La MaMa Blogs: January 2016

Thursday, January 28, 2016

JUPITER (a play about power) and Greening The Grid


Superhero Clubhouse and Kaimera Productions are integrating green values into their upcoming production of Jupiter (a play about power).

About the show:
Before retreating to the planet Jupiter, a young tycoon overhauls the entire energy system on Earth. His imposed vision promises to halt climate change and improve Humanity, but demands costly sacrifices in the process. A trio inspired by Frankenstein and energy policy.

La MaMa presents
Jupiter 
(a play about power)
a production of Superhero Clubhouse + Kaimera Productions

Directed by Simón Adinia Hanukai 
Written by Jeremy Pickard

Music by Jonathan Camuzeaux 

February 11 - 28, 2016
Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm; Sundays at 2pm

The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10001

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten $10 tickets available for every performance (advance sales only) first come first served

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Audiences are loving IMAGINING THE IMAGINARY INVALID

Imagining the Imaginary Invalid Audience Reactions from La MaMa on Vimeo.



La MaMa presents

IMAGINING THE 

IMGANARY INVALID

by Mabou Mines and Trick Saddle

January 21 - February 7, 2016

The Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Adults/$25 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Thursday, January 21, 2016

The Brooklyn Rail Looks at Imagining the Imaginary Invalid

Matthew Paul Olmos looks at Imagining the Imaginary Invalid, which is now in previews at The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa.

"Mabou Mines and Trick Saddle (Clove and Jenny Rogers’s theater company) will present a co-production of Imagining the Imaginary Invalid, a wild and theatrical take on Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid, in which we go backstage as the cast prepares the set and tries to rehearse. “As the audience watches the action unfold,” explains Clove, “ballets spring from costume settings and scenes devolve into arguments about art, money, and health, as the performers struggle to create something in the wake of the loss of a leading player.”"

Read the full article HERE.


La MaMa presents

IMAGINING THE 

IMGANARY INVALID

by Mabou Mines and Trick Saddle

January 21 - February 7, 2016

The Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Adults/$25 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE


Meet the Cast of BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY


Will Badgett is another one of the downtown STARS appearing in Talking Band's BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY. Will plays play Tony Hudson, a Brooklyn homeowner that raises canaries, has an unusual collection and finds something incredible. How's that for a tease?

Will says: "My debut at La Mama and with Talking Band was 1984. Over the years I have probably been in twenty productions. Being here is like being with family."

Don't miss the World Premiere of BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY - January 22 - February 7, 2016 only.

La MaMa presents

BURNISHED BY GRIEF: 

A ROMANTIC COMEDY


Written and Composed by Ellen Maddow 
Directed by Paul Zimet 

A love letter to the chaos of cramped New York City living. This music-fused, sinister romantic comedy is inspired by Obie award-winning playwright Ellen Maddow’s work as a mediator in Brooklyn Civil Court, where she has witnessed how the city’s extraordinary diversity, combined with close living, has produced complex misunderstandings and remarkable relationships. 

January 22 - February 7, 2016

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors - 2 and 4-Show packages available for January shows at La MaMa

The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

88 Years of Theater: Mabou Mines + The Talking Band



This January, La MaMa will present two world premieres.  This really isn't news, many of the shows at La MaMa are world premieres.  But the two world premieres in opening in January are from companies that have worked at La MaMa for years and together, Mabou Mines (founded in 1970) and The Talking Band (founded in 1974) have 88 years for theater making between them.

First up, La MaMa presents Mobou Mines' Imagining the Imaginary Invalid.  This was a piece that was originally conceived by the late Ruth Maleczech (Mabou Mines Artistic Director) in collaboration with Julie Archer, Clove Galilee, and Valeria Vasilevski.  Imagining The Imaginary Invalid is now directed and choreographed by Clove Galilee, Ruth's daughter, and stars OBIE award winning actor Marylouise Burke.

Opening on January 22, 2016, is The Talking Band's production of Burnished By Grief – A Romantic Comedy. Written and Composed by Ellen Maddow, Burnished By Grief: A Romantic Comedy is a love letter to the chaos of cramped New York City living.

