6 QUESTIONS: INCOMING! - Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble (Tei Blow & Sean McElroy)

Tei Blow (left) & Sean McElroy (right) | photo by Maria Baranova

Tei Blow and Sean McElroy together form The Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble. They will present THE ART OF LUV (PART I), as part of the Under the Radar Festival's INCOMING! Series, in the Club at La MaMa, January 9: 4pm and 8:30pm, 2015. 

We asked Tei and Sean about the origins of ROKE, collaboration as mythical beast creation and how to define compassion.

1. What does performing as a 'musical priesthood' mean to you?

Tei: For me the word priesthood means the elder authority charged with disseminating information and gathering communities together for rituals. Throughout history such groups have struggled to gain the attention of their audience, so we have created one that uses our own version of popular entertainment to do what has already been done before.

Sean: Our intention is not to make a "show" but to create a ritual machinery for exploring ourselves and the universe. This is what makes it a "priesthood" rather than, say, a "theater company". It is a "musical priesthood" because we are not a sad mumbling priesthood but a priesthood of joy and delight.

2. Does the The Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble have an origin story? How did you arrive at your aesthetic?

Tei: We arrived at what ROKE is now by looking at the visual esthetics of ancient societies and placing contemporary texts that we found interesting into that world to give them importance.

Sean: This is from our bio --

ROKE was formed when Brown hosted Oberlin for the 2001 Liberal Arts Spring Fling. They went on to cement their partnership a year later when they both enrolled in the low-residency Masters program in Women’s Studies at Stanford-Hofstra-University of Phoenix-Online. All of their performance work is a development of their collaborative thesis project, Isis As-Is: Du Darwinisme Féminin au Post-Humanisme. ROKE was awarded Best Original Song Not Written by Thoth in 2561 by the Horus Council, and nominated for Best Underwater Spectacle in 2057 for their performance He is I, A Man’s Story, which premiered at the annual Opening of the Mouth Ceremony at the Temple of Khonsu in Thebes.

3. THE ART OF LUV (Part I) takes on the crimes of Elliot Rodger, who went on a killing spree in 2014 motivated by a lack of success with women. Do his actions speak to a larger wound in society and, if so, are they symptom, cause, or both? How can this wound be treated in performance?

Tei: For me, I think we are trying to talk about a problem by suggesting (through our performance and the way it is constructed) a possible world of influences and information that cause a person to feel Unloved and stifled by their inability to engage with Love and the world of Loving Acts.
His actions are the result of too many things for ROKE to know or illustrate fully and, like the ritual that depicts them in this piece, we can only suggest the process that lead to him killing those people.

One of the sources we used in the show sums it up better than we can (although it appears in fragments in the piece). It is a section of a group meditation in compassion held in Massachusetts in the 1990s--

"Every one of us has committed the most loving of acts and every one of us has committed the most horrific of deeds."

In a sense, it means we are foolish to judge someone else's actions and say "I could never do that," because it implies that you would behave differently if your life had the same challenges. It implies moral superiority gleaned from a picture of a person painted by mass media. We can only posit that, as a society, we have the option to look upon one who has committed atrocities with compassion. What difference would it make to our own understanding of ourselves, or our world, if we did that instead of dismissing them as crazy, as we usually do.

Sean: I think one of the fundamental ideas of this piece is that Elliot Rodger's whole episode was a violent instantiation of certain notions (about women, about manhood, about the Self) that are in free circulation. Usually these notions are more subtly coded; they float around below the surface of movies, conversations, internet posts, and they attach to other expressions that aren't necessarily violent. In the mind of Elliot Rodger these notions were totally pure, uncut, unbalanced.
One of the effects of using words like crazy and evil to describe people is that we release ourselves from the responsibility of looking into that person to see if there's anything we recognize in ourselves. In other words, we release ourselves from the responsibility of compassion.

4. Which artists in the UTR festival are you most excited to see -or- Can you tell us about a recent performance you saw that inspired you creatively?

