Bread and Puppet turns 50

Shatterer of Worlds
A church-space slowly fills with multitudes of roughly shaped figures.
Perhaps mythic ancient figures – golems, women of Willendorfs, pygmies, giants.
Handmade beautiful grotesques. 
Songs whisper forth from the shadows – found object instrument/machines whistling, klinking, whirring, rattling. 
Puppets are conjured an audience is swallowed.

Below are some photographs from the recent appearance of the Bread and Puppet Theater at the West Park Presbyterian Church, NYC. Taken November 24th, 2013

Shatterer of Worlds curtain    photo: Andytoad

Shatterer of Worlds curtain       photo: Andytoad

 

Shatterer of Worlds    photo: Andytoad

Shatterer of Worlds       photo: Andytoad

 

Shatterer of Worlds    photo: Andytoad

Shatterer of Worlds       photo: Andytoad

 

Shatterer of Worlds    photo: Andytoad

Shatterer of Worlds       photo: Andytoad

 

Shatterer of Worlds (Peter Schumann)    photo: Andytoad

Shatterer of Worlds (Peter Schumann)       photo: Andytoad

 

Shatterer of Worlds    photo: Andytoad

Shatterer of Worlds       photo: Andytoad

 

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Debut Showing: Ghost Lines

Coming Soon!
The premiere of a new evening length piece – Ghost Lines – by my friend and collaborator Cori Olinghouse.
Ghost Lines incorporates live performance and film with costume design by me!

Illustration by Lauren Simkin Berke

Illustration by Lauren Simkin Berke

GHOST LINES

December 12-14, 2013
Thursday-Saturday at 8:00PM
Danspace Project:
131 East 10th Street (at Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Using an archival impulse to channel a lost movement history, Cori Olinghouse’s latest work contains echoes ranging from silent film comedians to Dada, Surrealism, and Oskar Schlemmer, the Bauhaus’ choreographer of unusual visual ballets. A cast of accomplished dancers: Michelle Dorrance, Elizabeth Keen, Mina Nishimura, and Eva Schmidt scramble through multiple personalities and pseudo stories.

As part of the evening, Olinghouse and film artist, Shona Masarin merge creative processes with a 16mm black & white film that uses traditional animation techniques, hand processing, chemical experiments, collage, painting, and drawing. In the film, Olinghouse acts as a medium, conjuring imagery from our collective unconscious, allowing a series of imagined spaces, forms, characters, and personalities to drift through her body, take form, and dissolve again. Drawn to the mechanics of the medium as it relates to perception, kinetics, and optical illusion, they look for rhythms and startling chance compositions that confuse, seduce, and assault the senses.

Costumes by Andrew Jordan
Lighting designer Kathy Kaufmann
Sound design for live choreography by Ryan Ross Smith
Sound design for film by Andrew Hurst

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE:  Danspace Projects

Photograph from the set of Ghost Lines

Photograph from the set of Ghost Lines    photo: Andytoad

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The Stealing of the Kine

Last week in Philadelphia, in the Conwell Dance Theater at Temple University, Wolf-in-Skins (a dance-opera I have been designing with co-creators Christopher Williams and Gregory Spears) had it’s avant-premiere showing of act one. My costume designs for the opera’s supernatural characters made their first appearance on stage. Many thanks to an amazingly gifted cast of dancers and singers who transformed and transported us to netherworld realms.

I had my camera with me during the dress rehearsal. Here are some photos of my costume designs for the race of the “Fay.”

Gwrgi, Bleiddwen, Gwyddrud and Gwydden (Matthew Flatley, Kira Blazek, Jordan Isadore and Steven Zarzecki)

Gwrgi, Bleiddwen, Gwyddrud and Gwydden (Matthew Flatley, Kira Blazek, Jordan Isadore and Steven Zarzecki) _  photo: AndyToad

Llaethwen, Llaethenwen and Maiddwen (Chelsea Retzloff, Caitlin Scranton and Andrew Champlin)

Llaethwen, Llaethenwen and Maiddwen (Chelsea Retzloff, Caitlin Scranton and Andrew Champlin) _  photo: AndyToad

A pack of wolves and hounds

A pack of wolves and hounds _ photo: AndyToad

See more photos here.

 As for the future of Wolf-in-Skins, we will continue working on its second act this year, and the complete dance-opera is slated for debut in New York City in 2014. More info as it develops

We Found Love in a Hopeless Place

One of my favorite pieces in the Brooklyn Museum is the Likishi Dance Costume. I make time to see her whenever I visit.

The Museum’s Likishi dance costume in performance, Zambia, 1935 (Photo: Margaret Carson Hubbard)

Museum Text:

Likishi Dance Costume and Accessories (Mwana Pwevo)

Unidentified Luvale artist, late 19th or early 2oth century
Northwest province, Zambia
Fiber, wood, hide, metal, seedpods, bark, rope, hair, organic materials
 

This complete dance costume shows how masks are normally one part of a larger ensemble. The mask is sewn directly onto the costume of looped bark and fiber, which fits tightly over the body of the dancer. Seedpod rattles and metal bells added a musical aspect to the performance.

Although they are danced by Luvale men, mwana pwevo masks depict women. In order to own and perform with a mask, a man had to symbolically marry it by paying the carver a copper ring as a bride price. In doing so, the dancer made a commitment to honor and care for the spirit represented in the mask. In return, the dancer was able to earn his livelihood performing at local festivals.