We thought we'd look back at some of the Mabou Mines and Talking Band productions over the years:

THE RED HORSE ANIMATION (1971), Mabou Mines 
Joanne Akalaitis, Ruth Maleczech and David Warrilow
photo by Amnon Ben Nomis 


 photo by Amnon Ben Nomis 


 photo by Maria Austria


photo by Maria Austria



BIG MOUTH (1985), Talking Band

 Unknown Photographer

 Photo by Jerry Vezzuso


HOT LUNCH APOSTLES (1983), Talking Band



photo by: Jerry Vezzuso


PLAY (1971), Mabou Mines
Joanne Akalaitis, David Warrilow and Ruth Maleczech
photo by Tony Kent

BETTY AND THE BLENDERS (1986), Talking Band

photo by: Jerry Vezzuso

LIFE SIMULATOR (1987), Talking Band

photo by: Jerry Vezzuso


COME AND GO (1971), Mabou Mines
photo by Amnon Ben Nomis 


Come see the newest works from these two legendary companies!



La MaMa presents
IMAGINING THE 
IMGANARY INVALID
by Mabou Mines and Trick Saddle

January 21 - February 7, 2016

The Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Adults/$25 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE


La MaMa presents
BURNISHED BY GRIEF: 
A ROMANTIC COMEDY
by Talking Band

January 22 - February 7, 2016

The First Floor Theatre
74A East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $25 Adults/$20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE


Friday, January 15, 2016

Meet the Cast of BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY

Meet Debargo Sanyal who plays a character named Jimmy Boner in Talking Band's BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY written and composed by Ellen Maddow. 

Jimmy is an awkward young man who is fresh out of law school, and works with the non-profit Legal Aid Society. He is still (literally) trying to find his voice of inner-self-confidence as an attorney in NYC.

He still lives with roommates because he cannot afford not to.  His best friend is the cat that he rescued, whose name is The Bronx...and his roommates hate his cat.

"Jimmy is gawky and lonely, while also quite kind and very well-meaning.  He is the sort of fellow who is always doing the best that he can despite being somewhat down-on-his-luck and when he is called upon to become involved in a legal housing dispute between daffy tenant Suniye Finger and her beleaguered landlord Tony Hudson, things start to change for Jimmy in unexpected ways..." says Debargo.


You've probably seen Debargo on stage in NYC Productions such as: When January Feels Like Summer (Ensemble Studio Theatre/Page 73 Productions/Women's Project Theater), Invasion! (The Play Company at Walkerspace), Charles Mee's Queens Boulevard (the musical) (Signature Theatre Co), Bunty Berman Presents... (The New Group), John Cariani's Love/Sick (Royal Family Productions), After (Partial Comfort Productions), Bird in the Hand (Fulcrum Theatre), Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary(The Management), Looking for the Pony (Vital Theatre Co), Telethon (Clubbed Thumb), It's Only Kickball, Stupid (kef productions), I_NY (Ma-Yi Theater Co), Port Authority Throw Down (The Working Theater), Women of Trachis (Target Margin Theater), Commedia Dell Smartass(New Georges), Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink (Alter Ego Productions at Walkerspace), Bumbug-The Musical (LAUGHistan), Created Equal (Red Fern Theatre Co), Harvest (East Coast Artists at La MaMa), Love, Sex and Death in the Amazon (Collider Theater), The Lighthouse Invites the Storm (Sanguine Theatre Co), Millicent Scowlworthy (SPF), audiovideo (Drama League DirectorFest), Seven.11 Convenience Theatre and Barriers (Desipina & Co), The Woodpecker and Slag Heap (Cherry Lane Mentor Project), Smoking Bloomberg and Love Sucks (NYMF), Browntown and In Transit and Crossings (FringeNYC), Pulling the Lever (Rising Circle Theater Collective) Pilgrim (Puerto Rican Traveling Theater: In Sight), Empire Gas (Lost Tribe Theatre), Comedians (La MaMa), Romeo and Juliet (Blunt Theatre Co), I'm with Mauricio and Pilgrim's Passion (Intar Theatre: New Works Lab). The Juilliard School Drama Division-Guest Artist Actor '05. The 52nd Street Project-Playmaking. Regional Productions: Mike Bartlett's An Intervention (Williamstown Theatre Festival 2015: Nikos Stage-Williamstown, MA), Disconnect(Victory Gardens Theater-Chicago, IL) When January Feels Like Summer (City Theatre-Pittsburgh, PA), Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper (Boise Contemporary Theater-Boise, ID), Brahman/i (Mixed Blood Theatre-Minneapolis, MN). Cape Cod Theatre Project (2005, 2011, 2015). 

His feature films include The Normals, The Magic of Belle Isle, Everybody's Fine, Today's SpecialFort Tilden, Made for Each OtherSita Sings the Blues, Bert and Arnie's Guide to Friendship, Detours, 3rd Street Blackout, Drawing with ChalkRed HookWest 32ndQuarter Life Crisis, Maybe There's A Tree, Karma CallingAshes, Sad Sack SallyMy Sassy Girl. *SHORT FILM: Modern Day Arranged Marriage, Dry Clean Only, The Call Center, Windows Vista Predator Edition, The Cubicle, The Rebuild, Waiting Room, Couch, The Waiting Room, L'emon, Theen, Roulette Night, Babette, Aimee Undercover/Burkini, I Don't Sleep I Dream

On television, Debargo has made guest appearances on The Americans, Blue Bloods, Billions, Law & Order-Special Victims Unit, Person of Interest, Nurse Jackie, Damages, Law & OrderNYC 22, The SopranosThe UnusualsLaw & Order-Criminal IntentAll My ChildrenOn The Lot, national commercials. 

And he can also be seen on the webseries Gemma & The Bear, So Then Tell Me, Kitchens & Calhoun.

Come see Debargo Sanyal in BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY, which plays The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa from January 22 through February 7, 2016.

La MaMa presents

BURNISHED BY GRIEF: 

A ROMANTIC COMEDY


Written and Composed by Ellen Maddow 
Directed by Paul Zimet 

A love letter to the chaos of cramped New York City living. This music-fused, sinister romantic comedy is inspired by Obie award-winning playwright Ellen Maddow’s work as a mediator in Brooklyn Civil Court, where she has witnessed how the city’s extraordinary diversity, combined with close living, has produced complex misunderstandings and remarkable relationships. 

January 22 - February 7, 2016

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors - 2 and 4-Show packages available for January shows at La MaMa

The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Coffeehouse Chronicles #131: Mabou Mines


Our next Coffeehouse Chronicles (#131 for those keeping track!) will explore the history and legacy of Mabou Mines.  Mabou Mines is currently in rehearsal for the world premiere of Imagining the Imaginary Invalid, beginning performances on January 21.

So please join us on Saturday, January 30th at 3pm for a look back and a look ahead at this legendary company.  Admission is free, but the hat will be passed in keeping with the coffeehouse tradition.


Panelists & Performers Include:

Lee Breuer

Karen Kandel

Sharon Fogarty

Greg Mehrten

Clove Galilee

Maude Mitchell 

and the cast of Imagining the Imaginary Invalid.


La MaMa presents

Coffeehouse Chronicles #131: 
Mabou Mines

Panelists & Performers Include:  Lee Breuer, Karen Kandel, Sharon Fogarty, Greg Mehrten, Clove Galilee, Maude Mitchell and the cast of Imagining the Imaginary Invalid.

Saturday, January 30, 2016 @ 3pm 

The Club @ La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets are FREE, reservations suggested - donations welcome!


For Info and Reservations: CLICK HERE

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Experience the MDLSX Post-Show Talk Back


The Sunday, January 10th performance of MDLSX by the critically acclaimed Italian performance group, Motus, was followed by a post-show discussion featuring the creative team and the legendary Kate Bornstein as moderator. Panelists included author, playright, performance artist, and gender theorist Kate Bornstein; Motus foundres Enrico Casagrande & Daniela Nicolo, and performer Silvia Calderoni. This panel of artists and activists discussed a broad range of topics with a live audience spanning the political potential of theater, the process of engaging diverse audiences on taboo topics, and the journey of gender. 


“The stage is a big, huge possibility to be free, to share with people. For us, it’s not a manifesto. It’s an invitation. It’s not an answer. It’s many questions.”
-Daniela


“What is it that will disarm the state? Oh. Oh, I want to lick your brains.”
-Kate Bornstein

“When you are dealing with a performance, with the audience.. We are not really selfish, we and the audience every time, with other performances, we try to involve the audience on the stage.. We invite people on the stage to create temporary relationships on the stage.”
-Enrico

“I’ve always decided not to decide. I’ve always responded to whatever the external environment was asking me. When you are a teenager, this was a provocative attitude and then this attitude brought into theater became something else. And I think this piece brings the desire of not defining. My experience is not more important than anyone else’s, so I don’t really have any answers. Just the answers we all have.”
-Sylvia Calderoni, solo performer of “MDLSX”

“ ‘We are the furious diaspora-‘ How do you live that?”
-Kate Bornstein

“The idea to move, to constantly be looking for… If you have the possibility to enjoy the moment that is changing every day, people traveling with you… The name for our company, Motus, is Latin for movement.
-Daniela

“For me, the best metaphor for my gender journey has been journey, has been traveling. You put that so well onstage, you never stayed in one place for too long. All of a sudden when you were the mermaid- wait, what?!?!  I just have to say: thank you, you put on stage the philosophy of my life.”
-Kate Bornstein


La MaMa in association with Watson Arts presents

MDLSX

by Motus
starring Silvia Calderoni

January 7 - 17, 2016

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

Special Benefit Performance on Wednesday January 13 at 7pm; pre-show reception at 6pm.  Benefit Ticket: $50

The Downstairs @ La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

For Tickets & Info: CLICK HERE

Meet the Cast of BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY




TINA SHEPARD is a founding member of The Talking Band.  In their newest show, BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY, Tina plays Ms. Dishbrush.  When asked to describe her character, Tina said "I wash my dishes  -  you see me thru my kitchen window.I can't tell you any more, 'cause it would give it all away."  

Tina graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1963, bounced around NYC for a few years working as light-board op, lighting designer, actor, mime; by some miraculous good fortune she landed in The Open Theater in the Fall of 1967, working on The Serpent, the company’s first collaboratively developed show. She was a member of The Open Theater until the company disbanded in 1973.

In 1974 she teamed up with fellow Open Theater actors Paul Zimet and Ellen Maddow to form The Talking Band, initially dedicated to continuing exploration of the theatrical interplay of image, language and music in which they had been engaged in The Open Theater. She has worked as an actor/collaborator in most of the plays the company has created. In 1988 she was awarded an OBIE for her performance in The Talking Band production The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol.

Shepard was one of a group of actors, designers and musicians who, starting in 1976, joined together with director Joseph Chaikin and dramaturg Mira Rafalowicz for a few months each year for theater explorations. As The Winter Project they created and performed 4 shows at La Mama Annex.

In 1987 The Talking Band collaborated with The Otrabanda Company and director Anne Bogart to create No Plays, No Poetry. . . , a show based on the theoretical texts of Bertolt Brecht which won an OBIE in 1988. Tina continued working with Anne Bogart in several projects, among them American Vaudeville - in which she played both Mae West and Harpo Marx - at the Alley Theater, Houston; and Charles Mee's Orestes, performed at Tadashi Suzuki's theater in Togamura, Japan.

Shepard has also worked extensively with Brian Jucha/Via Theater; Brooke Oharra/Theater of a Two Headed Calf; David Herskovits/Target Margin Theater; John Kurzinowski/Theater Reconstruction Ensemble; and Adam Burnett/Burran Theater She has taught acting, directing, voice & movement for actors at Princeton University, Smith College, and Williams College. She directed eleven productions at Williams, most of them original pieces created in collaboration with her students.

For the past 12 years Tina has been teaching acting and movement (aikido) at Experimental Theater Wing/ NYU. She has directed a production of Poe In April, a script she made from some of Poe’s stories; Plays, a script she made from Gertrude Stein’s essay ‘Plays’ ; Wilde Thing, a script she developed from Oscar Wilde’s essay “The Decay of Lying”; and most recently, a production of The Serpent, originally created and toured in 1968 by the Open Theater ensemble.

She holds the rank of Rokudan (6th degree Black Belt) in aikido.

Come see Tina Shepard in BURNISHED BY GRIEF: A ROMANTIC COMEDY at The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa, beginning performances on January 22, 2016. 


La MaMa presents

BURNISHED BY GRIEF: 


A ROMANTIC COMEDY



Written and Composed by Ellen Maddow 
Directed by Paul Zimet 

A love letter to the chaos of cramped New York City living. This music-fused, sinister romantic comedy is inspired by Obie award-winning playwright Ellen Maddow’s work as a mediator in Brooklyn Civil Court, where she has witnessed how the city’s extraordinary diversity, combined with close living, has produced complex misunderstandings and remarkable relationships. 

January 22 - February 7, 2016

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors - 2 and 4-Show packages available for January shows at La MaMa

The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE