New York Theater: There are almost 100 shows produced by the seven annual theater festivals listed below, all of whom begin in January. Largely experimental, avant-garde, mixed-genre, and at much lower ticket prices than most theater in New York, they take over venues throughout New York every January. That’s the month the Association of Performing Arts Presenters holds its annual convention here — thousands of people who book shows for a living, a natural audience for cutting-edge work from all over.
2 comments:
One of the shows coming to New York this winter is “Dead as a Dodo” from Wakka Wakka theater company, and it is truly unlike anything I've ever seen. This production takes place in the underworld using puppets. It was particularly interesting how they chose to mask their puppeteers. They were dressed in all black, but covered in sparkles?? With this costume choice, the puppeteer's gave the background of the puppets depth and dimension creating an almost void of stars. This dynamic background allowed the white skeleton boy and dodo puppet to really stand out. Their costumes also curiously had eye and mouth holes that allowed the actors to use facial expressions despite the concealing costumes. The company also used projections onto a drapery of hanging strings to add more movement to the action which made the puppeteers almost disappear. This was truly unlike any theater I have ever seen. It’s whimsy and magic was unparalleled and begs the question how we can bring more whimsy into our work.
There’s a lot to digest just in this one article. So many pieces stand out to me! Particularly, I’m interested in Blind runner by Amir Reza Koohestani, Space Bridge by La MaMa in association with En Garde Arts and Visual Echo, The Search for Power by The Invisible Dog Art Center, and Gwyneth Goes Skiing by by Linus Karp and Joseph Martin. With Blind Runner, I’m interested to see how Iranian politics are interwoven with the exploration of two somewhat parallel relationships, and how each individual is marked both as an individual and as a part of a larger story. With Space Bridge, I’m interested in the dynamics between the teenage Russian refugees and the teenage Americans, and how they incorporate the 1983 peace mission by Samantha Smith. With The Search for Power, I’m interested in the parallelism with electrical power and governmental power, and how the design might lead the audience to such a message. With Gwyneth Goes Skiing, I’m interested in the comedy and performance aspects.
Post a Comment