Tei: Everyone in INCOMING is awesome and their work is all so varied and fascinating. I only have seen Lucy Alibar and Daniel Koren's work specifically and love what they've been up to, but you can't go wrong with anyone in our group. I'm very excited to see Ike Ufomadu. He is an absolutely riveting speaker. I know everyone will be at Reggie Watts so I won't even try to get in, but I've always been a big fan, and if anyone's going to give Marina Abramović a snarky critique/tribute/snarky tribute worth listening to, it will be him.

5. As collaborators, how do you challenge each other artistically and what qualities do you bring out in each other?

Tei: We have pretty different skills and interests outside of the common goals of ROKE, so it's easy to decide who is going to do what. We both think the other person is a really badass artist so we don't spend time worrying about trusting the other person's instincts or esthetics. That also allows us to work on something even if one of us doesn't think it's a good idea. That kind of trust allows the "good" threads of the work to emerge, and then we can follow them to figure out what kind of piece we are going to make. In a sense, collaboration in this way is as easy as it is difficult, because it means you really have to show up with the goods. You are bringing exactly half of the thing to life.

Sean: Every collaborative team seems to have its own working model. Ours is like that mythical beast that has four arms and two heads, but one heart.

(Interview by Sam Alper)

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La MaMa presents:

INCOMING! - The Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble: THE ART OF LUV (PART I)

January 9, 2015 | 4pm & 8:30pm

Co-presented by Under the Radar Festival and La MaMa

The Club @ La MaMa

74a East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003
Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

6 QUESTIONS: INCOMING! - Lucy Alibar

Playwright Lucy Alibar will read from her new work, THROW ME ON THE BURNPILE AND LIGHT ME UP, as part of the Under the Radar Festival's INCOMING! Series, in the First Floor Theatre at La MaMa, January 9: 5:30pm and 10pm, 2015. 

We asked her about the process of staging the "stories of a man, his family, his guns, and his burnpile."

1. What was the initial inspiration for THROW ME ON THE BURNPILE AND LIGHT ME UP and how have work-in-progress showings helped the piece evolve?

I've been talking - and mostly listening - to people about their experiences with parenthood for a while now. And I reread Tony Horwitz's brilliant "Confederates in the Attic", which had me thinking about the south and how we tell our own history. The way we mythologize ourselves and our land.

2. What do you find to be the pleasures and/or challenges of performing your own writing?

I love working on my feet so it's been a complete joy.

3. What is your collaboration with director Neel Keller like?

Neel makes me laugh every day, and reminds me to find the laughter in the piece.

4. Which artists in the UTR festival are you most excited to see -or- Can you tell us about a recent performance you saw that inspired you creatively?

I got to see 600 Highwaymen's invited rehearsal at the Sundance labs this winter. I was blown away by their work ethic, vulnerability, and heart.

5. What should audience members expect from this show?

Three pieces of Burnpile: the beginning, a piece somewhere in the middle, and a portion of the finale. About forty minutes. Some have been around for a year, some I'm still writing now. I'm looking forward to sharing where I am in the process.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?

It's an honor to be able to work at such an incredible place!

(Interview by Sam Alper)

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La MaMa presents:

INCOMING! - Lucy Alibar: Throw me on the burnpile and light me up

January 9, 2015 | 5:30pm & 10pm

Co-presented by Under the Radar Festival and La MaMa

First Floor Theatre @ La MaMa

74a East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003
Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

6 QUESTIONS: INCOMING! - Darian Dauchan

The Mighty Third Rail | Darian Dauchan (center) | Photo by Eddy Rivera

Hip-hop poetry trio The Mighty Third Rail, and the innovative PUBLIQuartet, join forces in a mash­up of strings, verses, and beat­boxing, entitled CHANGING NIGHT, as part of the Under the Radar Festival's INCOMING! Series, in the First Floor Theatre at La MaMa, January 8: 4pm and 8:30pm, 2015. 

