Preview: ERS' Arguendo @ The Public

The fabulous Elevator Repair Service has taken a break from their American Lit plays to present a little gem of a show called Arguendo. 

The premise of Arguendo is a 1991 U.S. Supreme Court case, Barnes v. Glen Theatre, brought by a group of go-go dancers who claimed a First Amendment right to dance totally nude.  The case examines an Indiana law that banned public nudity. At oral argument, the Justices attempt to define dance, ponder nudity in opera houses vs. strip-clubs, and ask whether naked erotic dancing is artistic expression or immoral conduct. 

Arguendo is a staging of Barnes v. Glen Theatre’s entire oral argument, verbatim, interspersed with bits of real interviews with the justices, the lawyers and an exotic dancer who traveled all the way from the Déja Vu Club in Saginaw, Michigan to listen to the argument at The Supreme Court. It all culminates in an operatic dance frenzy, complete with some nudity. 

If this all sounds a little dry, rest assured that the usual ERS inventions are all present including hilarious sounds effects and dazzling video work highlighting legal case citing. What becomes most interesting are the supreme court justices own hangups and humanity while trying to sort through the facts of the case with questions like: Can dance express something? Would nudity be more acceptable in opera? Why is the establishment where the woman are dancing called a "bookstore"?  What is a public place?

This is a smart and entertaining 80 minutes.

The Public Theater presents
Elevator Repair Services'
Arguendo
 
Through October 6, 2013

For tickets and info: click here

There are several talk-backs scheduled which will probably be fascinating, as this is a show that definitely makes you want to talk afterwards:

Sunday Sept 15 @ 7pm – Bill Araiza
Sunday Sept 22 @ 7pm – David Lat
Wednesday Sept 11 – Mark Fleming
Sunday Sept 29 @ 7pm - Christopher Fairman
Wednesday Oct 2 - World Famous BOB

PREVIEW: Mildred Fierce

Boston's GOLD DUST ORPHANS will make their long-awaited NYC debut this fall with MILDRED FIERCE by Ryan Landry.  Based on Joan Crawford's Oscar-winning Mildred Pierce, this musical parody stars Varla Jean Merman in the title role and will play Theater 80 from October 5th through October 27th.

For about fifteen years, the Gold Dust Orphans have producing their original parodies in Boston and Provincetown, such as Pussy On The House, Silent Night Of The Lambs and Mary Poppers. They launched a very successful Kickstarter campaign to bring Mildred Fierce to New York - appropriately enough to the venue that for years was a movie revival house.

Good Luck Girls!

For tickets: Click Here

PREVIEW: Shakespeare's Sister (or La Vie Matérielle)

La MaMa, ETC will present Irina Brook's Shakespeare's Sister (or La Vie Matérielle) at the historic Ellen Stewart Theater from September 20th through October 3rd, 2013. Adapted and directed by Irina Brook, daughter of legendary director Peter Brook, Shakespeare's Sister (or La Vie Matérielle) is based in part on both a Marguérite Duras’s collection of essays on daily life, La Vie Matérielle, and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, set at a fantasy dinner party where five women prepare the cuisine while singing, dancing and discussing their place in the world.

The cast includes a diverse group of female artits: OBIE Award winner Winsome Brown as Virginia Woolf, novelist and former French Vogue editor Joan Juliet Buck (Julie and Julia) as Maugerite Duras, actress Nicole Ansari (“Deadwood," Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll), concert violin soloist Yibin Li and British singer/songwriter Sadie Jemmett.

This looks to be a unique experience. A video preview of the French production is below. 

La MaMa, ETC presents
Shakespeare’s Sister 
(or La Vie Materielle)
Adapted and Directed by Irina Brook

September 20 – October 6, 2013

For Tickets and Info: Click Here

PREVIEW: Life and Times: Episodes 4.5 & 5

We love Nature Theater of Oklahoma, so we could not be more excited to see the next episode and a half of their LIFE AND TIMES at Florence Gould Hall.  The latest in the life saga of Kristin Worrall takes up through high school and Worrall's first sexual experiences.  Apparently, these episodes veer away from performance with Episode 4.5 being 30-minute animated film and Episode 5 being a medieval illuminated manuscript with sexually-explicit, hand-drawn illustrations, given to each audience member along with a flashlight. 

