DOWNTOWN is talking about "now my hand is ready for my heart"

“Nicky Paraiso’s new performance, now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories is breathtaking, offering his life story as sail to illuminate matters of heart, mind, body and spirit…Go Now!”

Karen Finley, writer and performer

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“Sharply honest with wry humor and many laugh out loud moments, we travel Nicky's road that never turns maudlin, a story of how we create new famillies without disowning the ones we are born into.”

Penny Arcade, performer
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“Nicky Paraiso’s show “my hand is ready for my heart,” at La Mama is brilliant. Nicky is brilliant. And John Jesurun’s direction is pitch perfect. Go see it. It’s an homage to a life spent in NY Downtown Theater. Every young performer needs to understand how and who carved the paths for you.”

Ralph Pena, Artistic Director, Ma-Yi Theatre Company
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The “writing was raw, bracing, honest, witty, simple & powerful. What writing should be…the piece was political in the most organic way.”

Jessica Hagedorn, writer and performer
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“(Nicky) tells his story with humor, warmth and ironic gesture. Most of all he reminds how the downtown world and most especially La Mama was created from a wild love of risk and of the people willing to take it. Spend an evening in his presence”

Karen Malpede, playwright

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Only 4 more performances to catch now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories @ La MaMa.

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La MaMa 

in association with Mount Tremper Arts 

presents

now my hand 

is ready for my heart: 

intimate histories

Written by Nicky Paraiso 

Directed by John Jesurun 

With Nicky Paraiso, Irene Hultman, Jon Kinzel, Vicky Shick, Paz Tanjuaquio 

now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories is the newest work from Nicky Paraiso, an award-winning 40-year veteran of the New York City performance community. In a deep exploration of an artist’s life, Paraiso investigates aging, identity, sexuality, class and race. Directed by MacArthur Fellow John Jesurun, this world premiere is a multi-disciplinary celebration of an artistic community as it grows older and continues to make work, both individually and with each other. Paraiso is joined by choreographer / dancers Irene Hultman, Jon Kinzel, Vicky Shick, and Paz Tanjuaquio in performance and as collaborators.

March 22 - April 07, 2019 
Thursday - Saturday at 7pm; Sunday at 3pm

The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Adults; $25 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Karen Finley on "now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories"

The one-and-only Karen Finley came to see Nicky Paraiso's now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories at La MaMa this weekend and shared her thoughts on Facebook:

My reflection on Nicky Paraiso 's 

now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories – BRAVO! Brilliant! 

La Mama Theatre – NYC till April 7 Go Now! 

Nicky Paraiso’s new performance, now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories is breathtaking, offering his life story as sail to illuminate matters of heart, mind, body and spirit. All along, he takes us to meet his family, friends, soul mates, teachers, art boss’s, students, collaborators, lovers, and us, the audience. This journey isn’t a skip through memory lane, but rather a time-travel kaleidoscope that reassembles a fractured remembrance. Paraiso, on stage, with twinkle wit, takes compassionate leadership, handing his life over as evidence. As tender and loving, as sacred and profane, as humorous and wicked, as known and confused, all while uncovering the messy hubris of those you love and live with. All while he experiences internal and external racism, the pains and promise of immigration, homophobia in all shapes and sizes, identity, genderqueer and the greying of age. Paraiso as impresario, shows us his humanity/humility as he faces his own soul journey amidst a series of life’s consequences, and within an outer world of continued oppressive policy that allows cracks for kindness. Paraiso does not give up, he holds court with the complexity-challenged, the emotional-toll aftermath and maintains his loyalty to the potential of the empowerment of creative expression. Just keep dancing. Keep singing. Make a show. Make something. Keep making art somehow.

There is a reason to review the years, for in looking back at the repeated traumas where there is no-time-allowed for recovery, of losing the many loved ones to AIDS and coming to terms of the cruelties of those you love, related to and trust. Paraiso demonstrates life and art as a process of becoming, a creative transformation, and that is what he was trained and supported for all along. And that is what Paraiso offers us here- that he is our artist NOW, he is an artist NOW, that art is the only constancy NOW. Art is his shared strength and connection proclaimed. And for us who have intersected on this journey of artmaking, the performance resonates profoundly where we wonder aloud - are we all trying our best to make meaning and purpose with this damn thing called art?

The story of his life is a page turner – from being an only child to older parents who immigrated from the Philippines, to his early life as a musical prodigy, to his adventures in an era-gone-bye New York, to his loss of friends and loves to AIDS and surviving. Paraiso has 4 decades of impressive theatrical accomplishments in both performing and curating dance and theater works. He endures the effects of stereotyping roles and exclusion in his personal and professional world. He has had close relationships with many artistic geniuses, legends in close collaboration and proximity – including Ellen Stewart. One such heart-wrenching moment is when Stewart, who vehemently protested to Jeff Weiss in the dressing room while Paraiso is having the makeup applied to perform in Blackface and Weiss responding with dismissive laughter to Stewart’s objections. The show went on.

The complexity of the relationship and the intimate scenarios of truth to power/ racism within the very building Stewart herself founded, Paraiso relays the double consciousness of race, and his Asian identity, the simultaneous fetish, abjection and desire that is held for him, and the place he holds in between black and white. He reveals the different parts he is positioned within his own racial and sexual identity in many encounters – such as with his own mother – who refused Paraiso to be able to play a record of an African American male musical artist. That “no Black music would play” in her house. As a child, he struggles in that moment but ultimately obeys, yet he feels disturbed by his obedience and is left confused with the complicity within the obedient gesture. Those memories fill his childhood home, that later, when he inherits from his parents, he sells, left as is. The refusal to move in, to abandon the interior contents, or to transfer the goods – suggests defiance, not to be taking on/holding onto-/a disinheriting the family legacy.  Although not spoken is inferred with his denouncement and questioning of what is home and deciding on a new direction, a family, a new home, the theater as a family, curator, authority. And working for /with a new mother, La Mama.

The ethereal and inspired direction by John Jesrun transports the life-mapping-text away from a literal memoir. Instead the staging is a psychic, poetic portal/ portrayal by removing the limits of the proscenium. A sheer, flexible, fabric, curtain-sail cuts the stage in half with "whiteness" the audience on either side. Therefore, when the curtain is drawn, the audience looks out onto itself, a mirror of self, audience. And the projection is also doubled in reverse. The double in reverse is the insignia of this performance chimera beast. The stage is more of a floating memory carousel, a promenade, a boardwalk. With Paraiso, moving through as if on a street, entering and stopping on the thoroughfare, the audience sits on either side of the performance street– with images from his past projected onto the curtain. Onstage with Paraiso are four dancers, choreographers who move slowly with improvisational, embodied, intrigue-asking questions to Paraiso in breezy non-confrontational asides. They act as familiars, wind sprites amongst the memory conjuring.

Also sharing the stage is a piano – or should I say pain-o, for it is here that Paraiso is simultaneously-immersed, performing- emotionally transfixed, steady, magnificent in his elevated singing and demonstrates his yearning/years of training, his dedication and patience in his playing to give the best performance possible. And he does. This command also allows for a space of authority, an allowed drive, ambition, allowed aggressiveness within the narrative. Paraiso knows all the music-muscle by heart, going back to when his beloved teacher created a concerto for him as a child “to play onstage at Carnegie Hall” embraces his being loved, and the promise, and genuine impulse of loving through his playing.

Paraiso transcends his own quest and graces us with art bliss, the inspiration of performance as possibility to go beyond ordinariness. It is within that possibility, to reimagine the constraints of the harsh reality, to a reimagining that Paraiso takes us to the long tradition of theatrical performance as impossible as possible. And that is why we are all in the room, and why he commands our whole- hearted attention, that there remains hope and agency within the bittersweet for those who sing and play.

As an audience, we stood up and gave a standing ovation to "now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories" and it never felt so good. Bravo

now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories plays La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theater through April 7, 2019 only.  

To quote Karen:  "Go Now!"

_____

La MaMa 

in association with Mount Tremper Arts 

presents

now my hand 

is ready for my heart: 

intimate histories

Written by Nicky Paraiso 

Directed by John Jesurun 

With Nicky Paraiso, Irene Hultman, Jon Kinzel, Vicky Shick, Paz Tanjuaquio 

now my hand is ready for my heart: intimate histories is the newest work from Nicky Paraiso, an award-winning 40-year veteran of the New York City performance community. In a deep exploration of an artist’s life, Paraiso investigates aging, identity, sexuality, class and race. Directed by MacArthur Fellow John Jesurun, this world premiere is a multi-disciplinary celebration of an artistic community as it grows older and continues to make work, both individually and with each other. Paraiso is joined by choreographer / dancers Irene Hultman, Jon Kinzel, Vicky Shick, and Paz Tanjuaquio in performance and as collaborators.

March 22 - April 07, 2019 
Thursday - Saturday at 7pm; Sunday at 3pm

The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Adults; $25 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

La MaMa Alumni: Karen Finley

The legendary Karen Finley brings her show UNICORN GRATITUDE MYSTERY (seen at La MaMa in May 2017) to VFD in London on Saturday, May 26, 2018.  The European premiere of UNICORN GRATITUDE MYSTERY is the centerpiece of VFD's Femmetopia Festival happening May 23 - 28.

