6 Questions for Sean Donovan of LEMON GIRLS OR ART FOR THE ARTLESS

Photo by Nicolas Calcott

Sean Donovan is an actor, dancer, writer, choreographer and director. His recent plays include Cabin (Bushwick Starr), and The Reception (HERE Arts). Sean has been nominated twice for BESSIE Awards for Outstanding Performer. He’s worked with Heather Christian, Faye Driscoll, Miguel Gutierrez, Jane Comfort, The Builders Association, Witness Relocation, John Jesurun, and many others.

Sean Donovan is the choreographer for Talking Band's Lemon Girls or Art for the Artless, written by OBIE and Drama Desk Award winning playwright and composer Ellen Maddow and directed by Paul Zimet. There are four more performances in the Downstairs Theatre this weekend from March 24–27. Tickets can be purchased here.

1. Who and what has inspired you?

I take inspiration from so many different places. I’m inspired by boundary pushing artists whose work defies easy categorization. I love choreographers like Miguel Gutierrez and Jack Ferver to name a few. I love music artists like Anohni and Justin Vivian Bond.  People who make me laugh but can also open a wound in your heart.

2. How would you describe your work as a choreographer?

I make choreography out of everyday social behavior, elevating the gestural language to a heightened state to call attention to its rhythm, timing, and emotion. And I use dance as a means of storytelling but break from traditions of musical theater or narrative dance, drawing on forms of postmodernism and contemporary performance.

3. How did you come to collaborate with Talking Band?

I had seen the Talking Band’s work for a number of years and has always been a huge fan. We came to work together when old friends and longtime collaborators Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone (Co-Artistic Directors of 600 Highwaymen) recommended me to Paul and Ellen of the Talking Band.  We were both familiar with each other’s work and after just one meeting I think we could tell it would be a great fit. 

4. What can audiences expect from these performances?

They can expect smart, profound, hilarious writing and direction from longtime experimental theater creators. They can expect to see older bodies invigorated with life and vitality and a story that tries to ask questions of personal value and how we process grief. And they can expect choreography that charts a journey of self-discovery and embodiment through both humor and earnestness. 

5. What are your upcoming plans for 2022?/What are you looking forward to?

I’m currently performing in Heather Christian’s incredible new music work entitled Oratorio For Living Things premiering at Ars Nova which I’m thrilled about. I’m also collaborating with Taylor Mac on Taylor’s newest work, Bark of Millions. And I’m writing a new play!

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

It means so much to me. I’ve worked at La MaMa more than almost any other theater in New York going back 20 years from my days with the downtown dance theater company Witness Relocation. It’s very much an artistic home for me.

Photo by Craig Lowy

La MaMa presents

Lemon Girls or Art for the Artless

By Talking Band
Written by Ellen Maddow
Directed by Paul Zimet

March 11 – 27, 2022

The Downstairs 
66 East 4th Street, basement level
New York, NY 10003

Thursdays – Saturday at 8PM
Sunday at 4PM

Tickets:

Adults: $25 in advance; $30 day of show
Students/Seniors: $20 in advance; $25 day of show

Gabe Herman looks at CITY OF NO ILLUSIONS for The Villager

Immigrants, refugees and life-and-death issues 

Gabe Herman looks at Talking Band's newest work, City of No Illusions, premiering at The Downstairs at La MaMa on February 8, 2019.  Gabe spoke to Talking Band's Paul Zimet about the piece:

“I became very interested in this idea of borders, between countries and also between the living and the dead,” he said. “The piece became not only about borders but the passageway through those borders.”

