A dominating thread of grief and healing wound its way through La MaMa Moves! 2021 and most of the artists brought song and storytelling into a festival that, as curator Nicky Paraiso acknowledged was full of resilient artists “making work that is essential and true to this pivotal moment in time.”
Somehow, it made perfect sense that we did it during a global pandemic. I think we created something that does three things; captures our current reality, comments on the future, and will hopefully have a long, relevant life after we’re through the other side.
On Friday, a battle against nightmares. On Saturday, the struggle to accomplish one basic task. On Sunday, a dinosaur trying to jump-rope. And on Sunday, the crushing weight of depression.
Live art is still here, and as Shelley understood two centuries ago, it will remain alive for as long as we do.
PASSAGE THRU feels like stepping through a portal, a fable we get to participate in alongside the performers.
Edward Einhorn has gamified independent theater producing, in a fun but remarkable educational exercise is demystifying just what it takes to make a play
Elliot spent his career looking for the meaning of this elusive concept [of dramaturgy], and with the following we attempt to honor him and continue his quest by articulating what Elliot’s dramaturgy meant to us, his many collaborators and friends.
I hope the more arts workers and others share these stories, the more clear and obvious the focus on change becomes. —Emily Johnson
Fact and fiction, inseparable, blur and tease. Cut to disco ball, still swinging. Slow down and watch the air sparkle.
Misha “sees” in multiple dimensions, as all great directors do, and through multiple worldviews, too, as an artist whose work is informed by being Bengali, queer, and an immigrant.
Created and performed by Holly Sass and Jonathan Matthews / BREAKTIME
Along with the liveness of unmediated human presence, THE CONSOLE manages to be zeitgeisty, equal parts response to Covid isolation and election anxiety, in a way that isn’t instructive. It feels vital, earnest, and all the more critically alive for its irreverence.