We asked Darian Dauchan, of The Mighty Third Rail, about collaborating and innovating, from combining Classical and Hip Hop, to merging biblical narratives with sci-fi.

1. How did The Mighty Third Rail's collaboration with PUBLIQuartet come about?

Two words. Curtis Stewart. Curtis is the violinist for MTR and also 1/4th of PUBLIQuartet, so he's the bridge. He had a good relationship with Symphony Space and Laura Kaminsky, who was artistic director at the time, had given us a night as a part of the Music of the Now series, to not only present our work as a Hip Hop Jazz Trio and string quartet, but to also combine forces in developing a new musical piece - thus: Changing Night. Andrew Kircher from Under the Radar came to the show and then invited us to perform it in the festival, so we're looking forward to presenting the piece again, not only to music lovers, but theatre goers as well.

2. In CHANGING NIGHT, and in general, what do hip hop and classical music traditions offer each other? What kind of new moments occur when the two come together?

Honestly, a fresh and innovative sound. When done well, it can be an amazing blend that feels both familiar and new to the listener. When the Mighty Third Rail first formed, I knew going into it, just on instrumentation alone, a bass, a violin, and looped beat-boxing, that we were going to have a truly unique sound. Aesthetically, I've always loved a well crafted mashup of strings and Hip Hop - from Jay Z's The Prelude, to Saul Williams' Twice The First Time, to Lupe Fiasco's He Say She Say. It's testament to the fact that Hip Hop can also be something different, something unexpected, and vice versa for Classical music.

3. As an actor, writer, poet and music-maker, you span many artistic disciplines. Growing up, which creative practice was your 'first love'? Which came into your life most recently?

Acting is still hands down my first love. I've been acting since I was a kid. Ten years ago if you told me I'd be doing music I don't know if I would have believed you. I was always a huge music lover, but never thought I'd be doing it, in the same way that, though I was a huge lover of performance poetry, I never thought I'd eventually be a part of the NYC spoken word community, but I am. And now I love making music. I think even working with PUBLIQuartet has broadened my appreciation for classical music in ways I hadn't imagined. At the end of the day, whether I'm acting, kicking a poem, or making music, it's all performing, which is ultimately what I love to do. Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing too much, but then I just think of Sammy Davis Jr. and go "nah, I think I'm fine."

4. Which artists in the UTR festival are you most excited to see -or- Can you tell us about a recent performance you saw that inspired you creatively?

I had a chance to checkout an excerpt of Aaron/Marie a few weeks ago, so I'm looking forward to seeing the whole piece. The Incoming Series has had a few meetings with all the ensembles so a lot of us have built a rapport with one another. I think Changing Night shares a little of the same style James and Jerome have in their piece: Good music and good verbal storytelling. I remember thinking, when I saw the excerpt, that this could be a good double billing with ours, like a theatrical double feature if you will. I also definitely want to check out Toshi Reagan's piece, since it's also combining sci-fi with music. Plus, I'm an Octavia Butler fan.

5. What inspired The Mighty Third Rail to reimagine the Garden of Eden within a sci-fi narrative?

The piece is inspired by the music of composer György Ligeti who Curtis is a fan of, so we were aiming to match a tone that fit some of his pieces which very much has a cinematic, sci-fi, twilight zone kind of vibe to it. Curtis was also interested in telling a narrative that pitted nature against technology. Our bass player, Ian Baggette, happened to suggest the Garden of Eden story, and from there we just let our imaginations run wild with a futuristic re-telling. It was actually PUBLIQuartet's management at CAG (Concert Artists Guild) that told me much later, after we created the piece, that Ligeti's music was featured in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I guess that means we weren't too far off.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?

Ever since I was a drama student at NYU, La MaMa, and The Public Theater, have always, and continue to be, definitive hubs for cutting edge, innovative theatre, and we're proud to be a part of that tradition. We hope it won't be the last and to continue a fruitful relationship with both institutions who serve as pillars for the downtown New York theatre scene.

(Interview by: Sam Alper)

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La MaMa presents:

INCOMING! - THE MIGHTY THIRD RAIL & PUBLIQUARTET: CHANGING NIGHT

January 8, 2015 | 4pm & 8:30pm

Co-presented by Under the Radar Festival and La MaMa

First Floor Theatre @ La MaMa

74a East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003
Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

6 QUESTIONS: INCOMING! - James Harrison Monaco

Jerome Ellis (right) and James Harrison Monaco (left). Photo credit: Jim Byrne

James Harrison Monaco and Jerome Ellis will present AARON/MARIE, a high­ speed literary and live music spectacle, as part of the Under the Radar Festival's INCOMING! Series, in the First Floor Theatre at La MaMa, January 10 at 5:30pm and 10pm, 2015. 

We asked James about collaborating, helping audiences imagine and literary inspiration.

1. How do the multiple narratives in AARON / MARIE speak to, or frame, each other?

I would say AARON/MARIE is like a collection of short stories, where when you finish it you say to yourself, "Oh, maybe that was actually a novel." Like Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, or the longer books of Roberto Bolaño. The same characters keep popping up in each section of the show, and by the end there is definitely an arc to the action, but we celebrate the sense of losing yourself in the tangents throughout.

2. When did you first begin collaborating with Jerome Ellis, and how do you influence each other as artists? 

Jerome and I have been collaborating on music, performance, writing, storytelling, theater — what have you — for almost a decade. (In fact, we grew up together at the same schools in Virginia Beach, Virginia since we were nine or ten.) Jerome is the other half of my brain and heart. We are constantly in conversation about music and history and literature and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and travel and performance and life and love, and this show is basically a slice of that conversation on stage (with gorgeous original live music included).

3. Your performances use language and music to engage the audience's visual imagination. How do you create an environment that encourages this kind of listening?

I would say our music especially helps the audience listen calmly, think critically while having fun, and drift with confidence. The idea is it's like the live performance version of reading a great, exciting, smart modern novel. Jerome's style especially is at once energetic, intelligent and meandering... acoustic and electronic, forward-moving yet spacious. Also we take great influence from contemporary(ish) writers who have a music to their prose: Thomas Bernhard, Javier Marías, Joan Didion, Sergio Chejfec, Fleur Jaeggy, Bolaño, Primo Levi, Yoko Tawada, Isak Dinesen, Enrique Vila-Matas, César Aira...

4. How have your directors Rachel Chavkin and Annie Tippe influenced AARON / MARIE?

They are who make it exciting to watch, and be present for, as an audience member. They are the editors of our sprawling style. They keep it from being insular, and they take the poetic interworkings of the music and storytelling and make them poetic in their physical life — major props on this also go to our designer, Joe Cantalupo. All three of them have been present almost since day one of this project (two and a half years ago), so at this point their obsessions and senses of humor are as present in the show as Jerome's and mine.

5. Which artists in the UTR festival are you most excited to see -or- Can you tell us about a recent performance you saw that inspired you creatively?

We are excited to see all of them. Especially all the INCOMING! artists, between whom I couldn't choose. But in particular among the whole festival: Mariano Pensotti (whose last UTR show I still think about all the time), Cia. Hiato, Agrupación Señor Serrano, Daniel Fish, Taylor Mac...(all of them).

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?

It means performing in a space I have been thinking about since I was a teenager in Virginia, imagining the magical world of experimental New York theater. And in a space where I have seen work that defined my idea of what performance could and should be. We are so honored to be here.

(Interview by Sam Alper)

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La MaMa presents:

INCOMING! - JAMES HARRISON MONACO & JEROME ELLIS: AARON/MARIE

January 10, 2015 | 5:30pm & 10pm

Co-presented by Under the Radar Festival and La MaMa
Directed by Rachel Chavkin and Annie Tippe

First Floor Theatre @ La MaMa

74a East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003
Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE