Retreat Projects 2005
Song for New York by Ruth Maleczech and Mabou Mines
Song for New York is composed of five poems, written by female poets representing each of the five boroughs that make up New York City. This site-specific work is intended for performance in non-theatrical spaces throughout the five boroughs. Through Song for New York, Mabou Mines hopes to reflect the complexity of New York City and the diversity of expression that runs through the city. Maleczech is a founding, co-Artistic Director of Mabou Mines, an avant-garde theater company, and is the recipient of multiple OBIE and Villager awards for her work as a director and actor.
Circus AmokCircus Amok is an outdoor, one-ring, no-animal political circus theater company. Throughout ENVISION, founder/Artistic Director Jennifer Miller and the members of Circus Amok worked with core performers and musicians to develop its 2005 season show. The topics to be investigated will include the gentrification of NYC from its geological formation to the current era of big box stores, and how we got from there to here. For her work with Circus Amok, Miller was awarded a Bessie and an OBIE. She has toured her solo works in New York and abroad, receiving extensive recognition by the press and multiple foundations for the arts.
Kultur Kamp: Without You We’re Nothing by Nina Mankin
Think “Hedwig” meets “Betty” meets “Babes in Arms,” when Lötsa Pioof (Mankin) and Hildegarter (Taylor Mac), two German performance artists, team up with the American Billy (Rachelle Garniez) and decide they have something to offer “W”-era America by way of political performance. Kultur Kamp integrates the personal drama of the Kampers with musical parodies of American pop culture songs to investigate identity, activism, and sexual literary theory in modern America. Mankin’s work has been seen at the New York Theatre Workshop, Music-Theater Group and the American Repertory Theatre. She has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Opera/Musical Theatre development grant and holds an MA in Performance Studies from NYU.
The Fairy Queen by Myra Paci
Set during the turbulent days around 9/11, The Fairy Queen is a story about four women and their ever-changing capacities for love. Collectively, the women must sort through issues of mental instability, loneliness, cancer and forgotten love without succumbing to the fear around them and within themselves. Paci has written multiple screenplays, including Searching For Paradise (2002) starring Chris Noth, Mary Louise Wilson and Susan May Pratt, and Girls Night Out (1997) starring Rosario Dawson. She was a fellow at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab as well as the Directors Lab. Paci received a five-week residency at the MacDowell Colony to write The Fairy Queen.
Like A Cow Or An Elephant by Kara Corthron
Like A Cow Or An Elephant examines the life of Kreena, a 20-something cafeteria janitor with an overbearing mother and a junkie brother. Overlooked and under-appreciated by her family, Kreena takes her life into her own hands after meeting a stranger named Michel and befriending a new co-worker. Corthron is a Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and holds an MA from NYU. Like A Cow Or An Elephant was a finalist in the 2005 National Ten-Minute Play Contest and has received workshops at Juilliard and HERE Arts Center.
Stone Heart by Diane Glancy
Based on Glancy’s 2003 novel of the same title, Heart investigates the story of Sacajawea, the young Shoshoni woman who accompanied Lewis & Clark on their 1804-06 expedition to the Pacific Coast. Glancy examines this historic journey through the eyes of Sacajawea, a young Native American woman separated from her tribe and travelling with thirty strange men. Glancy is a professor of Native American Literature and Creative Writing at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has published an extensive list of novels, short stories, plays, poems, and essays, and is the recipient of the 2003 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
Song for New York is composed of five poems, written by female poets representing each of the five boroughs that make up New York City. This site-specific work is intended for performance in non-theatrical spaces throughout the five boroughs. Through Song for New York, Mabou Mines hopes to reflect the complexity of New York City and the diversity of expression that runs through the city. Maleczech is a founding, co-Artistic Director of Mabou Mines, an avant-garde theater company, and is the recipient of multiple OBIE and Villager awards for her work as a director and actor.
Circus AmokCircus Amok is an outdoor, one-ring, no-animal political circus theater company. Throughout ENVISION, founder/Artistic Director Jennifer Miller and the members of Circus Amok worked with core performers and musicians to develop its 2005 season show. The topics to be investigated will include the gentrification of NYC from its geological formation to the current era of big box stores, and how we got from there to here. For her work with Circus Amok, Miller was awarded a Bessie and an OBIE. She has toured her solo works in New York and abroad, receiving extensive recognition by the press and multiple foundations for the arts.
Kultur Kamp: Without You We’re Nothing by Nina Mankin
Think “Hedwig” meets “Betty” meets “Babes in Arms,” when Lötsa Pioof (Mankin) and Hildegarter (Taylor Mac), two German performance artists, team up with the American Billy (Rachelle Garniez) and decide they have something to offer “W”-era America by way of political performance. Kultur Kamp integrates the personal drama of the Kampers with musical parodies of American pop culture songs to investigate identity, activism, and sexual literary theory in modern America. Mankin’s work has been seen at the New York Theatre Workshop, Music-Theater Group and the American Repertory Theatre. She has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Opera/Musical Theatre development grant and holds an MA in Performance Studies from NYU.
The Fairy Queen by Myra Paci
Set during the turbulent days around 9/11, The Fairy Queen is a story about four women and their ever-changing capacities for love. Collectively, the women must sort through issues of mental instability, loneliness, cancer and forgotten love without succumbing to the fear around them and within themselves. Paci has written multiple screenplays, including Searching For Paradise (2002) starring Chris Noth, Mary Louise Wilson and Susan May Pratt, and Girls Night Out (1997) starring Rosario Dawson. She was a fellow at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab as well as the Directors Lab. Paci received a five-week residency at the MacDowell Colony to write The Fairy Queen.
Like A Cow Or An Elephant by Kara Corthron
Like A Cow Or An Elephant examines the life of Kreena, a 20-something cafeteria janitor with an overbearing mother and a junkie brother. Overlooked and under-appreciated by her family, Kreena takes her life into her own hands after meeting a stranger named Michel and befriending a new co-worker. Corthron is a Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and holds an MA from NYU. Like A Cow Or An Elephant was a finalist in the 2005 National Ten-Minute Play Contest and has received workshops at Juilliard and HERE Arts Center.
Stone Heart by Diane Glancy
Based on Glancy’s 2003 novel of the same title, Heart investigates the story of Sacajawea, the young Shoshoni woman who accompanied Lewis & Clark on their 1804-06 expedition to the Pacific Coast. Glancy examines this historic journey through the eyes of Sacajawea, a young Native American woman separated from her tribe and travelling with thirty strange men. Glancy is a professor of Native American Literature and Creative Writing at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has published an extensive list of novels, short stories, plays, poems, and essays, and is the recipient of the 2003 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
Naomi Hard, a member of the ENVISION acting company, asks questions in rehearsal. Photo Jenny Levison.