For Tickets and more information: CLICK HERE

Video Preview: Karen Finley's The Expanded Unicorn Gratitude Mystery

  The Expanded Unicorn Gratitude Mystery from La MaMa on Vimeo.


Acclaimed artist Karen Finley came to nation-wide attention when she and three other artists, who came to be known as the NEA-4, had their National Endowment for the Arts grants rescinded in 1990 which lead to a years-long court battle.  

Finley brings an expanded version of her most recent show to The Club at La MaMa for six performances. The Expanded Unicorn Gratitude Mystery explores the recent heightened US political presidential landscape that takes on citizenship, gender disparity and abuse of power.  

La MaMa presents

THE EXPANDED 
UNICORN GRATITUDE 
MYSTERY

Written and performed by Karen Finley

May 5, 2017 - May 14, 2017

Friday and Saturday at 9:30PM; Sunday at 6PM

The Club @ La MaMa 
74A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Spring 2017 @ La MaMa - Tickets Now On Sale

Tickets now on sale for La MaMa's Spring 2017 Season - including 10 @ $10 Tickets for ALL performances.

Highlights of the spring season include:

Grand Rounds

Choreographed and Directed by Tamar Rogoff 

London Paris

Written and Performed by Edgar Oliver

Directed by Randy Sharp 

Kate Bornstein:  On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us

Written and Performed by Kate Bornstein 

The Expanded Unicorn Gratitude Mystery

Written and Performed by Karen Finley

Kidnap Road

Written by Catherine Filloux

Directed by Elena Araoz 

1917-2017: Tychyna,  Zhadan and The Dogs

By Yara Arts Group

Directed by Virlana Tkacz 

My Heart is in the East

Written & performed by Jessica Litwak

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For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

6 QUESTIONS: Chris Tanner

Chris Tanner with his mother after performing in The Etiquette of Death at La MaMa

Performer and visual artist Chris Tanner brings his solo show, FOOTBALL HEAD to La MaMa, June 20th - 29th. Here, he answers our six questions.

1. You're a visual artist and a performer. How do those two practices affect each other?
They're very different, and they really use different sides of my brain. But that's the wonderful thing, that they are different, and when I'm immersed in one, I'm not at all in the other one. They feed each other, because when I'm doing theater and I finish, I have a great hunger to get back into the studio. I'll put my hand to the pallet and 
I'll start crying because I'm so happy to be back. But you don't really know until you start. It's the same way with performing. When you're onstage and you're one with the gods, there's nothing like it. It's like you're sailing. It's like you're surfing, actually. It's a high that you cannot achieve in any other way... except for maybe in your private times.

2. What draws you to "tales of shame and humiliation"? What happens when you share them with an audience?
I think we're born all gorgeous and lovely but we learn slowly about shame and humiliation from other people who are filled with shame and humiliation. Doing this piece, I want to inspire people to celebrate their differences and to not be afraid of becoming themselves. I want you open that drawer of shame and just let it out. Let it out, and decorate it! Decorate it and wear it out for everyone to see and enjoy.

3. Who are Lance Cruce and the Doo-Wop Girls?
Lance Cruce is my collaborator. We have been working together for about twenty years now. We've made many plays... it began with us working with Cyndi Lauper, her remake of Girls Just Want to Have Fun. We traveled all over the country with Karen Finley together. We've done many many shows here at La MaMa and it's great to be working with him as always.

The Doo Wop girls - One is Gina Bonati and she is fabulous. I've only known her for a year. We did a workshop of Football Head at Dixon Place together. The other one is Kaylin Clinton. I've been playing opposite her in Ildiko Nemeth's New Stage Theatre Company for, I guess, the last six years. She's a great star and a wonderful singer and I'm so honored to have both of these women in my company

4. Which artists have inspired you while you've worked on this show?
The artists that have been inspiring me on this journey are the artists I'm working with. Every day they bring something new and incredible to the piece and I am just so elated to be coming to rehearsal every day.

5. You've worked with Maria Irene Fornés. She's had an influence on a number of artists. Can you tell us a little about working with her?
We worked together on a play called A Visit. It was at least 25 years ago, at Theatre for the New City, and I think the music was by Galt MacDermot. She is a huge genius. It was one of my favorite theatrical experiences I've ever had. Going to rehearsal was like dessert. She was so interesting and exciting and fresh... I had an aunt that was an Avon lady, and I told Maria Irene Fornés, 'Please, write me a part for an Avon Lady.' And she said, 'Yes, yes, I'm going to have you be the Avon Lady next time, in my next play, and you're going to get all dressed up and you're going to be waiting there by the door from the beginning of the play, and past intermission you're going to be waiting, and actually you'll be waiting throughout the whole play to ring the doorbell, but you never will.' So I've just always seen myself by this door, backstage, waiting to go on, waiting to sell my make-up, and never going on, and nobody ever seeing me or anything. "Hey Irene, I'm still waiting, can I press the buzzer now?"

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
Working at La MaMa means I'm home, and I can do no wrong because anything I do, Mama is going to throw her arms around me and protect me and love me. Every day I come to my studio, I look at Ellen Stewart's portrait on the stairs. I say hello to her in the morning, goodbye to her at night, and I know I am safe here at La MaMa. This is my home.

La MaMa presents:

FOOTBALL HEAD

By Chris Tanner
Directed by Daniel Allen Nelson

June 20th – 29th, 2014
Friday - Saturday @ 10pm / Sunday @ 5:30pm

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

Tickets: $18 Adults - $13 Student/Senior; ten tickets priced at $10 are available, in advance, for every performance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative. 10@$10 tickets not available day of show.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Tom Murrin Full Moon Performance Festival: WEEK 2

THE TOM MURRIN 

FULL MOON PERFORMANCE 

FESTIVAL 

continues this week with a full line-up of new shows!

Myth or Meth (or Maybe Moscow?)
Radiohole

April 24–27 
Thursday to Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2:30pm and 5pm

La MaMa First Floor Theatre

Tickets: $20
Buy tickets here

The performance group Radiohole, one of New York’s most uncompromising experimental ensembles, presents Myth orMeth (or Maybe Moscow?). In a shack somewhere on the steppe of Missouri three sisters drink Coke®, eat hamburgers, fend off the local romantic axe-wielding WWI vet, and carry on the family business selling sweet jam. But the hamburgers aren’t great and they long to return to their childhood home Moscow. Or Port-au-Prince. Or whatever. When their Pa unexpectedly returns from Juárez by way of Sebastopol, hungry and spouting neoliberal ideology, the shit really hits the fan. Myth or Meth (or Maybe Moscow?) features Radiohole’s first-ever all-male (more or less) cast with Radiohole founders Eric Dyer and Scott Halvorsen Gillette along with Jim Findlay, Ilan Bachrach, Jon Okabayashi, Ryan Holsopple, and special guests TBA.

Deviants Arise!
Mike Iveson

Wednesday, April 23 at 10pm

The Club @ La MaMa

Buy tickets here

A reading of Murrin’s 2002 play in which he deals with the excesses of the George W. Bush era by focusing on behind-the-scenes tensions at a televised “perv-tacular, or perv-stravaganza, or perv-ocalypse.” The reading will include some of the performers from the original production as well as some new music made specifically for this revival.

Featuring: Anthony R Brown, Zbigniew Bzymek, John Collins, David Cote, Jim Fletcher, Anne Gridley, Jeffrey M. Jones, Vin Knight, Young Jean Lee, Richard Maxwell, Sarah Michelson, Julie Atlas Muz, Kristina Satter, Scott Shepherd, Susie Sokol and Mike Taylor

Sport-Fuckers

Gary Ray

Thursday, April 24 at 10pm

The Club @ La MaMa

Buy tickets here

Sport-Fuckers looks at the world of suburban swingers and the issues that arise during an intense sex party. First produced in 1999 at Theatre for the New City, Gary Ray is bringing it back as a staged reading with a hilarious cast of actors and special surprise guests that will make you laugh to tears.

Featuring: Penny Arcade * Kimberly Kiki Flynn * Joel Blumsack 'Zeroboy' * Mike Amato Celest Villanueva * Regge Allan Bruce * Michele Carlo *  Walter Novak * Matthew Wells and Gary Ray

Whores and more
Lucy Sexton

April 25–26 
Friday and Saturday at 10pm

The Club @ La MaMa

Buy tickets here

Readings of Murrin’s short and hilarious plays Whores on the Range and Hide the Baloney. Directed by Lucy Sexton.

Featuring: Kate Benson, Karen Finley, Annie Iobst, and Lucy Sexton

Son of Cock-Strong
Peculiar Works Project

Saturday, April 26 at 5pm

The Club @ La MaMa

Buy tickets here

Ralph Lewis leads Peculiar Works troupers on a wild ride to the top in Son of Cock-Strong. This non-sequel sequel (originally directed by La MaMa bad boy John Vaccaro) follows Arthur Cock-Strong Jr.’s rise to power in a ridiculous musical with new compositions by Spencer Katzman.

Featuring: STAN BAKER* • CRISTI CASTRO • MEGAN COOPER • TIM CUSACK* • ROB GAINES • DENIS GAWLEY* • MICK HILGERS* • KING MAN HO • CAITI LATTIMER • JOYCE MILLER • SYLVIA MILO • RACHEL NAAR • KEVIN PERCIVAL • CATHERINE PORTER* • GABRIELE SCHAFER*