6 Questions: Eimi Imanishi

1.) How did you get involved with Sean and Lilac Co.?

Funnily enough I met Sean on ArtCube when I responded to an ad he had posted there for an assistant director. Turns out we have a mutual friend who had seen a previous Magic Agency Chapter and because they had loved the show and because I was curious to experience a theatre production (I come from film primarily), I decided to work on this show. 

2.) What have you learned through working on this piece?

Theatre is so different from film!  In some ways it is easier, and in some ways harder. I am a writer/director in the film medium and have enjoyed learning about the different elements in directing actors for the stage. Acting on stage is much more physical and fearless. There isn't the safety of 'try it different ways and edit it in post' that film has. 

3.) Who has influenced your work?

I am influenced by Claire Denis, Yasujirō Ozu, Ciro Guerra, Bahram Beyzai, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Henri Rousseau,  and recently Tala Madani. 

4.) If you weren't working in theatre, what do you think you'd like to do?

I normally don't work in theatre, but I think I'd like to find more opportunities to do so.

5.) What was the last good book you read?

non-fiction: Akira Kurosawa's autobiography.  fiction: Lynne Tillman's Motion Sickness.

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

Well, one can't help but feel a little special to be a part of such an establishment.  But aside, I have spent a few days here now setting up and rehearsing, and really love the atmosphere of the place.  The administrators and technicians here remind me of the tutors and technicians I had at art school in London - creative problem solvers, people who think outside the box, whose actions are political and non capitalistic. 

The Magic Agency | Chapter 6: Behind The Red Curtain

January 31 - February 03, 2019

Downstairs | 66 East 4th Street

$25 Tickets; $20 Student/Senior Tickets [+$1 Facility Fee]Run Time: 55 Minutes (No Intermission)

For Tickets Click HERE

Check Out: Magic Agency Promo Video

In The Magic Agency, a group (cult?) performs psychic recoveries of fragmented people as party entertainment, helping people rescue their “lost selves.”

From Sean Edward Lewis / Lilac Co, a Brooklyn, NY based experimental theatre, the work has been shown and presented in abandoned storefronts, church basements, the Polish National Home, Dixon Place, The Tank, Saint Vitus, Zebulan, D.I.Y. spots throughout New York City and Los Angeles, Joe’s Pub, The Roy Hart Institute (Malérargues,Fr), Pantheatre Myth and Theatre Festival (2014 Paris, France), The Collapsable Hole, The Segal Center’s PRELUDE Festival (2016), The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival (2014).

La MaMa presents

The Magic Agency | 
Chapter 6: Behind The Red Curtain

January 31 - February 3, 2019
Thursday - Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 5pm

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

Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

AJIJAAK ON TURTLE ISLAND to play New Victory Theater

Photo by Theo Cote

IBEX Puppetry's AJIJAAK ON TURTLE ISLAND, seen at La MaMa in February 2018, returns to New York City to play The New Victory Theater on 42nd Street.

Visionary puppetry artist Heather Henson and Grammy Award winner Ty Defoe bring together an ensemble of North American First Nations Peoples to tell the tale of Ajijaak, a young whooping crane who must face her first migration south. Indigenous songs, languages, and dance weave together in a spectacle of artistry to create this affecting fable about the dangerous effects of climate change on animals and our Mother Earth. With puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop and music by Ty Defoe, Grammy nominee Dawn Avery and Kevin Tarrant of The SilverCloud Singers, AJIJAAK ON TURTLE ISLAND takes flight in a celebration of the natural world.

Don't miss your chance to see this amazing show once again.

Photo by Theo Cote

AJIJAAK ON TURTLE ISLAND
An IBEX Puppetry Production
Directed by Ty Defoe and Heather Henson

March 1 - 10, 2019

The New Victory Theater 
229 W 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036 

Tickets & Info: CLICK HERE

600 HIGHWAYMEN'S "The Fever" on sale January 31st!

La MaMa is excited to have The Fever by 600 HIGHWAYMEN at The Ellen Stewart Theatre as part of Onassis Festival 2019: Democracy Is Coming. The Fever runs April 11 - April 21, 2019.     

The Fever tests the limits of an individual and collective responsibility, and our willingness to be there for one another. Returning from its debut in Under the Radar, performed in complete collaboration with the audience, The Fever examines how we assemble, organize, and care for the bodies around us.

Tickets are $35 and are now on sale to La MaMa and Public Theatre Members.  Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Thursday, January 31 at 2pm.

For more info about The Fever: CLICK HERE

For More info about Onassis Festival 2019: Democracy Is Coming: CLICK HERE

To become a La MaMa Member: CLICK HERE

6 Questions: Sean Lewis

1. How would you describe the show in your own words?
For me it's the mix of the intensely personal mixed with the super broad topics of 'dystopia' and 'cult' and 'genre' - this project has been for me about going as hard as I can into story and genre and thinking like I'm writing a tv show - not because that is my goal but that helps me dislodge the trap of trying to write the next great play, and we can just get on with working and the tasks in front of us.

2. How does this show intersect with the other MAGIC AGENCY pieces you've done?
The work is chaptered and episodic, as opposed to serialized. You come in anywhere and get a complete experience. That said this will be the sixth hour of content (maybe more) we have created and shown throughout the city since June 2017. This one is proving to be blast and it is to me the introduction of the star Unique Jenkins. When we met to read and see if she was right it was so confounding and wonderful for me. She just flipped the script and I haven't looked back. You gotta see it and see her!

3. What role does the cult play in this series?
Well I grew up in California in the 70s so somehow these issues are near me. I watched the Jim Jones movie on tv with Powers Booth and it scared the hell out of me, and went when I was real young to a very cult-y church that I stopped going to at 12 (Joseph Smith Mormons) when they asked me for money to build the spiral temple. I remember sitting on the couch looking at the men asking me and I was pained not to laugh. So you know its fun! It is the collision of the good and the bad. these people come together for reasons that are human reason- warmth and comfort and loneliness etc., so it's a great human place. Everyone gets it I think. Certainly Americans

4. Where does the name Lilac come from?
The first piece I did in NYC was a work called "Just Another Cowboy in Steinland" the work performed in its entirety and as written / in order ROOMs by Gertrude Stein from Tender Buttons. There is a line in the piece "Nothing aiming is a flower, if flowers are abundant then they are lilac, if they are not they are white in the centre."  It bounces in my mind constantly today. I knew that was the name. For a while we coupled it with St. Johns (the church we made plays in in Brooklyn).

5. What has it been like working with Unique Jenkins?
Amazing. She teaches me something daily. So on point and the way she shows up for the work is inspiring

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
Going home. Being able to breath. Being myself

The Magic Agency | Chapter 6: Behind The Red Curtain

January 31 - February 03, 2019

Downstairs | 66 East 4th Street

$25 Tickets; $20 Student/Senior Tickets [+$1 Facility Fee]Run Time: 55 Minutes (No Intermission)

For Tickets Click HERE