolsFURY Theater Company over an extraordinary meal at Hangawi restaurant), a intoxicated with life.

yes, please.

more.

thank you.

You Can Always Be With Me

2007-07-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be working on my audition monologue, but I can't. I'm sitting next to Jesse, stuffed to the gills with Italian food (we dined at Piccolo Angolo). And I'm in the loveliest cafe on the loveliest of corners in the West Village. And I think I am blessed (perhaps also touched-with-a-capital-T, but certainly blessed). I am lucky.

I am also wondering when I am expelled from my heavenly Manhattan Co-Op Board Hell, whom do I have to kill to get an apartment in the West Village? (I would say "fuck", but historically, that wouldn't get me very far in this neighborhood...though the demographics certainly have changed).

I had a long embrace with Frank and Jesse. Just to be in conversation with them, just to be in their presence, it's like...no, it IS love.

Maybe we should just go get gay-married or civil-unioned or non-heteronormatively-affirmed-in-our-love-and-commitment-to-each-other or whatever the three of us can do and have kids and take over the world. Or, if not that, at least we know we can always meet each other for dinner and laughs.

And there is great music playing in the cafe. And I am happy. I have goosebumps. It is warm, but not too warm. It is my first summer in New York in years.

And here it is. And here I am. And here are two people who have changed my life immeasurably for the better. Two people whose continued presence in it helps to ensure that my life continues to be an adventure, a giant love affair, a dance on a
precipice overlooking a valley full of wild plants and trampolines and cushions and different colored lights and tiramisu with music playing and rivers made of tea and coconut water.

Let's buy Frank a teapot.
Let's plan a trip to Miami.
Let's always be together, even when we are apart.

And now Jeff Buckley is playing. And it's a perfect, breezy night.

You can always be with me.

JOSEPH
You can always be with me
the way you are with Bleecker Street
or Bank Street
Broadway south of Houston
those shop windows
Debussy
Mallarme
Fanelli's on the corner of Prince and Mercer
the little store nearby where you can find
star fish
butterflies in little boxes
driftwood
and in the antiques store
the things from Asia
inlaid wood
a thousand little drawers
you have a good sense of mortality
in these streets
stopping in the cafes
looking at the light on the buildings
in the late afternoon
when it is already nighttime down below
lights coming on in the shops
and still afternoon in the sky above
this is how I spend my time
I can see it again and again
and never grow tired of it.

I love to quote Chuck Mee (above from Hotel Cassiopeia).

And I look over and see some guy in front of his laptop bobbing his head and mouthing the words. And I am quietly singing along. And this is the moment when we would - all of us in the cafe - start singing together if we were in a play about love or people in New York City or loss or some other heightened, epic thing in a contemporary, urban, vaguely hip setting. Like the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" section of The Devil On All Sides (except we're not in the middle of a war and we're not in the former Yugoslavia and this play would already be really maudlin, I fear). And thank goodness for that impossibly long "oooooh" at the end of "Hallelujah" - just long enough for me to finish scribbling this paragraph.

crack the blogwhip

2007-07-01T10:22:00.001-07:00

I have been a really inconsistent blogger lately, which is funny because I think I've been particularly reflective and ponderous as well - but I just haven't felt the desire to express any of those thoughts in this particular medium.

Let's see, here's what's of interest (at least to me), in no particular (but something roughly approximating chronological, by default) order:

1) the foolsFURYans are still here; but the run of The Devil on All Sides ends today.

It's been an interesting experience to play this sort of tangential, support role. The show has been fairly successful in terms of audience, press, and so forth; and certainly successful in terms of raising the company's profile on the east coast. Perhaps all my foolsFURY credits will be a bit more recognizable to people in NYC now? I hope that Devil is the first of many foolsFURY shows to be produced on this side of the country (and beyond? cue dramatic music).

Ben, Deborah, Brian, and I may take a little excursion to the Catskills this week to hang with the folks at North American Cultural Laboratory in Highland Lake.

This jaunt would fulfill a great many desires:

1) to meet the NACL folks, about whom I've heard and read a good deal
2) to have some more hang-time with my fF family before they return to SF
3) to get me back upstate (I had a callback for, but then didn't book, the US premiere of Byrony Lavery's A Wedding Story at Hudson Stageworks in Hudson, NY - I had such wild and marvelous fantasies of spending the summer riding my bike, doing yoga, and performing in a converted warehouse in the country)
---> the article in this week's Time Out about whitewater rafting in the Adirondacks has only added to my urge to frolic in the woods

2) I recently took a fantastic class with the positively, inestimably talented and generous Vicki Clark. The class was extraordinary - she really helped me to assess (and re-assess*!) my voice - what roles I'm capable of singing now, where I am technically, what I want to cultivate. *And, much like Connie Lisec from the North Bay Opera said to me during my Sweeney Todd run, Vicki doesn't think I'm a mezzo. I may make a career out of singing mezzo character roles; but, if anything, I'm a lyric mezzo or more likely, a lyric coloratura. So we've been working my soprano a lot and making sure that no matter how much Adelaide/Gooch/fill-in-the-blank I sing, I'm still nourishing my entire voice. And it's just so great and vulnerable and joyous and scary all at the same time to be singing so high!

The other people in the class were wonderful to learn from and with, especially my friend Liz Stanton (whom I met through the SITI Co), who is returning to musical theater after focusing her energies and numerous talents elsewhere for a while.