Read the full article: HERE

And get tickets to City of No Illusions: HERE

La MaMa presents
CITY OF NO ILLUSIONS
Written and Directed by Paul Zimet 
Music by Ellen Maddow

February 8 - 24, 2019

The Downstairs @ La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets & Info: CLICK HERE

2018 La MaMa Umbria: International Symposium for Directors

The 2018 La MaMa Umbria: International Symposium for Directors announces this summer's workshop leaders: 

Semion Aleksandrovskiy (Russia)

Stefanie Batten Bland (USA)

Krzysztof Garbaczewski (Poland)

The Talking Band: Ellen Maddow / Paul Zimet  (USA)

Spend two weeks in Italy working with directors from around the world!  Applications are now being accepted.

For more information: CLICK HERE

5 Questions: Paul Zimet

Paul Zimet, founding member of The Talking Band, took time out of rehearsals to answer our 6 Questions about the the beginnings of the now 40 year-old group, how their work has grown over the years and what audiences should expect from the epic production of The Golden Toad which opens Friday at The Ellen Stewart Theatre!

1. What was the original inspiration for THE GOLDEN TOAD? 

I had been re-reading all of Dostoevsky’s novels. The Russian literary critic, Bahktin, said the thing that was unique about Dostoevsky’s characters was that they were “unfinalized”. They were were fluid, always changing. He said that couldn’t be done in theater. Ellen Maddow and I took that as a challenge to write an episodic theater piece, which follows the same group of characters over time and shifting circumstances. Their identities are never fixed.

2. What should audiences expect at THE GOLDEN TOAD? 

Four different sets/worlds which the audience will travel through (a back yard of a Brooklyn Townhouse, a tour bus moving through the New Jersey Meadowlands, a pop- up clothing store, and a Karaoke Bar); constantly surprising characters; cliff-hangers; great songs and music by Ellen Maddow and Elizabeth Swados; wonderfully expressive puppets by Eric Wright and the Puppet Kitchen; striking design by Anna Kiraly (sets and video), Lenore Doxsee (lights) and Kiki Smith (costumes); and an amazing ensemble –most of whom have been developing this work for two years- Michael Evans, James Tigger! Ferguson, Helen Gutowski, Melanie Herrera, Mikeah Ernest Jennings, Marija Kovacevic, John Kruth, Ellen Maddow, Nicolas Noreña, Dara Orland, Tina Shepard, and Georgia Stettner.

3. Talking Band turns 40 this year! How did the group form?

Ellen Maddow, Tina Shepard and I were all member of The Open Theater directed by Joseph Chaikin. The company was one of the first to collectively create new works. When The Open Theater disbanded in 1973 we wanted to continue and expand the research we had started with the Open Theater and continue to make new works, so we formed Talking Band.

4. How have Talking Band shows changed over the years? 

At the beginning our explorations were mainly about how to bring the same vitality and immediacy to the performance of language as we had brought to physical images and movement in The Open Theater. We started out performing poetry, and plays by poets. Music and the musicality of language was always central to our work. Our first production was The Kalevala, based on a Finnish epic poem. Composer Elizabeth Swados wrote the music. The staging was very spare. Our focus was on the musical telling of a story. In subsequent years, we have incorporated more and more theatrical elements – choreography, design, video. We have been fortunate to work with many extraordinary designers: in addition to the ones we are working with on The Golden Toad the list includes: Julie Taymor, Theodora Skipitares, Machine Dazzle, Carol Mullins, Nic Ularu, Ralph Lee, Christine Jones, Beverly Emmons, Gabriel Berry and many others.

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

La MaMa has been Talking Band’s artistic home since 1981. We’ve produced more than twenty original works at La MaMa. Ellen Stewart nurtured the company, stretched out artistic vision, inspired us. Now, as always, when we work at La MaMa we feel that we are part of creative family which includes the many artists who work here and the La MaMa staff who work with such dedication, understanding, and love to support the work.

La MaMa presents

THE 

GOLDEN 


TOAD


by The Talking Band

January 23 - February 07, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 are available for every performance, in advance only, via web, phone or at the box office - not available day of show.

Because of the configuration of the theater for The Golden Toad, there is very limited ticket availability for every performance.  Advance purchase strongly suggested.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE