Audio Preview: "Kids" by Dane Terry from BIRD IN THE HOUSE

Listen to the single "Kids" from Dane Terry's album Color Movies and  get tickets to BIRD IN THE HOUSE at The Club @ La MaMa - April 17 - 26, 2015.
- - - - 

La MaMa presents

BIRD IN THE HOUSE
written and directed by Dane Terry

April 17 - 26, 2015

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

Tickets: $18 Adults; $15 Students/Seniors / 10 tickets at $10 are available pre-sale for every performance

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Video Preview: Golondrinas/Swallows

First look at Golondrinas/Swallows coming to The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa April 16 - 26, 2015. Written and directed by Aminta de Lara, Golondrinas/Swallows follows two sisters who are forced to delve into their relationship with their father and what he represents leading to a confrontation stemming from their childhood through which an overwhelming parallel between child abuse and political violence is revealed.

La MaMa presents
Golondrinas/Swallows
By SinTeaTro Intimus
Written and Directed by Aminta de Lara


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


Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 are available for every performance - advance sales only!

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

6 Questions: HEATHER CHRISTIAN

The fabulous (and OBIE Award-Winning) Heather Christian has composed original music for the new Witness Relocation show, DAILY LIFE EVERLASTING, which starts performances this Thursday, April 2, 2015.  Heather took time to answer our 6 QUESTIONS - have a look:

1. How did DAILY LIFE EVERLASTING come about?

Dan [Safer] and Witness Relocation have had the awesome opportunity to work on some of Chuck Mee’s new texts since (I think) 2008. They are always a treat because Chuck has really left a lot of stage action open for re-interpretation and dance. The “plot”s (at least in the way I read them— GRAIN OF SALT WARNING) are secondary to the overall experience of how the (BEAUTIFUL) text is contained. All in all, they are plays that are extremely conducive to a dance theater approach by an ensemble based company—that’s a long way of saying, it fits like a glove. 

“Daily Life Everlasting” is the third of Chuck’s plays that we’ve had the pleasure of getting our talons into, and it is the first that was workshopped by Dan and I outside the comforts of our own company and country. A first incarnation was workshopped and shown at the Norwegian Theater Academy on a group of insanely talented Scandanavian students in Norway over Thanksgiving, and it gave us the opportunity to really throw some spaghetti at the wall before bringing it to Witness Relocation —and gave ME the time and resources to write the score. 

Chuck had written it with Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” in mind, and Dan had choreographed it with David Bowie songs in mind. I had written the score trying to take both of these things into account and bridge the gap between them/ fill in the holes those two things left thematically, so the score became a patchwork quilt of different musical approaches. Some of it is very classically structured choral music performed irreverently up against Bowie songs taken out of their glam context. Of course there are some pop songs that I CLEARLY didn’t write that show up in their original versions because part of the exhilaration of being in a Witness Relocation show is still about blurring the performative line between experimental theater and rock concert or club dancing (it cannot be overstated how fun that is to perform) but I’ve attempted to whip it all into a heartfelt and thematically appropriate soup.

2.This is your fifth show with Witness Relocation, how is it the same or different from past shows?

Two things that stick out like sore thumbs: 

1. I’m not performing in it. 
2. I’ve composed the score. 

Listen, the nature of a career in downtown theater, as I’m sure you know, has a thousand different interesting turns and flips. When I started performing with Witness Relocation, I was mostly brought on board because I was a decent dancer. I wasn’t afraid to be thrown around, and, being the daughter of a go-go dancer, I have an uncanny natural proclivity to dancing my butt off to Gwen Stephani. A decade later, I’ve managed to really focus on musical composition, and now that I’ve tasted its delicious poison, it’s all I want to do. Dan is an incredible collaborator (for a myriad of reasons but here’s one of them) because he was able to watch this metamorphoses I was going through and support it emphatically within the context of Wtiness Relocation’s work. This is the first time I’m able to only exclusively stretch my legs as a composer/MD with Witness Relocation, and it’s delightful. 

There’s a lot of fresh blood on this show (as you will see!). It’s extremely exciting because it’s proof positive that we are a collective because of our aesthetic and approach, and not just because we are a set group of individuals that work on every show together. The tools of expression and methods for generation have remained consistent with our other work, and it’s really incredible to see these new fresh faces take hold of the vocabulary we’ve been establishing for years and run with it so expertly. 

 3. Your album, Cabinet is awesome! Is the way you approach songwriting different for theater and it is for your band?

Hey thanks!! YES.
Composing for theater, for me, is all about context. I’m never really trying to do the traditional musical theater thing where I’m housing narrative and/or plot points within a song. I am always consciously trying to find different ways music can function in a scene or a dance in ways that are not traditionally put on stage in the context of a “play". Because there is so much information in a theatrical work, I am consciously leaving holes in the songs so that an audience isn’t inundated with repeating emotional information. I’m trying in different places to either provide a counterpoint, a highlighter, or a bed for the play from scene to scene— so what that means logistically is that I’m writing a complimentary color, rather than writing the whole painting.

With a record, I’m writing the whole painting. There is no visual information, there is only sonic information, so miraculously, I have the benefit of a listeners undivided ear-centric attention and, therefore, have liberty to really get detailed with lyrics and arrangement. Each song is a whole play in the sonic dimension, so I can oversaturate and not have to worry about too much stuff going on. It’s supposed to be nuanced and complicated and be a thousand different things at once, it’s a whole play!

4. Who has inspired you?

I’m most directly inspired by the individuals around me in my immediate line of sight. I’m inspired by the downtown community I have grown up with artistically for the last 10 or so years and it’s inspiring to see so many of my playmates and collaborators identify exactly what kind of art-making-creature they are at their core and, over these years, manifest it.
People I know that have been the most inspirational include the whole of Witness Relocation past and present, my band The Arbornauts, the TEAM, my odd and unflinchingly supportive family, Mac Wellman, Taylor Mac, and every individual I have the pleasure of coaching how to sing my strange songs.

My inspiration list of people that I’ve never met (my unicorn list) covers a wide range of people in different media, and I’ve had only half of my coffee so this will be incomplete and possibly meandering, but at the current moment it includes: Mavis Staples, Brendan Kennelly, Carl Sagan, David Bowie, Marina Abramovic, Arvo Part, Stevie Wonder, Hildegard von Bingen, Mary Ellen Mark, Emmylou Harris, Oliver Sacks, Nick Cave, Margaret Atwood, Robert Wison, Michael Nyman, Tom Waits, Mozart. Or at least, these are the individuals whose work I have been spending the most time with as of recent. A mixed bag. 

 5. What was the last good book/film/theater piece you read/saw and what did you love about it? 

Two genius plays:

1. I saw Andrew Schneider’s “Youarenowhere” at the Invisible Dog as part of this year’s COIL Festival and was blown away. The way he is humanizing theatrical technology so that the whole show breathes with its central character— sound and light and space are expertly and exactly crafted to flinch alongside him, his changing synapses are scored and seem both impossible and totally natural— I have just never seen a show that went so deeply inside it’s character’s psyche, and as a result, went so deeply into mine. It was thrilling to witness.

2. “The Octoroon” at Theater for a New Audience in Brooklyn. There was so much to love about this play. The cast was incredible, Mimi Lien’s set was incredible, all technical aspects were, yup, incredible— but most importantly, at its core is a really important play. Structurally, it genre-bends without alienating the audience, it’s funny, its whippersnapper smart. Thematically-- it’s a play about race in a time when a play about race is so tricky in this country, so loaded on so many fronts. It manages to be a thousand things: scathing and heart-wrenching and inappropriate and reverent and hilarious. My heart ran the gamut. And after it was done, for weeks afterward, my brain played catch-up.

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

I have had a long history with LaMama. You guys were the first establishment in New York City to really take me under your wing. I was just out of college trying to figure out what kind of artist I wanted to be, or what was even possible, and LaMama singled me out and cornered me and basically said “You got something, so how do we help you fish it out?”. Working at LaMama is a homecoming. A bitter sweet one, now that Ellen [Stewart]  has passed, but nonetheless a positive one. I can tell you exactly what the dressing room smells like in the Ellen Stewart Theater with the same detail that I can tell you what the kitchen in my childhood home smells like, if that’s any indicator as to how vivid and loved LaMama is in my memory. I’ll be there tomorrow to tech the show, and will force everyone to hug me.

La MaMa presents
DAILY 
LIFE 
EVERLASTING
A Witness Relocation production
Written by Chuck Mee
Directed & Choreographed by Dan Safer
Original Music by Heather Christian

April 02, 2015 - April 19, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10001

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 are available in advance for every show - first come, first served.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Get A New Look For Spring!

Come to the La MaMa Clothes Swap tomorrow!

Choose items from La MaMa family and friends and go home with a whole new look.

Bring gently worn clothes, shoes, and accessories to or bring a bag with you on the 28th from 1pm to 4pm at 47 Great Jones Street - 5th Floor!

To RSVP and for more info CLICK HERE

How to Help Victims of the East Village Explosion

from Fourth Arts Block - a Guide to Aiding your Community:

As I'm sure you are all aware, the tragic gas explosion yesterday has displaced many residents & businesses. We've been getting quite a few inquiries about how folks can help out. Some of the organizing efforts are still in process, but here are a few concrete ways you can chip in (from DNAinfo article):

► VOLUNTEER
LES Ready, a nonprofit based in the Lower East Side, is looking for volunteers to assist with longterm recover efforts for victims and their families. Fill out a form at LES Ready's website or email lilah@goles.org

► DONATE
Church of the Nativity, 44 2nd Ave., will be collecting clothes and funds on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The donations will be given to the Red Cross. 
They will also be accepting pillows and blankets for people who were displaced by the explosion and are currently staying in shelters.The Middle Collegate Church, at 112 2nd Ave., will be accepting monetary donations at the church's 11:15 a.m.worship.
The house of worship is currently acting as a base for the disaster's first responders. Next week, they expect to have more information on how locals can volunteer and donate to help the victims. For details, check its website in the coming days. 
The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City is accepting donations to assist those affected, here.
The Red Cross is also accepting financial donations through its website, here.  

We will share more information as it becomes available. Thanks!

- Tamara Greenfield | Executive Director, FABnyc

6 Questions: Daniel Alexander Jones

Daniel Alexander Jones, an award-winning inter-disciplinary theatre artist, is currently performing An Integrator's Manual in The Club at La MaMa, March 26-29, 2015. We asked Daniel about collaborating, staying open to your audience and performing at La MaMa.

1. When did you first begin developing An Integrator's Manual and what inspired you to begin the project?
I needed to begin a process of articulation. I had to say something about this moment in my country, about the place I find myself in, and about the conversations I am having with friends, colleagues, students spurred on by the horrific series of killings of black people that have gone largely without justice. This piece takes an odd road to get at some questions I have not been able to answer well on my own and others' paradoxical relationship to this history - and our places in it. An Integrator's Manual is very much that beginning, breaking the skin and exposing those questions and taking the first steps at sounding them out.

2. How does creating a performance that speaks to ongoing problems of integration in the US change your relationship to the audience?
My relationship to audience is a constant variable. By this, I mean, I know, always, that I will never know who shows up to be the audience on a particular night, or for a particular run. Much of my work is in the tradition of the theatrical jazz aesthetic; I approach each performance knowing that I must seek clarity of expression and direct connection with whoever comes to be part of the experience, whether the subject matter is charged or not.

3. The show was been described as 'part pop-quiz.' Can you tell us anything more about this element of the piece?
As this is the first sharing of this new work, and we will be continuing to develop it over the next year, I am eager to know of folks' experience of the work. It is grounded in the personal, as a way to get at relationship to the larger idea and experience of integration. I'm hopeful that it will invite others to consider the minute, personal, intimate ways the questions raised have operated in their own experience of this subject, from whatever vantage point or vantage points they have held.

4. How would you describe the nature of your collaboration with Will Davis? Are there specific ways you challenge each other?
Will Davis amplifies the light in others and exerts some kind of gravitational pull - the best ideas rise up around him. I feel utterly safe to try anything, whether is falls or flies. I know that Will intimately understands the process of building a living, breathing piece of art and is concerned with authenticity, clarity and presence. I think we both challenge one another to go to the heart of the matter. I am profoundly grateful to be in collaboration with this brilliant artist.

5. When did you know that you wanted a career in the arts?
I knew from a very early age. Making art was, and still is, the state of being where I feel the most alive and purposeful. I have always wanted to help alleviate suffering; turns out the way I was led to do so is through making and sharing art, which I hope feeds others' imaginations and senses of agency in some small but measurable way.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
To step into the house that Ellen Stewart built is a watershed. To be able to take these first public steps at the invitation of Mia Yoo and Nicky Paraiso is evidence that there are still spaces dedicated to artists who want, and need, to explore.