Can't wait!

Nature Theater of Oklahoma
Life and Times: Episodes 4.5 and 5

Fri, Sept 20 and Sat, Sept 21, 2013 at 8pm

FIAF, Florence Gould Hall
Part of the Crossing The Lines Festival
 
For tickets and info: Click Here
 

In addition, each night at 11:57pm in Times Square you can see Nature Theater of Oklahoma deconstruct three minutes of one of Worrall's home movie, retracing it by hand, image by image and broadcast over fifteen of the largest digital signs in Times Square.  Learn more about Midnight Moment HERE. 

PREVIEW: Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play

Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play is now playing at the invaluable Playwrights Horizons. With music by Michael Friedman and directed by Steve Cosson, Mr. Burns might just be the most unusual show you see this season. The play begins in the not-too-distant future after some sore of catastrophe. Survivors band together, trade names of people they've met who are still alive in hope of hearing about loved ones, and recount episodes of The Simpsons. The play jumps forward seven years in act two, after a brief pause, as society begins to rebuild and our group of survivors are staging Simpsons episodes (complete with commercials) as entertainment, including pop song production numbers, for others in what appears to be a thriving business enterprise. Act three jumps 70 years further into the future, where these Simpsons recreations have taken on mythical, operatic stats where we are treated to a full production of what this entertainment genre has become.

We suggest a fresh (or first time) viewing of the Simpsons episode "Cape Feare" if you are planning on seeing Mr. Burns. It will definitely enhance your experience. Suggestion to Playwrights Horizons: have this playing in the lobby pre-show and invite audience to come early! 

You can view the episode online HERE.

This is a show that will stick with you.  It's thought-provoking and smart and visually exciting.  Look for a lot of good reviews. 

Rituals of Rented Island Exhibit Coming to The Whitney Museum

We are really looking forward to a new exhibit opening in October at the Whitney Museum called Rituals of Rented Island: Object Theater, Loft Performance, and the New Psychodrama—Manhattan, 1970–1980. 

Organized by Jay Sanders, Curator and Curator of Performance, this exhibit will look at the radical period of 1970s performance art that flourished in downtown Manhattan, or what filmmaker and performance artist Jack Smith called “Rented Island,” that still remains largely unknown today. Working in lofts, storefronts, and alternative spaces, this group of artists, with backgrounds in theater, dance, music, and visual art, created complex new forms of performance to embody and address contemporary media, commercial culture, and high art. 

The exhibit open on Oct 31, 2013 and will run through February 2, 2014.

For more info: Click Here.

Fringe Encores: PENINSULA

We went back to see PENINSULA last night.  We'd caught it during the initial run as part of The New York International Fringe Festival and it has now been picked up as part of Fringe Encores where it is getting additional performances at The Players Theater.  The play has been ever-so-slightly re-staged for the new venue to excellent effect but everything we liked about it the first time is still intact. 

PENINSULA very deservedly won a Fringe Excellence Award for Outstanding Ensemble who not only work so well as a whole, but also each give complex individual performances that struck deeper on second viewing: funnier, sadder, more dangerous, more helpless, more honest.  Nadia Foskolou's fluid almost dance-like direction is like watching choreographed filmatic cross-fades.

Playwright Nathan Wright has created a play that is complex, dark and funny that rings more true than you may like.  Some of the poetic passages and motifs may be used too often but this is a minor quibble for what is easily one of the best plays in NYC right now.

PENINSULA
 
Remaining performances:
Tuesday, September 24    8pm
Saturday, October 5          9pm
Sunday, October 13          7pm

Tickets $18

Players Theater
115 MacDougal Street
New York, NY 10012

For tickets and information: www.peninsulatheplay.com