I've also learned the Vicki will be performing with Tom Nelis (of SITI) in Iphigenia 2.0 at the The Signature Theatre, the first in the season of plays by Chuck Mee. Kim Weild, who directed one of the pieces in the Women's Project commission at the World Financial Center, and recently graduated from Columbia is ADing with Tina Landau directing. I am very excited to see this show.

3) I had a blast meeting with Sheila Callaghan to work with her, Daniella Topol, and William Cusick on Water at HERE Arts.

A couple of days later foolsFURY met with Sheila at New Dramatists to begin the process of collaborating on a new piece for the company.

4) Continuing the theme of merging my SF and NY worlds, I had a massive party sponsored by the letter "M". The party was a reminder of how rad my friends are and how full of absolute garbage (in this case, quite literally, as truly epic quantities of alcohol and food were consumed) Manhattan co-op boards can be. The Manhattan Co-Cop Board is the most oxymoronic, ass-backwards manifestation of the notion of "cooperative living" I've ever encountered.

5) A couple of days in Miami to visit my family and catch, by fiat, Miami City Theatre's Summer Shorts Festival in a cavernous, beautifully equipped performing arts complex, gradually going bankrupt, in deserted downtown Miami.

I saw program A:

96 Stitches by Sarah Hammond
What I Learned From Grizzly Bears by Jessica Lind
Ron Bobby Had Too Big A Heart by Rolin Jones
Suspension by William Orem
The Sons of Mickey by Jim Fitzmorris
Uprising by Susan Westfall
Foul Territory by Craig Wright

except I DIDN'T get to see 96 Stitches, to my great disappointment, due to a snafu involving my friend's car and the fact that the theater, astonishingly, actually started on time (if not early). This level of punctuality (we were there at 3:01 for a 3 pm curtain) is remarkable in any context, but especially so in Miami where everyone is late and old (or young and hungover). There were a good 10 or so other people who weren't admitted to the theater until after the first play had ended. My friend and I, as well as several other people, were actually on line picking up our tickets when the show began (without any announcement or, more expectedly, holding the curtain). I was bummed to have missed 96 Stitches because Sarah Hammond is a friend of Enrique and she and I had met several days earlier at the launch party for issue 3 of Play, a Journal of Plays, where I volunteered to be charming and sell things. Plus, I wore a really fierce black and gold ensemble to match the evening's theme. Never mind the plays, right, just look at the actor and her clothes. *cough*

6) I do not understand how I have lived this long without having seen The Civilians' work. Okay, actually, I do: they were founded in 2001, which is the same year I left NYC. I saw GONE MISSING at the Barrow Street on Friday. Oh. My. God. I don't know if I could possibly have loved it more.

7) I also saw Grey Gardens this weekend. So that's two shows this weekend during which I cried through the curtain calls. Not because I was particularly sad; but because I was blown away. Without any other appropriate means to experience the depth of my awe, excitement, the extent to which I had been awakened by what I just saw - no other means but tears, laughter, the desire to launch myself out of my seat, thank every person connected to realizing the theater I'd just experienced, and have that feeling - the feeling that I cannot precisely articulate - that I was having never end.

Unfortunately, after Grey Gardens I had to ride home through Times Square and someone stepped off the curb in my path without looking first and I found myself shouting, "Excuse me, excuse me, HELLO! MOVE!" which took me out of my seemingly transcendent bliss. But only for, like, 30 seconds. Then I was back. Back to remember why I am here, why I am in NY right now. Why I am doing what I am doing. Why I cannot be casual or dilletantish or impatient about it.

I am going to quote from And Then, You Act, Anne Bogart's latest book that has become like a seventh limb (you know, counting the tail and head) for me. I lent it to Brian, but I keep needing to refer to it and demanding it back from him.

***
It may be true that everyone needs a person in the world to model him- or herself after. As a director, Ariane Mnouckine has been this person for me. For years I attended her productions, usually at the immense Cartoucherie in Vincennes just outside Paris. Her international company is an inspiration to me, her collaborative methods instructive, and her international reach remarkable. I could always look to Mnouchkine for encouragement, simply by example. Her productions are often very long, engulfing an entire evening or sometimes several days. The plays are investigations into subjects that clearly intrigue her and her company. I always manage to find Mnouchkine somewhere in the theater at intermissions. I walk up to her, grasp her hand, and thank her. What I mean to say is, "That you for years of inspiration. Thank you for being the person I think about when I lose courage. Thank you for giving me courage by example." But all that I usually manage is a simple "thank you."
***

Add being a blubbering mess to that description and you have me in the face of a growing handful of artists and teachers who have blessed my life with their presence and work.

Now, I've got to go because I'm going to hear my college friend (and co-founder with me of The New York Abortion Access Fund), Lauren, sing in a concert version of Gounod's Faust.

What a weekend.

Anusara immersion

2007-06-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

I'm in it. Three days a week, three hours a day of level one immersion with Zhenja La Rosa and Dana Covello at Vira. Wow. Wow. Wow. If I were a really dedicated blogger, I'd have virtual reams (or reams of virtual paper) about it on my blog. But I'm not actually that interested in blogging about it right now.

I am, however, loving my introduction to Rajanaka philosophy, loving getting to know this ensemble - kula, etc - with whom I'm practicing on a regular basis, and I do want to post this link:

Natarajasana, full form

beee-aaa-uuu-tiful

something to work on/with

wow.

Play!

2007-06-15T19:30:00.001-07:00

Come party with the lovely makers of Play, a journal of plays on Tuesday night, here:

ISSUE THREE LAUNCH PARTY!
June 19, 7-9pm at New Dramatists.
424 W. 44th Street, New York.
Between 9th and 10th Aves.

Downtown playwrights sing their favorite Broadway tunes!
David Greenspan performs along with other guests.
Come toast the new issue featuring plays by Doug Bost, Lisa D'Amour & Katie Pearl, David Greenspan, Cynthia Hopkins, and Liz Meriwether. Plus souvenirs!

Wear black and gold (I don't know why - I'm doing it because Sally told me to and I'll take any excuse to costume)!

ps
American Apparel, while its inventory is virtually exploding with lame right now, does not stock gold lame wristbands. I think a trip to the fabric store may be in order!

6 am bike rides

2007-06-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

If my camera were working, I'd have taken pictures. This morning I rode my bike home from a party in Bushwick (I wish I had known how to get to the bridge from where I was, but I was pretty tired, so I took the L into Manhattan).

5:30-6 am + Sunday + 1st Ave = magic

the fools have arrived!

2007-06-05T07:34:00.001-07:00

If my camera weren't broken, I'd take a picture of them all sleeping on various surfaces around my house.

foolsFURY has arrived in NY and I am thrilled to play host to some of San Francisco's loveliest people and finest performers.

Please go see foolsFURY's The Devil on All Sides, opening next week at PS 122.

". . . dramatizes the inhumanity of war with stunning eloquence"
- San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the brightest stars of San Francisco's experimental theater scene"
- San Francisco Arts Monthly

A haunting love story unfolds as a Christian falls in love with a Muslim during the war in ex-Yugoslavia.

When it premiered France (2003), Le Diable en Partage was named both "Best French Play of the year" and "Theatrical Discovery of the year" by the National Critics' Syndicate. foolsfury delivers the first U.S. production of a play by fabrice melquiot, one of the most celebrated contemporary French playwrights and winner of the prestigious Prix Jean-Jacques Gauthier from Le Figaro. A spellbinding spectacle, it is a unique and startling collision of the troupe's trademark vibrant physical style and the text's remarkable blend of expressionism, poetry, fantasy, and harsh, raw reality.

Featuring: Debórah Eliezer, Stephen Jacob, Brian Livingston, Ryan O'Donnell, Nora El Samahy*, Joseph William Estlack.

This project is produced in conjunction with Alliance Française and the Cultural services of the French Consulate, and supported by significant funding from The Creative Work Fund, Etants Donnés (the French-American Fund for the Performing Arts).

* Appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity; AEA Approved Showcase

Photo credit: Wendy K Yalom
June 13 - July 1
Preview: Tuesday, June 12, at 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday - Sunday at 8:30 p.m.
$18, $15 Students, Seniors
($10 Members)

"American Theater's Failure of Nerve"

2007-06-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Malachy, for drawing my attention to this article in the LA Weekly.

Enrique, when are we going to produce DBB? It doesn't seem worth the wait for anyone else ('specially not the bigguns) to do it.

Hunter Reunion Part 1

2007-06-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the 10 year anniversary of my graduation from Hunter College High School. click here for the most lackluster website ever (okay, maybe not ever, but it's definitely a competitive candidate)

Tonight there was a "Young Alumni" event, which I would have ignored entirely had Janak not invited me directly. Janak is among the handful of people from my high school with whom I am currently friends. I say currently for several reasons, one of them being that we weren't actually friends at all in high school.

The event was at a bar near my house, one I would never have entered of my own accord because, like nearly every other bar in my neighborhood, it's a loud, tacky establishment full of inebriated young wall street denizens. (Bonus: someone called the cops after the bar staff attempted, repeatedly and to no avail, to chuck a drunk and belligerent woman into the street).

Anyway, long story short: I sat for several hours (facilitated in part by the fact that Frank and I missed the performance of Theatre By The Blind's production of THE RULES OF CHARITY by John Belluso due to a series of farcical mishaps) with a group of men, the majority of whom I haven't seen in 10 years, and found the entire experience utterly fascinating. I didn't recognize a couple of them at first and several were people with whom I barely exchanged two words during our entire high school careers.

On the way home I marveled at the following things:

1) We've all turned out to be pretty different people, but there's a strong feeling of kinship.

2) These people are outstandingly reflective and articulate.

3) One of them knows one of my close childhood friends (Jesse, a musicologist currently in Boston, soon to be in the Bay Area - you should all meet him and his wife, Daphna!) and is about to start a PhD in musicology. We talked ourselves in circles about audiences, tempo, values, aesthetics, and intuitions...

4) Rachel - it's too bad we didn't know that Jason O. has been living in Tokyo for the last 5 years. He'll only be there for a few more months, but you two would have a great time chatting.

5) Rachel - I really miss you.

The official reunion is tomorrow.

pitaya

2007-05-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

My conversation about Brazil this weekend with a friend (post 365 performance) plus my consumption of a delicious papaya (or mamao if we want to be Brazilian about it) has got me thinking again about pitayas (my first encounter with them was in Barao Geraldo).

I frequently have visions of them. Take a look at this photo and you'll see why.

What a stunning fruit. (possibly the first time I've typed those words in the context of actual produce)

that hamburger...