La MaMa presents

An Integrator's Manual

Written and performed by Daniel Alexander Jones
and featuring Jacques Gerard Colimon
Directed by Will Davis
Dramaturgy by Kyla Searle

March 26th - 29th, 2015 - Four Performances Only!
Thursday - Saturday @ 7:30pm; Sunday @ 2pm

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

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; Ten tickets prices at $10 each are available for every performance at part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative - advance sales only!

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

First Look @ ALL YOUR WANTS AND NEEDS...

“Compelling, engaging and entertaining”

- John Smythe, Theatreview

“The unpredictable theatricality of Playground Collective wins the day”

- Laurie Atkinson, The Dominion Post

“Bursting with ideas, the work provokes a myriad of responses from its audience; most seem divided between reaching for the tissues and laughing hysterically.”

- Sam Philips, The Lumiere Reader

“This is a highly original, carefully-wrought production deserving of high praise.”

- Michael Pohl, Salient

- - - 

La MaMa presents

ALL YOUR 
WANTS AND 
NEEDS FULFILLED 
FOREVER
The Playground Collective

Two Performances Only!
March 28th at 8pm and 29th at 4pm

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

Tickets: $25 Adults/$20 Students/Seniors

For tickets and info: CLICK HERE

Load OUT! Free Materials for Artists: April 11th!

Fourth Arts Block, a local non-profit organization leading the development of the East 4th Street Cultural District, will host its ninth Load OUT! event on Saturday, April 11^th from 11 AM – 2 PM.

Load OUT! is a popular recycling, reuse, and repurposing event that provides an outlet for the community to safely dispose of gently used items, which aims to divert from the waste stream by inviting artists and community members to take home for their next artistic endeavors. Unclaimed items are collected for reuse and recycling by: United War Veterans Recycling, GrowNYC, Lower East Side Ecology Center, and Wearable Collections. 

FAB invites you to donate gently used items at absolutely no cost. Such items include, but are not limited to: 

·       Useable furniture

·       Books

·       Electronics (including cell phones and computers), old batteries 

·       Clothing and textiles 

·       Lighting and lamps

·       Dishware, cookware, and kitchen items

·       Art supplies

·       Oddities and knick-knacks

For a list of items that cannot be accepted, please find more information here.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Found, Bound, Re-bound: A Creative Donating Workshop

hosted by Ged Merino

Found materials artist, Ged Merino, has an incredible talent for reusing, repurposing, and recycling materials into amazing art objects. At this year's Load OUT!, the artist will host a special public art making project in which anyone can participate.  For Found, Bound, Re-bound, donated shoes take center stage. Ged Merino will engage the public in making a plethora of shoe sculptures, making art from what would otherwise be waste. We are asking everyone to participate and bring their old shoes to donate so that together, we can create unique sculptures...with a purpose.

After the exhibition, the bound shoes will be shipped to the Philippines, where they will be displayed at the Drawing Room Gallery in Manila. The shoe-sculptures will then be donated to victims of Typhoon Haiyan to be unbound and worn again, giving the shoes a second, meaningful life.

Admission to the event is $5 for the general public and free for artists. Bring a pair of shoes to be donated and get in FREE!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Please contact Patrick Jaojoco at Patrick@fabnyc.org with an itemized list of the items you’d like to donate and to schedule a drop off or pick up time on Friday, April 10^th. No donations will be accepted without an appointment on that day. FAB can provide pick up for larger items or furniture (preferred max 300lbs) on Friday, April 10th. Donated items can also be dropped off at 11 E. 3rd Street on Friday, April 10th at the designated appointment time. E-waste can be dropped off on the day of the event without an appointment. 

FAB also invites you and your organization to attend the event on April 11th. Admission is free for artists and students and $5 for the public. Attendees are welcome to take home for free any donated items – costumes, props, furniture, art supplies, books, and much more. 

If you would like to donate to or learn more about this event, please contact Patrick Jaojoco at Patrick@fabnyc.org. 

The Films of Lee Breuer @ CUNY Grad Center

A rare opportunity to catch films by playwright, director, filmmaker, poet, and lyricist, Lee Breuer. He is a co-artistic director of Mabou Mines Theater Company, which he founded in 1970 with JoAnne Akalaitis, Philip Glass, Ruth Maleczech, and David Warrilow.

Monday, March 30, 2015
Screening Schedule:


10:30am: In Memoriam
(Introductions, Lee Breuer)
The Lost Ones with David Warrilow (1975) – 47 min
B. Beaver Animation with Frederick Neumann (1979) – 32 min
Hajj with Ruth Maleczech (1986) – 55 min


2:15pm:  Gospel
(Introductions, Bob Telson)
Sister Suzie Cinema (1980) – 21 min
The Gospel at Colonus (1985) – 89 min


4:30pm: Sneak Peeks
(Introductions, Lee Breuer & Eric Marciano)
Un Tramway Nommé Désir (Stills from The Comédie Française) (2011) – 10 min
Glass Guignol (2013) – 10 min
La Divina (Puppet Film Version) (2013-2015) – 10 min
The Book of Clarence (2011-2015) – 10 min


6:30pm: Mabou Mines DollHouse
Mabou Mines DollHouse (ARTE Film) (2008) – 123 min
Q & A with Lee Breuer and Maude Mitchell


The Films of Lee Breuer
Monday, March 30 
All Day + 6:30pm
Segal Theatre
The Graduate Center CUNY

The Many Faces of Daniel Alexander Jones

Daniel Alexander Jones' new show, An Integrator's Manual comes to The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa this weekend for four performances only!

Daniel is a performer, playwright, curator and educator.  

 Source

 Source

 Source

An Integrator's Manual

Named by American Theatre magazine one of fifteen artists whose work would “change American stages for decades to come,” Daniel Alexander Jones is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist. 

An Integrator’s Manual traces loss and transfiguration resulting from the failures of integration in the USA. Will we be agents of death or of life? Will we weep and moan, or will we rise up? This work-in-progress presentation is directed by Will Davis and features performer Jacques Gerard Colimon. Daniel Alexander Jones sounds a ritual of release and a challenge for the future using story, song, and humor and features original live music.

La MaMa presents
An 
Integrator's 
Manual
Written and performed by Daniel Alexander Jones
and featuring Jacques Gerard Colimon
Directed by Will Davis
Dramaturgy by Kyla Searle



March 26th - 29th, 2015 - Four Performances Only!
Thursday - Saturday @ 7:30pm; Sunday @ 2pm

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

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; Ten tickets prices at $10 each are available for every performance at part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative - advance sales only!

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Video Preview: ALL YOUR WANTS AND NEEDS FOREVER

 

“Compelling, engaging and entertaining”

- John Smythe, Theatreview

“The unpredictable theatricality of Playground Collective wins the day”

- Laurie Atkinson, The Dominion Post

“Bursting with ideas, the work provokes a myriad of responses from its audience; most seem divided between reaching for the tissues and laughing hysterically.”

- Sam Philips, The Lumiere Reader

“This is a highly original, carefully-wrought production deserving of high praise.”

- Michael Pohl, Salient

Simon studies video game design, looks after his pet rats, and keeps himself glued to whatever screen is nearest—all to avoid thinking about the recent death of his father. But Simon’s world is turned upside down when a mysterious box is delivered to him that might just contain the Secret to the Universe... An acclaimed new theatre work by writer Eli Kent and director Robin Kerr of the award-winning PlayGround Collective.

La MaMa presents
ALL YOUR WANTS 
AND NEEDS 
FULFILLED 
FOREVER
by PlayGround Collective
part of The New Zealand New Performance Festival

March 26th and 27th at 8pm - ONLY 2 PERFORMANCES!

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

Tickets: $25 Adults/$20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Artist Spotlight: David Goldthorpe of CHET BAKER: LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

New Zealand actor David Goldthorpe explores both the haunting, unforgettable music that made jazz legend Chet Baker famous and the visceral, self-destruction that made him infamous. He takes the audience on a gripping ride through the highs and lows of Baker’s life, interspersing the dialogue with expertly arranged Baker classics played live with a full three piece jazz band.
La MaMa presents CHET BAKER:  LIKE SOMEONE  IN LOVE by Goldthorpe Creative

Two Performances Only!
Saturday, March 28th at 8pm and Sunday, March 29th at 4pm

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

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

For tickets and info: CLICK HERE

Spring Season @ La MaMa Announced!

The Spring Season at La MaMa has been announced and it includes:

DANIEL ALEXANDER JONES

WITNESS RELOCATION/CHUCK MEE/

HEATHER CHRISTIAN

DANE TERRY

BELARUS FREE THEATRE

LA MAMA MOVES! DANCE FESTIVAL 2015

WINSOME BROWN

and MANY MORE!!

Check out the full Spring schedule!

CLICK HERE

Tickets now on sale, including 10@$10 Tickets!