williamaveryhudson

? - Deep Trance Behavior in Potatoland
A Richard Foreman Theater Machine
St. Mark’s Church, NYC
27 April 2008

NYC Live Cast
Man in Striped Suit: Joel Israel
Girl in Sailor Hat: Caitlin McDonough Thayer
Girl with Black Hair: Fulya Peker
Girl with the Golden Dress: Caitlin Rucker
Girl with the Tiara: Sarah Dahlen

Voices on Tape: Richard Foreman, Kate Manheim, André Malraux, Sarah Bernhardt

See production website for additional personnel, including Japanese and English filmed cast, and more about this experiment in human consciousness.

Aw, it’s over. But the final night was memorably defective.

Richard Foreman’s band of pixies, expanded to include video visitors from Japan and England, stirred the brains of the audience to reveal “beneath, the skeleton-support of consciousness itself.”

A pixie is said to enjoy playing tricks on people, for example by stealing their belongings or throwing things at them.

-Wikipedia

Teşekkür ederim, Richard bey. Your machines run deeper as they gain glamour. Unapproachable performances by the live cast and video contributors, abetted by spirit photography, a multinational hummingbird, sinking pianos. We fall.

My dream is to see a Ontological-Hysteric machine in Berlin’s Volksbühne. Can it happen?

theatre avant-garde

Comments and Links Appreciated!

Rebecca Kelly Ballet
Spring Performances
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
24-26 April 2008

Based in Soho, with a long-time summer residency in the Adirondacks, Rebecca Kelly bridges the urban and rural - bringing “a humanist outlook to the stage through distinctive, emotive, and topical choreography, featuring her highly expressive company, versatile in both modern and classical ballet technique.”

A strong, confident production, blending emotional authenticity, environmental consciousness and social activism with highly accomplished balletic artistry. Consistent technical virtuosity by each of the dancers, solo, in duets, and ensemble.

Artistic Director/Choreographer: Rebecca Kelly

Dancers: Emily SoRelle Adams, Mona Afable, Kathryn Albarelli, Giorgia Bovo, Erin Ginn, Uthman Ebrahim, Raul Peinado, Indre Rockefeller, Therese Wendler, Royce Zackery

Lighting Design: Tony Marques
Costume Design: Anna Alisa Belous
Painter, Costume Design: Donna Marxer

Writing in Water (World Premiere)
Costumes: Cindy Tran, Appleby
Masks: painted by Donna Marxer
Music: Beethoven, Grosse Fugue

Tear of the Clouds (1989)
Requiem for the forests everywhere
Costumes: painted by Donna Marxer
Music: Mozart, Ennio Morricone, RC Nakoi, wolves

Adirondack Elemental (NYC Premiere)
Costumes: AnnaAlisa Belous

Waters
Music: Sue Grimm, flute, with Kyle Murray

Earth
Music: Abby Newton, cello

Air
Music: Martha Gallagher, Celtic harp

Long Time Passing (NYC Premiere)
Inspired by letters from First Lieutenant Nolan Albarelli, serving in Iraq 2006-2007
Costumes: U.B. Dancewear and Appleby
Music: Carl Vine, String Quartet No. 3

2002 Chaos; 2003 Shipping Out; 2008 Coming Home

dance

Comments and Links Appreciated!

The Global Alliance for ICT and Development and UN-Habitat sponsored an all-day forum on Sustainable Urbanization in the Information Age, featuring mayors and other representatives from some of the world’s biggest and most rapidly growing cities.

Key Speakers
Michael Adlerstein, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, Executive Director of the Capital Master Plan
Rohit T. Aggarwala, Director of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, New York City Mayor’s Office of Operations for PLANYC 2030
Thomas K. Wright, Executive Director, Regional Plan Association
Jonathan Rose, President, Jonathan Rose Companies
Urs Gauchat, Dean, School of Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Arif Daglar, Mayor of Kartal, Istanbul, Turkey
José Fogaca, Mayor of Porto Alegre, Brazil
Samuel Moreno Rojas, Mayor of Bogota, Colombia
Ramon Garcia Bragado, Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning and Housing, Barcelona City Council, Spain
Moussa Sy, Deputy Mayor in charge of Administration, Dakar City, Senegal
Lance Jay Brown, School of Architecture, City University of New York
Cheong Koon Hean, Chief Executive Officer, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore
Adam Kimbisa, Mayor of Dar-es Salaam, Tanzania
Pablo Otaola, General Director of Bilbao´s Reconstruction
Ali Riza Gulerman, Deputy Secretary-General, Izmir Municipality, Turkey
Rafik Aouali, Director of Town Planning, Municipality of Tunis, Tunisia

Selected notes:

• More than half of the world’s people live in urban areas.
• In no other time have there been so many cities growing at such unprecedented rates.
• The most effective sustainability programs spend 10-15% on education.
• Sustainability ssues must transcend political office.
• Private participation, but public strategy - sustainability needs holistic thinking, which is not a strength of the private sector.
• Mayors are in many ways ideal policymakers for sustainability issues. Mayors who can look beyond short-term political gain to plan for the future.
• Old politics = partisanship; New politics = shared values.
• How to pursue sustainability under pressure of energy and food shortages?

See forum blog at: http://www.un-gaid.org/en/node/2355

united nations urban planning

Comments and Links Appreciated!

The Secret Rapture
by David Hare
Sanford Meisner Theater, NYC
Friday 18 April 2008 (closes 27 April)

Presented by Invisible LLC
Cast: Zachary Fletcher, Jacob Grigolia, Miranda Jonte, Mia Moreland, Christian Sineath, Elizabeth Steinhart

Director: Jessica Forsythe
Lighting and Sound Design: Randy Harmon

A thoughtful, focused, and very well-played production of David Hare’s meditation on England near the end of Margaret Thatcher’s decade in office. The drama is less about politics than the relationships between the characters, and the singular morality of Isobel, portrayed with strength and sensitivity by Elizabeth Steinhart. Miranda Jonte is electric in the role of Katherine, a lost soul burned by wasted love.

drama off-off broadway

Comments and Links Appreciated!

Velocity (US Premiere)
Wed 16 April 2008
Joyce Theater, NYC

Choreography by Horse

Dancers: Wu-Kang Chen, Wei-Gia Su, Yu-Ming Yang, Yi Huang, Tzu-Ling Chang, Yung-Yu Kao
Costumes: Jordan Gao
Set Design: I-Ju Huang
Lighting: Aaron Copp

The Taiwanese all-male dance company Horse combines original modern dance, silent movie comedy, and gangster movie tropes for an absorbing view of young dance.

From the program notes:

“Horse was founded in 2004 by five young men who share their love for dance and choreography. Based on their observations of male bodies in the urban landscape and the movement qualities unique to their generation, the five young men aspire to capture in their dance the changing aesthetics of today. As an all-male dance company, which is a rarity in Taiwan’s dance world, Horse, though relatively new, has already established a distinctive profile. Their success sets a good example of how vital and creative the younger generations can be. The members of Horse seek to provide a platform for the creative expression of Taiwan’s young dance artists. By regularly staging works of Taiwanese choreographers as well as commissioning international artists to set pieces on the company, Horse aims to create a fertile ground for mutual stimulation and to establish a repertoire of “changeable,” “multi-faceted,” and “diverse” styles. The logo of Horse is a Chinese character made of three horses, indicating the strong motivation, explosive energy and deep-felt passion for dance of its members.”

Music
Mozart, Adagio from the Gran Partita
Bach, Partita No. 1 in b minor, BMV 1002: Double
Adams, Dust Into Dust
Martland, Re: Mix
Cage, Four Walls: Act I Scene II & Act I Scene I
Tesi, Mazzolin Fatale
Gordon, Tinge, imreadywhenyouare
Lange, Little Eye

Read Jennifer Dunning’s review in the New York Times.

dance modern dance

Comments and Links Appreciated!

corner of avenue C and 2nd street

After four years, can’t quite claim as a discovery. But night after night (except Mondays), some of the best avant-garde music in NYC. Sets at 8 and 10 pm.

John Zorn is the artistic director, and each month a different musician curates. No bar, so all ages are welcome. 100% of door goes to the performers.

website

experimental music avant-garde music

Comments and Links Appreciated!

The United States helped draft the Geneva Conventions to protect the human rights of prisoners in wartime after the atrocities of World War II. With a stroke of the pen on February 7, 2002, George W. Bush declared them irrelevant. He was supported in this act by Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith, Pentagon general counsel William J. Haynes II, Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, vice presidential counsel David S. Addington, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald S. Rumsfeld, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, among others.

Murat Kurnaz gives riveting testimony of the human cost of their malfeasance in Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo. A vivid memoir reconstructing Mr. Kurnaz’s experiences in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Cuba, it is sickening reading at times. It should be read by every American, because we also contributed to the suffering of Mr. Kurnaz and his family through our tax dollars, and especially through the 2004 presidential election. Kurnaz’s fundamental humanity transcends his brutal treatment at the hands of his captors and their governments and collaborators in the United States, Germany, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Incredibly, he refuses to demonize Americans. While shaming the worst in us, he inspires the best in us.

Next stop is Phillippe Sands’s article in the May 2008 Vanity Fair, “The Green Light,” which begins to make the case for war crime charges. The article is excerpted from Sands’s upcoming book, Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values.

This is not just about the past. Murat Kurnaz’s testimony is directly relevant to the upcoming presidential election. The Military Commissions Act of 2006, brokered by Senator John McCain, “granted the president the power to designate and detain indefinitely any noncitizen he decides is an ‘illegal enemy combatant’ with no judicial oversight. The bill also failed to address the question of American citizens, whom the Bush administration has long claimed also can be declared enemy combatants and detained indefinitely.” (Brock D, The Media and John McCain, upcoming, 2008)

guantanamo geneva conventions torture war crimes

Comments and Links Appreciated!