2007-05-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

had nothing on the car that destroyed my rear wheel today.

:(

I wish I had taken a picture.

On the upside: I am getting a custom-built wheel for only a little more than it would have cost me to replace the original with the cheapest, crappiest one. I get to keep my hub nad it'll be travel-ready again. I'd like to look into taking a little bike trip upstate this summer.

Upside #2: I must have looked like I walked away from a gnarly crash of some kind, traipsing down 3rd avenue, carrying my warped bicycle on my back.

At least the frame is fully in tact!

on art and love

2007-05-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

My friend, Eve Miller, a fantastic cellist (who keeps her cello in the fiercest, sexiest pink case) -->
I just tried to find a picture of it online and failed, but I did come across this rather scary, Pepto-hued violin

--> recently wrote about creative acts sometimes producing a feeling of falling in love.
I've linked to it because it's an interesting discussion and I'm intrigued by her declaration that "it feels like love, but it isn't love"...and why that may or may not be the case.

I wonder how much of that statement has to do with the notion that love is somehow boundless...that the only love is "unconditional love". Someone recently told me, in a serious, look-into-my-eyes, you'd-better-believe it way, that she loved me. I was moved, perplexed, giddy, surprised, and all sorts of things (I was also, it must be said, not entirely sober)...Now, this declaration of love is the result of our work together as artists and our work together as artists is the result of (among other things) our generosity of spirit and sense of kinship and so cyclically on and on. I believe that she does love me. Does she wish she could see me every day or at least on a very frequent basis? I don't think so. Does she want to fuck me? Nah. Does she want to support me emotionally in all areas of my life? No and I suspect she's not equipped to do so. Does she want to support me in my work as an artist? Absolutely and she has in countless ways. Is the love between us limited in scope? Sure; but it's pretty palpable and there's "real" feeling involved. I love my family, but, thankfully, the love we all share is also limited in scope. Is the connection we share deeply physical? In many ways, yes, because the work we do together is physically strenuous, exhilarating, inescapably bodily, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual all at the same time.

I have another thing to say about sensuality and sexual arousal and a feeling of physical intimacy in moments of creation (see Eve's blog). Steve Wangh, former student of J Grotowski and amazing teacher in his own right, taught me a lot about possibility ... in particular about the possibility for intimacy in the warmup. You know, that period where people usually stand around wiggling their foot now and then, doing a jumping jack, humming, stomping in solitude, or engaging in some other sort of ritualistic and/or half hearted maneuver designed to warm up parts of yourself in isolation (alternately, the warmup may consist of some kind of mandatory, structured, group activity)... Well, when Steve worked with foolsFURY for a glorious week back in 2005 before we did Twelfth Night, he blew my mind. There I was, doing anything and everything I needed to warm up my body, voice, relationship to the space, and relationship to my mates/collaborators all at the same time; and I'd never felt such an intensely intimate (and somewhat scary) connection with a teacher. He was so open, so generous, so receptive...I found myself attracted to him on every level. Suddenly, I wanted to be naked with him, to touch him, to smell him...this profound sense of attraction was not inspired by lust in any commonplace, visual, pheromonic way...but it was how my mind turned on and tuned in to the gifts he gave me - the gifts of possibility, the openness, the creativity...it was an element of my gratitude and excitement and it was an effect, I think, of working with a teacher who in no way separated his own work - what he was exploring artistically - from what he was asking his students to explore. He trained with us, he leapt with us, he moved with us...not to show us how it should be done, but rather to allow us to participate in his doing and to participate in ours. "Never settle for anything less" he told me. And, by that, he meant: make your warmup what you need it to be, do what you need to do, be who you need to be.

And now, I have to quote another artist whom I don't know personally, but who has certainly changed my life: Chuck Mee.

From HOTEL CASSIOPEIA:

JOSEPH
Still,
if I were to say anything to you
it would be:
do what you love
not what you think you should do
or what you think is all you can do
what you think is possible for you
no
do what you love
and let the rest follow along behind it
or not
or not
because
even if it doesn't follow along behind
you will have done what you've loved
and you know what that is
you know better than anyone what you love
and a life centered around your love
cannot be wrong
cannot finally be disappointing

THE GIRL
Easy for you to say.

JOSEPH
No. No, it isn't.

AEA showcase code revision petition

2007-05-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

NYC99.ORG

unfuckwithable

2007-05-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

That's what it says on one of the Unamerican (www.unamerican.com) stickers on my bike.

Yesterday evening, while biking home, I nearly wiped out on a hamburger. An alarmingly hazardous puck of ground meat not too far from an uninviting pothole on 50th St.

Hmm.

365 Days/365 Plays with SITI tonight and Sunday

2007-05-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

Thursday at 8 at the Skirball Center (Washington Sq South - NYU's beautiful performance space)
Sunday at 3 at the Public Theater (425 Lafayette @ 4th)

all performances are free

www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu
www.siti.org
www.publictheater.org

365 Days 365 Plays Volunteers

SITI Company would like to thank all of the performers who volunteered their time and talent to help make SITI's presentation of Week 28 a success! In addition to company members Akiko Aizawa, J. Ed Araiza, Leon Ingulsrud, Ellen Lauren, Kelly Maurer, Elizabeth Moreau, Barney O'Hanlon, and Brian Scott, the following individuals brought great energy and skill to the performances - and we are grateful to have been able to share this unique theatrical event with them. Thank you!

Rachel Bonds (Ensemble)

Rachel is an actor/playwright who has trained and studied with Christopher Bayes, Jordan Harrison, Brighde Mullins, New Dramatists, Karen Kohlhaas, Roberto Sifuentes, The Atlantic Theatre Company, and most recently the SITI Company in Saratoga and in New York. She has written two one-woman shows: You and me cowboy, which she performed in the Club at LaMaMa, the Town Hall Theatre in Middlebury, VT, and at Brown University, and Princess and the P , performed at Brown in 2005. Most recently she has performed in The Golem, directed by Shira Milikowsky for Columbia Stages, 365 Days/365 Plays for Ars Nova, and (...) An Evening of Beckett Shorts, directed by Michael Rau. Rachel has worked as a Development intern at HERE Art Center and in Casting at the Roundabout Theatre. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Brown University.

James Ryan Caldwell (Ensemble)

Recent acting credits include Meigh (pronounced “me”) in The Bird Stories (which he wrote) at The Tank @ Collective Unconscious, Smurf in Ex-Antwone (P.S. 122 – BaiT Festival) Kyle in Both Sides (Classic Stage Company), Man in Uhaul Trilogy (Live Arts Festival/Philadelphia Fringe, dir. Juan Souki), and Anne Boleyn/Elizabeth I in Bloody Mary (Third Man Productions). Internationally he has performed The Bakkhai at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Festival of Ancient Greek Drama in Cyprus. In New York, James has studied with LAByrinth Theatre and the SITI Company. Upcoming: Sganarelle in Don Juan at Classic Stage Company.

Victoria Chamberlin (Ensemble)

Victoria is a graduate of Skidmore College and has been living and working in NYC for about a year. Some recent credits include "Losing Something" and "Degeneracy" with the 3 Legged Dog Media and Theater Group, and "Psyche" directed by Leon Ingulsrud. Victoria is thrilled to be working once again with fellow SITI students and the SITI company members themselves. Victoria is also a Pilates Instructor in training.

Davina Cohen (Ensemble)

Recent work includes: the Women's Project's site-specific Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$ at the WFC and the video installation and by Pierre St-Jacques. Select credits: Mary Zimmerman’s The Secret in the Wings at Berkeley Rep (us), La Damnation de Faust at the SF Opera, Magic Theater, SF Circus Center, SF’s infamous Trannyshack. Member, foolsFURY Theater Co; frequent collaborator with the Lark and the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation. Davina’s choreography and alter-ego performance poet are featured in the indie film Come Fly With Me Nude. BA Columbia U.

Christian Frederickson (Sound Designer, Viola)

Violist, composer, and sound designer, is a founding member of Rachel’s, an instrumental band with six albums on Touch and Go Records. Recent projects: "Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$" at the World Financial Center; "Hanjo" at Japan Society; "Fetes de la Nuit" Columbia Stages NYC; “King Lear” Point B Productions, Nashville, TN; “The History of the World...” Saratoga Springs, NY. Other credits: “The Water Project” Bowdoin College, ME; “Christina Olson: American Model” at P.S. 122; "systems/layers" with SITI Co. at Krannert Center and Utah State University.

Karen Grenke (Ensemble)

New York theatre includes: the upcoming Blue Puppies Cycle at The Chocolate Factory and In the Heart of a Chinese Curse with LIVE Theater. Previous NY theatre includes shows at Women's Project, the Ontological Theater, HERE, Theater for the New City, GAle GAtes et al. and Aisling Arts. Regional: Hangar Theater. Film: "Love Like Blood", "Rockport" and "The Fold". She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College. Ms. Grenke is a founder of Cagey Productions, a NY production company for emerging artists. She is a member of the Women's Project Producers Lab.

Jim Kane (Ensemble)

Jim Kane is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, now residing in New York. Some recent credits include: Death and the Maiden (One Year Lease), Hotel Oracle (Sum of Us Theatre Co.), Candles to the Sun (New Mummer Group @ Actors Theatre of Louisville), Pheadra x 3 (Phedra, Pheadra, and Pheadra’s Love), Under Milkwood (Williamstown), The Good Thief, Hellhound on My Trail, Waiting for Lefty, and One for the Road. Upcoming: Death and the Maiden in Athens, Greece (6/07), The Writers Exchange Project with New Mummer Group, in Kentucky (7/07). He is a founding member of both The Sum of Us Theatre Company and New Mummer Group.

Amanda Maddock (Ensemble)

Is a puppet artist. She performs and builds for theater and tv. Her work has been seen at PS122, St. Ann’s, Theater for the New City, and on “Crank Yankers,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Lazy Town,” and “The Book of Pooh.”

Valerie McCann (Ensemble)

This is Valerie's first NYC appearance. She is a founding member of ARTEL, a Los Angeles based physical theatre ensemble. Credits include: The Festivities (Tatyana), The Shadow (Princess), Far Away, and the US premiere of Top Gun! The Musical (Goose). Valerie has trained with SITI in Los Angeles and New York, and is a graduate of The College of Santa Fe.

Eve Miller (Cello)

Eve Miller began her musical studies at age 9 and in 1987 she was awarded a two-year fellowship with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC under the legendary cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich. Eve holds a Bachelor's Degree in Cello Performance from the Peabody Conservatory and a Master's Degree in Music History from Temple University. Eve has been a member of the ensemble Rachel’s since 1992. She has toured extensively with Rachel’s, performing all over the US, in Europe and in Korea. Rachel’s has fostered collaborations with other artistic disciplines, most notably with the actors of the SITI Company in New York, NY. From 2000 - 2005 Eve performed,toured, arranged and recorded with the band Matt Pond PA. She has recorded and performed with many alternative groups including: Lewis and Clarke, Mission of Burma, Low, Arcwelder, Mazarin, The Trolleyvox, Adam Arcuragi, The Swivel Chairs and Swearing at Motorists. Eve has twice recorded with Philadelphia's premier baroque orchestra,Tempesta di Mare and she performs as a regular member of the ensemble. She studied modern cello with David Teie, Stephen Kates and Jeffrey Solow. She studied baroque cello and viola da gamba with Ann Marie Morgan.

Amira Nader (Ensemble)

Amira Nader graduated from Florida State University with a BFA in Acting. She has appeared in Hearts & Minds in the 2006 Downtown Urban Theater Festival and most recently in Milk Can Theater's Potluck Plays. Past roles include Lydia in Big Love and Rosencrantz in Hamlet.

Jeremy Pickard (Ensemble)

JEREMY PICKARD has performed with madhause, Allentown Shakespeare in the Park, the Obie-award winning team of Lisa D’Amour and Katie Pearl, the Odin Teatret-inspired Street Theatre program, New Mummers Group, Kitchen Theatre Company and Columbia University’s MFA directing program. As a director, Jeremy has worked for the Julliard School of Music, HERE Arts Center, chashama, Kitchen Theatre Company, Tin Can Fantasy Factory and Superhero Clubhouse. Jeremy is a graduate of Ithaca College and the National Theatre Institute. He continues to train extensively with SITI Company and is helping to develop East Coast Artists’ unique Rasaboxes program. This summer Jeremy will perform and manage for The Savannah Theatre Project, an international arts exchange (www.thesavannahtheatreproject.org). Catch them at the NYC Fringe Fest before they travel to South Africa!

Stephanie Pistello (Ensemble)

Stephanie is the Founding Artistic Director and General Manager of New Mummer Group Theatre. Training: The Atlantic Theatre Company Conservatory, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company. Directing credits include: Candles to the Sun at Actors Theatre of Louisville (produced by NMG.) Assistant Directing: Our Town (NYU/Atlantic Studio), Into the Woods (Lexington Children’s Theatre.) Acting credits include: The Cherry Orchard, Street Scene, Sweeny Todd, Peer Gynt, The Miracle Worker, The Government Inspector, and The Complete Works of William Shakespear (abridged.) As an educator,s he has worked with the Lexington Children’s Theatre (KY,) The Women’s Project (NYC,) and the Atlantic Theatre Company (NYC.)

Pip Smith (Ensemble)

Pip first trained with the SITI company in Saratoga Springs 2005. Her experience with the company encouraged her to finally write, direct and produce Titus! The Ultimate Murder Ballad Musical alongside a cast of 17 performers, 3 musicians and 4 co-writers for her company gumption ubertheatre (www.gumptionubertheatre.org.au) in 2006. Pip isreturning to Sydney in June to pick up where she left off, after having her creative batteries recharged in the SITI Company’s Viewpoints Level 2 class. Pip is also a singer songwriter (www.myspace.com/pipsmithandredstar).

Liz Stanton (Ensemble)

Liz received her MFA in Theater: Contemporary Performance from Naropa University in May2006. New York credits include: The Rover, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night (Clark Studio Theater), Hedda Gabler, Hamlet (Raw Space), Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Changeling (Culture Project). Regional credits include: The Buddy Holly Story, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Cole, Closer Than Ever, Romeo and Juliet, Parallel Lives, Zen Cabaret, Letting the Body Speak and Persephone. Her most recent show: Power to Pleasing: The Sex Lives of Teenage Girls won Pick of the Fringe at the Boulder International Fringe Festival in 2005 and 2006.

Follow that dime!

2007-05-20T15:24:00.001-07:00

My Women's Project cohort Edwina Findley snapped this delightful (or is it disturbing?) image of the dime, dining on miso soup, backstage at the World Financial Center.

I have no idea how to rotate a photo before posting it to a blog.

upcoming performances

2007-05-17T20:43:00.001-07:00

After "Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$" ends, you can catch me in performance:

1) as Betsy in selected scenes from "I Heart Kant" by Ken Urban, a fundraiser for Theatre 1050.

A Night of Ken Urban, May 21, 8pm and 10pm
The Gene Frankel Theatre
24 Bond Street
New York, NY 10012
reserve tickets by calling Greta Pauley @ 646.505.8343

2) with the SITI Company in 365 Days/365 Plays

SITI Company participates in Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays National Festival

You're invited to see SITI's presentation of Week 28 in what is being billed as the "largest collaboration in the history of American theater." In November 2002 Suzan-Lori Parks committed to writing a play a day for the next 365 days. Over the course of this year, over 60 selected theater companies – curated by The Public and the 365 Days/365 Plays National Festival – will perform these brief, brilliant plays. For more on the festival click here.

SITI's performance will be on Thursday May 24th at 8pm at NYU's Skirball Center. The performance features SITI Company members along with performers who recently trained with SITI as well as members of the musical ensemble Rachel's. Tickets are FREE and will be available at the Skirball box office starting May 18th. Call 212-992-8484 for details.

We will also perform on Sunday, May 27 at 3 pm with the Atlantic Theater Co and INTAR.

I'm in the NY Times

2007-05-17T20:42:00.001-07:00

Check it out: a feature on the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$" performances at the WFC I'm doing with the Women's Project.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/nyregion/17theater.html?ex=1180065600&en=6fa9ed2a1e1571f7&ei=5070&emc=eta1

If you have the actual paper, you can see some snazzy photos (one featuring yours truly) on page 2 of the Metro section (sorry, outta towners).

We have 7 more shows (in 2 days!), so please come by. They begin at the Gatehouse A/Liberty St Bridge entrance (Liberty and South End Ave) and travel to various locations in the WFC. Friday at 1, 5, and 7. Saturday at 1, 2:30, 4, and 5:30.

http://womensproject.org/on_our_stage.htm

Please spread the word!

update

2007-04-30T04:13:00.000-07:00

I returned from San Francisco after several readings of Sheila Callaghan's FANTASTIC new play, That Pretty Pretty; Or The Rape Play. She's still working on the play, but it's already phenomenal in structure, style, and substance. I am privileged to have gotten a taste of it and I hope to be a part of a future NY production.

I also had a chance to see four shows in the FURY Factory, which were beautiful and full of cool shit (by which I mean they all made excellent use of things that are uniquely theatrical, things would look probably look ridiculous on camera).

The first show I saw was foolsFURY's Turn of the Screw with Laley, Csilla, Brian, and former fF member Alexander Lewis. Rod Hipskind (director of foolsFURY's What You Will or Twelfth Night, in which I played Feste) directed and his distinctive visual sensibility shined.

I have many more glowing things to say about my visit to San Francisco, but I don't have much time for blogging right now.

Here's why:

Saturday, May 5: I am shooting "And", a collaboration with video artist Pierre St-Jacques

Here's a little bit about him from his website :

St-Jacques studied Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design where his initial ideas about perception and the structure of narrative were planted. He has shown his work at Artist's Space in New York, at Gallerie Joella in Finland, and more recently at the DiVA and Pool art fairs in New York and Miami, the Bronx Museum of Art in New York and, Real Artways in Connecticut . He is currently in pre-production stages on two projects entitled "Passages" and "and" which will be shot in 2007.

Wednesday, May 16-Saturday, May 19: I am performing as "The Dime" in Keep the Change. It's part of a site-specific performance written, directed, and produced by members of the Women's Project Lab. The performances are inside the World Financial Center at 1 pm, 5 pm, and 7 pm on weekdays and 1, 2:30, 4, and 5:30 on Saturday.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fund$

Monday, May 21: A Night of Ken Urban to benefit Theatre 1050. I'm playing Betsy in several scenes from the fantastic play I Heart Kant. Performances are at 8 and 10 pm at the Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond St, NY, NY 10012). I'm not sure of ticket price. Check the Theatre 1050 website in a couple of weeks for more info.

Thursday, May 24 and Sunday, May 27: 365 Days/365 Plays with SITI Company. I'm thrilled to collaborate with SITI Co members on this assortment of odd and interesting plays by Suzan-Lori Parks. The Thursday performance is at the Skirball Center (566 LaGuardia Place, Washington Square South) at 8 pm. The Sunday performance is at the Public Theater (425 Lafayette St.) at 3 pm. On Sunday we will share the bill with INTAR and the Atlantic Theater Company. The tickets are free.

Now the appropriate thing to do would be for me to send a flurry of postcards with this information to agents, casting directors, directors, friends, and everyone I've ever met. Well, I sent one to my hair stylist this morning. At least one important person knows where and when to see me perform.

Rachel

2007-04-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

My friend, Rachel, whom most of you have probably met, is currently in China doing research for her dissertation.

She sent me this photo, which she discovered is online, along with an interview (in which she managed a clever tie-in to the American tradition of apple-picking). Apparently, it's not unheard of to urge foreign scholars into the field (as it were), tell them to pick tea leaves (without actually instructing them on the practice), thrust various reporters and photographers in front of them, and have a big media party.

I am insanely jealous. I love tea. I love this photo. And I really love the person in it.

a mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound ... or a comp to a showcase?

2007-04-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

AEA has this policy that requires any production operating under a showcase agreement (employing AEA members without pay [they are required to give a transportation stipend]) to offer 1 comp ticket at the box office to any current AEA member.

Of course, the same policy does not apply to Broadway productions - any production where significant financial resources are involved and ticket prices are high. It applies exclusively to self-producing scenarios, where everyone is scrambling to find the money and space to present their work in the first place. Is that, therefore, all the more reason for me to put $20 into my friend's pocket (or the pocket of whoever it is that's actually holding the purse strings) if I can or, since it's a labor of love in the first place and no one's expecting to make any sort of profit, it doesn't matter either way?

