BRIClab: THE JAZZ PASSENGERS: The Supremes Project
THURSDAY & SATURDAY
Led by the blindingly talented saxophonist and composer Roy Nathanson, the Jazz Passengers emerged from the frenetic explosion of experimentation characterizing New Yorkís 1980's downtown jazz scene as one of the city’s most playful and unusual groups. Through a host of albums and extended collaborations (notably with Elvis Costello & Debbie Harry), they have continued to push the creative envelope with projects such as The Fire at Keaton's Bar & Grille and a live score and dialogue for the Sci-Fi horror classic Creature From the Black Lagoon. The Supremes Project finds them in a typically mischievous and romantic mood, interpreting the music of the beloved and seminal girl group. Workshopped and presented at BRIClab, this piece is commissioned by the Celebrate Brooklyn Performing Arts Festival and will receive its world premiere at the Prospect Park Bandshell in summer 2007.
Creative Advisor: Danny Kahn, Cross Road Management
BRIClab: KATORI HALL: Hurt Village
THURSDAY & SATURDAY
March 22 & 24 @ 8:00PM
The exciting young NYC playwright and actress Katori Hall has become a magnet for awards and accolades in recent years, including a 2006 NYFA Fellowship in Playwrighting, a residency at the Royal Court Theatre in London, a 2006 workshop production of her play Hoodoo Love at the Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project and a seat at the Women's Project Playwrights' Lab. Premiering at BRIClab, her latest work, Hurt Village, is set in this real-life Memphis housing project, which has become a painful symbol of urban decay. Focusing on a young African-American man who returns from fighting in Iraq to find that his home is being demolished, the piece explores in vivid and sometimes brutal detail a long-lasting legacy of drug abuse, child abuse, crime and self-hatred within a poor, working-class, multi-generational Black family. Directed by Lucie Tiberghien.
Creative Advisor: Lisa Timmel; Artistic Producer, Carole Shorenstein Hays Productions
SALON 651: Choreography in Development
March 29 & April 5 @ 8PM
651 ARTS returns to BRICstudio with an adventurous series of new work by emerging and established artists of the African Diaspora. On March 29, Christalyn Wright presents Struggles with Words, Attitudes and Great Expectations, inspired by Sue Monk Kidd's novel, The Secret Life of Bees. Wright, a Brooklyn-based choreographer whose work has been presented nationally and internationally, incorporates video by artist Liza Johnson with found text, live interviews, dance techniques, and vocalizations. On April 5, choreographer and dancer Nora Chipaumire presents three works: Bantu/groundswell, a movement haiku about despair; Ellegua, a Santeria/Lukumi Orisha (spirit) of doorways and crossroads; and Dark Swan, inspired by the legendary solo from Swan Lake, "The Dying Swan" (1907), danced by Anna Pavlova and choreographed by Michel Fokine to music by Camille Saint-Saens.
DANSPACE PROJECT: Out of Space @ BRICstudio
April 6 & 7 @ 8:30PM
Out of Space @ BRICstudio, a co-presentation with Danspace Project, kicks off an electrifying fourth season with a line-up of bold new works curated by Mar?a Wethers. Infatuation, choreographed and performed by Kelly Bartnik, is an exploration of self-control in the midst of unfulfilled desires, investigating overwhelming lust for the unattainable. Robbie Cook and Peter Sciscioli's (of Jane Comfort & Company) duet shortcomings / Tall Tales probes the mysterious, often intangible nature of intimacy between men. And Monstah Black presents excerpts from his Afro-punk funk rock opera, Skipping Backwards, treading the line between spectacle and introspection as he explores gender complexity through the eyes of an androgynous, black queer growing up in the dirty south. Monstah Black saunters, sways, swaggers, and rocks out, weaving together vocals, movement, text and fashion.
BRIClab: BRAVE NEW WORLD REPERTORY THEATRE: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
April 19 & 21 @ 8:00PM
Brooklyn maverick Brave New World Repertory Theatre transforms Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, the great American poet Walt Whitman's love song to the borough, into a not-to-be-missed theatrical experience. This latest stage offering follows on the success of Brave New World's wildly imaginative and unorthodox productions, including the groundbreaking staging of To Kill a Mockingbird on Ditmas Park porches and the concert production of Howard Sackler's Pulitzer Prize-winning Great White Hope at the Prospect Park Bandshell. Developed at BRIClab and commissioned by the Celebrate Brooklyn Performing Arts Festival to premiere at the bandshell in summer 2007, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry weaves together poetry, projections, music, rap and choreography by Freefall(ltd)'s Lynn Brown and Lynn Marie Ruse. Under the Artistic Direction of Claire Beckman, Brave New World draws from Brooklyn's rich artistic community to create dynamic and engaging theatre, emphasizing classical and neglected works, as well as new works by its members.
Creative Advisor: Morgan Jenness, Literary Agent & Dramaturg, Abrams Artists Agency
BRIClab: ROGER BONAIR-AGARD: MASQUERADE: poems of calypso and home
April 26 & 28 @ 8:00PM
Roger Bonair-Agard puts the "amp" in slam poet. A native of Trinidad and Tobago and a Brooklyn resident for seventeen years, his work reflects the struggles of a man in voluntary exile in a conflicted 21st-century America. A two-time National Slam Champion who has stirred audiences from Germany to South Africa to Alaska, he is electrifying in performance, weaving living, breathing tapestries out of politics and the notion of home. This latest work both critiques and celebrates the Trinidadian ethos by examining the influence its seminal music exerts on a poet and the larger world. Masquerade began as a poem cycle (Cypher Books, 2006) and will be developed at BRIClab into a full-scale, solo theatrical presentation.
Creative Advisor: Danny Hoch, Founder, Hip Hop Theater Festival
Presented in association with terraNOVA Collective.
BRIClab: AYELET ROSE GOTTLIEB: Mayim Rabim/Great Waters
May 3 & 5 @ 8:00PM
Jerusalem-born jazz vocalist Ayelet Rose Gottlieb radiates a powerfully unique style, reminiscent of diverse influences-she grew up among stacks of vinyl that included Charles Mingus, Laurie Anderson, J.S. Bach, Bob Dylan, Edith Piaf and Egyptian chanteuse Oum Koultum. Mayim Rabim/Great Waters, her ten-piece song cycle based on texts from the erotic biblical love poem Song of Songs, was released in June 2006 (Tzadik Records) to international critical acclaim. An epic story of love and loss in which each line of music, each player on stage is revealed as part of the complexity of a young woman caught in the great waters of love. Through support from BRIClab, Gottlieb develops the piece into a multi-sensory theatrical presentation, layering music with deconstructed English translations, choreography, a cast of vocalists and visuals by the renowned German video-artist Renate Aller. Directed by Franny Silverman.
Creative Advisor: Marcin Ramocki, Media Artist / Founder & Director, vertexList
DANSPACE PROJECT: Out of Space @ BRICstudio
June 22 & 23 @ 8:30PM
This popular performance sampler closes BRICstudio's 2007 season in June with an evening of new solo work. The elegant and thought-provoking, Bessie Award-winning Juliette Mapp performs the new solo After Agnes, inspired by the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin. Joyce S. Lim returns with Woman Plays, a work-in-development based on Japanese Noh plays representing a beautiful woman obsessed by love. And Ivory Coast native Michel Kouakou/Daara Dance (of the Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group) performs the work-in-progress solo Behind Me.