Category: Responses
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“Make me possible”: Dealing with Precarity in Caryl Churchill’s GLASS. KILL. WHAT IF IF ONLY. IMP.
A glowing platform. A cloud. A white box. A living room rug. These are the four settings of Caryl Churchill’s series of one-act plays presented this past spring at the Public Theater under the catch-all title Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp. Written separately, Churchill’s short, punchy pieces range from the absurd (a girl…
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some rooms are meant for waiting: Caitlin Adams’s ASSEMBLY is a phenomenology of emergent meaning
“Go!” is an affirmation of consent. Meaning emerges from this limited vocabulary as well. “Ready? Four!” becomes “ready for” a dangling question asking, “ready for what?”
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In CURRICULUM III: PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS Bill T. Jones Journeys Into the Heart of American Darkness
At the conclusion of the electrifying performance of Curriculum III: People, Places, and Things, members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company took their bows to a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience. When the dancers invited their company’s Artistic Director to join them, it was no surprise. Opening nights, especially when it´s a…
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The Wind in Alethea Pace’s BETWEEN WAVE AND WATER: A Review and Reflection.
For a story honoring the history within the water, I am struck by the wind. It’s 12:30 pm on a breezy Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. The days leading up to between wave and water are a swell of persistent heavy rainfall that stings of glaciers. Today, though, it feels as if the Bronx is…
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Memory in Movement: Bill T. Jones’ in MEMORY PIECE at NYLA
At the opening of Memory Piece: Mr. Ailey, Alvin…the un-Ailey?, we catch glimpses of Bill T. Jones dancing in and out of darkness. His flowing white pants and matching shirt caress his body´s sinewy strength, and he practically prances in and out of the various squares of light that flash on to the floor before…
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An Artistic Inheritance: George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU at the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research
“What do we carry? What do we inherit?” On one of the first hot, humid nights this spring, I entered the packed Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research’s intimate loft space on Huron Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for a preview of the revival of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s three-act play, You Can’t Take It…
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The Vivid Luminosity That Words Can’t Carry: Jean-Christophe Maillot’s ROMÉO ET JULIETTE
How does one take a classic literary work shaped by poetry and weave it into movement? How can you craft a physical manifestation of a character’s declarative words and let their psychological complexities dwell in every step? If there was never a tale of more woe than that of Juliet and her Romeo, never…
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Serviceability with an Edge: A 21st Century Staging of the 1937 Hit YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
You can’t knock You Can’t Take it With You. The 1937 Pulitzer Prize winning play, which just enjoyed a production at the Brooklyn Centre for Theatre Research, remains popular among high schools for good reason: its extended cast of kooky characters, absurd politics, and parlor-room fun is as American and serviceable as apple pie. This…
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In REVOLUTION, Brett Neveu presents a radical vision of celebrations and the friends who make them possible
“Celebrations are rare these days.” That’s what Jame says to her best friend, Puff, the recently promoted and highly anxious manager at Revolution Cuts, a chain hair salon nestled in the middle of a strip mall somewhere in America. They’re trying to decide what to do to commemorate Puff’s 26th birthday, but so far, all…
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La MaMA MOVES MFA Evening and The Gift of Time
For the 20th incarnation of La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival programming director Nicky Paraiso reminded us of the importance of experimental theater in times of political turmoil. Something tells me if he could, Paraiso would remind everyone of this. Having had to defend my belief in dance’s value, in the value of movement as not…
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Plz Just Ask: TIDES by John Jasperse for La Mama Moves! Festival
“I wanted to see the John Jasperse piece at La Mama but didnt have money for a ticket, so I offered to write about it,” I texted Jodi Melnick, performer-collaborator in the piece– who once generously, and perhaps regretfully– gave me her phone number while she was my dance teacher at Barnard College. Given the…
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At La MaMa Moves, a Joint Program Produces States of Grief and Sounds of Pleasure
Shared programs can be tricky. As a dance festival curator, part of the battle is attempting to describe a work of art effectively to the public while predicting their reaction. Putting two different artists together on the same bill may double the work, but if handled deftly, it can forge synchronicity. Even in situations where…