Recently, I came across a notebook I used while working with the inimitable Richard Foreman, the legendary theater maker and self-proclaimed “King of the Avant-Garde.” The incomprehensible instructions that follow are quoted exactly as I wrote them, in italics.

(photo: Paula Court)
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This just in:

Under the full moon on Tuesday May 4, beloved performance legend Tom Murrin will present a version of his notorious Full Moon shows, in unprecedented fashion. this is to be a double feature, and a combative one at that. Billed as Alien Comic vs. Jack Bump, Murrin will pit two of his outrageous alter egos against each other, with a new bit of wardrobian sketch chaos as Alien Comic, followed by a special preview of the latest ribald comedy of manners from Jack Bump. Neither will emerge unscathed, and no one will exit dry.

The show is at The Gershwin Hotel, 7 E. 27th St., 8 pm, $10.
Culturebot says GO!

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I was reading my weekly Flavorpill and I read a listing for a new show by Melanie Hoopes called Weight. Melanie conducted over fifty interviews to create a one-woman show that focuses on the lives of women suffering from eating disorders. Intrigued, I gave Melanie a call to talk about the show, her process and the material.
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Late last night, the following transmissions were received amidst a strange glow from a mysterious being known as ‘Servant of Og’. ‘Servant of Og’ demands our attention every Friday night at 10:30 PM at Arthur Seelen Theater. Dicover the magic that is Organatron
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Deb Margolin is a playwright, performance artist, founding member of the Split Britches theater company, Obie Award winner, professor and mother. I had the opportunity to speak with her after a preview performance of her play Three Seconds in the Key, which is based on her experiences with Hodgkin’s disease.
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Maybe I’m the last to notice, but they re-did the theater section of the online version of the NY Times! Wow. And they’ve added these “critics picks” sections with profiles of some of the critics.

They also have a review up there of Deb Margolin’s Three Seconds In the Key. Check back here in the next few days for a full-length interview with Deb where she talks about the show, feminism and much more.

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Neal Medlyn is a long, tall Texan, noted entertainist, and reigning Mr. Lower East Side. He is currently performing is new show Manfinger or Neal Medlyn’s Manfinger at Collective Unconscious. Over pizza in the Financial District, he is interrogated by his friend and frequent collaborator, Rachel Shukert, for Culturebot.
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For an ass accustomed to the broken folding chairs and an eye trained for the brackish dust boxes of downtown theater, the opulence of my surroundings was a little overwhelming. Everywhere, well-heeled young spectators sunk into luxurious brocade sofas. High picture windows boasted pale, flounced draperies, and the deep red walls were lined with tastefully arranged lithographs illuminated by the golden flecks cast by antique lamps. In the corner, a baby grand gleamed expectantly, and I had been served wine, free of charge.

Free alcohol. Comfortable seating. A three-story brownstone full of friendly, earnest people who seem to genuinely like each other. Where the hell was I?
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Noemie Lafrance is a site-specific choreographer and founder of Sens Production, an experimental arts organization dedicated to the creation and production of dance work staged within urban architecture. Since 2000, Ms. Lafrance has collaborated with large groups of dancers, designers and artists to create, produce and perform work for a variety of audiences in New York City. Ms. Lafrance received the 2003 Bessie Award for Choreography for Descent, and she has been commissioned to create a new work in the spring of 2005 by the Whitney Museum at Altria in the Performances On 42nd Street series. Her upcoming dance, Noir, is co-produced by The Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and will be performed at The Delancey and Essex Municipal Garage as part of the 2004 Whitney Biennial.

During the month of May, Noemie Lafrance will transform one of downtown’s municipal parking garages into a “live motion picture” for her latest choreography Noir. When I arrived at her Brooklyn studio, she was busy at an antique, treadle-run sewing machine altering one of the sixty 1940’s style costumes that she is creating for the piece. She continued to work, now hemming a jacket by hand, as we talked about her newest project and her interest site-specific choreography.
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In anticipation of Thursday’s panel discussion with the NEA 4 at NYU, we asked the artists to share their thoughts on art, politics, and their experience with the NEA.

Tim Miller is an internationally acclaimed performance artist. Miller’s creative work as a writer and performer strives to find an artistic, spiritual and political exploration of his identity as a gay man. Hailed for its humor and passion, Miller’s has tackled this challenge in such pieces as Postwar, Cost of Living, Democracy in America, Buddy Systems, Sex/Love/Stories, My Queer Body, Naked Breath, Fruit Cocktail, Shirts & Skin, Glory Box, and Body Blows. His latest work Us will be presented at P.S. 122 in Fall 2004. Miller’s performances have been presented all over North America, Australia, and Europe in such prestigious venues as Yale Repertory Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He is the author of the book Shirts & Skin and his solo theater works have been published in the play collections O Solo Homo and Sharing the Delirium. Miller’s new book Body Blows, an anthology of six of his performance scripts with an introduction by Tony Kushner, was published by University Of Wisconsin Press in 2002. Since 1990, Miller has taught performance at UCLA and Cal State. He is a co-founder of the two most influential performance spaces in the United States: Performance Space 122 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA.
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