Under any Bay Area Project Policy agreement, AEA members are entitled to comps - the BAPP is the Bay Area equivalent of the showcase agreement. Since I was non-Equity for the majority of my time in SF, I was never in the situation of turning up at the box office and demanding a comp - comps were either offered to me or they weren't, I had a friend in the box office or I didn't, I ushered or helped out or something; but never did I flash a union card to people I didn't know and say, "I'd like to go in for free." And because I was working there and connected to that community, I never felt ambivalent about accepting comps - it seemed a part of a project we were all in together. Some nights at foolsFURY and Shotgun it seemed like half the house was comped, but the box office sales never had an effect on my stipend and, of course, we tried to sell as many tickets as possible; but, ultimately, the real goal was getting butts in seats by any means...and the real money to make the work, I had the sense, came from grants and donations. And we ALWAYS passed the hat after the show - something I don't think I've EVER seen in NY. Is that because in NY everyone's a "professional" or "aspiring professional" and theater professionals aren't buskers in the subway and so don't pass around hats unless they're soliciting for Broadway Cares? Is it because people love the notion of grass-roots art in SF? Is it because there's less pretending and posturing there about the economic reality of theater? In SF I frequently made use of reciprocal comp agreements between companies as a foolsFURY member or a Berkeley Rep understudy, I got comped at the Magic all the time because I was a lit committee member. Berkeley Rep and Marin Theatre Company participated in them, Cal Shakes and ACT generally don't. And in SF, there's a sort of general community vibe - people pay for tickets when they can, people comp their friends... And, of course, if you're an actor and you've worked at Company X in the recent past, you probably didn't receive very much money for so doing, so Company X is often more than happy to give you a ticket to their next show in return. I can't begin to count the number of shows that were donation-only, suggested admission, no one turned away for lack of funds. Shows that had a "pay what you can" night every week. And these were shows in theaters, shows getting reviewed by papers, "serious" shows, not just things in people's living rooms or what have you. Even ACT and Cal Shakes have student tickets and pay-what-you-can nights. And the student tickets are, you know, half off and you can generally sit anywhere that's available. I wonder how much of that attitude is attributable to a larger difference in perspective and size in the SF and NY markets. Almost no one in SF is operating under the pretense that they will, in fact, make a living doing theater there, so no one bothers, really, to pretend that money has all that much to do with the theater they make. In NY, however, it's a different story - very nearly everyone is trying to succeed in the business of theater and so discussions of comps and so forth, no matter how minute, seem to have greater resonance.

Last month I saw a show featuring someone I'd just met at the Tank at Collective Unconscious. I stood at the box office deliberating over whether to ask for a comp or pay. The director and producer of the event was at the box office and I discussed with her my ambivalence about it and she said, "by all means, have a comp...I mean, we're using Equity actors and not paying them so it all evens out, right?" Incidentally, someone ended up having an extra ticket so he gave it to me - I didn't end up paying for one, but I also didn't take an official "Equity comp".

The thing is, in response to the aforementioned box office-stationed director/producer: at the moment, my relationship to AEA is so phenomenally abstract. I go to the AEA audition lounge, I present my card at various places, sometimes accruing a discount as a result, and I audition. I'm not getting insurance right now, I'm not working on a full contract...I'm just kind of... _sensing_ my union membership as opposed to, I don't know, _actively participating_ in it. All the theater-making I'm doing at the moment is unaffected by my union status.

I've been pondering all this stuff for quite some time and Malachy Walsh's recent musings on theater, class, and entitlement made me want to throw my two genuine, if not especially articulate or conclusive, cents into the discussion.

Not too long ago, J Ed Araiza from the SITI Company asked a bunch of us to come up with aphorisms beginning with "Art is...". I misheard him and thought he'd asked us to create aphorisms for the artist so I came up with, "Flowers you've shit on make a stinky bouquet." And then I tried to generate one beginning with "Art is" and I couldn't, so I just left it at that (which works, even if it is a bit of a cop out). Anyway, someone else in the group said, "Art is something you don't neeed, but that, for some reason, the artist thinks is valuable and you should have it." Or something to that effect.

Someone I met recently, a director who also moved to NY from SF, said to me, "The level of talent in NY is so incredibly high. It's great - I can get unbelievably talent actors who would give their right arm just to be in an unpaid showcase here." I thought, "that's a tragic, not great." We have this huge glut of actors in NY who are, not only hungry for money, but just hungry to make work under any circumstances...to be cast in _something_ because, unless you're a full-time solo artist, you need other people to make theater happen. And along with the system of, hopefully, getting paid, actors are also participating in a system where "success" means getting hired - getting selected out of a group of competitors - by someone else. And I am grateful for my collaborators and community in the Bay Area that encouraged me to be an actor who cultivates creative partnerships to create work under whatever circumstances, not just one who auditions and waits for someone to pick me. Somestimes I think about what might have happened if I'd started here - how much of what I did and didn't do artistically would have been determined by some set of inherited expectations about financial success, professional success, and career rather than the freedom to explore what interested me artistically. And I'm not even talking about the logistical, how-am-I-going-to-feed-myself-and-pay-the-rent questions; but simply the paradigm in which unpaid work is less valuable work, in which artists who don't make a living at their art equal less talented or "unprofessional" artists - how would that have affected me? I'm glad that I started in a market (see how pervasive it all is?)...in a _place_ where I felt safely distanced from those ideas...where it seemed that I was surrounded by "retired young people" (as the saying goes) and dedicated mainstays who'd chosen NOT to live in NY or LA, who made art because they loved making art, not because they loved making money from their art. Of course, that's why everyone I know in NY makes art too, but it's easy to lose track of that sometimes in such a big, materialistic, money-driven city. And the pressure to "succeed" in the financial, material, I make-my-living-in-theater sense is that much greater here because the dream or the expectation that you actually can is very much alive and the competition is huge and the housing market is insane and...

What do you think?