twi-ny recommended events

IT IS DONE

Alex Goldberg’s site-specific IT IS DONE offers thrills and chills at the Mean Fiddler pub (photo by Jen Maufrais Kelly)

The Mean Fiddler
266 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Aves.
Mondays & Tuesdays through December 5, $30 (includes one drink), 7:30
www.itisdonetheplay.com
www.themeanfiddlernyc.com

What better place to stage a play that takes place in a bar than in an actual bar? Alex Goldberg’s site-specific It Is Done, which is set in a bar in the middle of nowhere, is an intimate, engaging comedy-thriller that is running Monday and Tuesday nights through December 5 downstairs at the Mean Fiddler pub on West 47th St. Patrons can order food and drink from the actual staff until five minutes before the 7:30 “curtain,” when Hank (Matt Kalman) takes over behind the bar. In the midst of a tornado, Jonas (Law & Order: Criminal Intent’s Ean Sheehy) enters, seeking solace not only from the torrential weather but from some deep, dark secret he clearly does not want to talk about. Hank, who is not used to customers — he tells Jonas he is the first person to come into the bar all week — wants to chat, but Jonas prefers to be left alone with his drink, leaving Hank to return to his pornographic pleasures. But when Ruby (the absolutely stunning Catia Ojeda) suddenly bursts in, the dynamic shifts and the psychological games begin. Ruby is a whirlwind of energy, brusque and confident, sexy and elegant, a take-charge woman who knows what she wants — and gets it. Determined to convince Jonas to share his story, one that is clearly tearing him apart, Ruby offers details of her own life while downing shots of whiskey and playing Hank Williams songs on the jukebox. As surprising truths emerge, the tale takes a delightfully surreal twist as it approaches its dark conclusion. Goldberg has created two compelling characters in Jonas and Ruby, with Hank serving as the over-the-top comic relief between them. Tom Wojtunik’s direction has the three-person cast make its way among the seated audience, as if the patrons are silent, unseen customers (which, in a way, they are). While Kalman and Sheehy play their parts well — Sheehy is particularly creepy and unnerving — the real star of the show is Ojeda, Goldberg’s wife, who turns in a memorable tour-de-force performance, echoing the tornado that is swirling outside. And Rod Serling fans are in for an extra treat, as there are several direct and indirect references to various Twilight Zone episodes. It Is Done is a fun, entertaining ninety minutes of theater that takes advantage of its site-specificity without feeling gimmicky — and as a bonus, each ticket comes with a free drink.

PREMONITION 13

St. Vitus Bar Party Bus
1120 Manhattan Ave.
Thursday, November 17, $12-$14, 8:30
www.saintvitusbar.com
www.premonition13.com

Sometimes you just have to let it all out, and that’s something Scott “Wino” Weinrich has been doing for twenty years, in such bands as the Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, Place of Skulls, and Shrinebuilder. The heavy metal hero has teamed up with longtime friend and fellow guitarist Jim “Sparky” Kar — the two also share a love of “Mesoamerican stuff and ancient cultures” — to form the doom metal band Premonition 13, along with drummer Matthew Clark and bassist Brian Daniloski. Their debut album, appropriately titled 13 (Volcom, June 2011), starts slowly with the nine-minute “B.E.A.U.T.Y.,” experimenting with some Pink Floyd madness, before ratcheting it up on such heavy tunage as “Hard to Say” and “Deranged Rock N’ Roller.” The final track, “Peyote Road,” gives an indication of where their minds might have been when they wrote and recorded some of these songs; they freely admit that the psychedelic video for “La Hechicera De La Jeringa” includes footage taken during an unnamed band member’s acid trip at a Mayan temple. Wino might have recently turned fifty, but he hasn’t turned down the volume one iota. Before heading out on their European tour, Premonition 13 will make one last stop in the United States, on November 17 at the heavy metal haven known as Saint Vitus Bar (where else?) in Greenpoint, joined by the Gates of Slumber and Mount Olympus.

MIKA ROTTENBERG AND JON KESSLER: SEVEN

Mika Rottenberg and Jon Kessler have collaborated on unique “Seven” installation in Chelsea (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Nicole Klagsbrun Project
534 West 24th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Wednesday – Saturday through November 19, free, 2:00 – 8:00
www.nicoleklagsbrun.com
www.11.performa-arts.org
seven slideshow

In an inspired pairing, Performa 11 has brought together visual artists Mika Rottenberg and Jon Kessler for the delightful “Seven.” In such video-based works as “Mary’s Cherries,” “Cheese,” and “Squeeze,” Rottenberg, who was born in Argentina, raised in Israel, and is based in New York City, plays with time and space in short, complex films that are screened in specially designed architectural, sculptural surroundings, commenting on such themes as fetish, mass production, capitalism, rituals, and postcolonialism. For nearly thirty years, Yonkers-born artist and Columbia professor Jon Kessler has ingeniously utilized motors, lights, mirrors, and cameras in such kinetic sculptures as “Desert of the Real,” “Kessler’s Circus,” “Random Acts of Senseless Violence,” and “The Palace at 4 A.M.” “Seven” takes place in a laboratory where a technician is collecting the sweat off a rotating group of seven men and women who perspire in a glassed-in booth powered by a person on an exercise bicycle. Meanwhile, several monitors depict a small African desert community that is interacting with the technician; for example, when a man in Africa places a tube into a machine there, it pops out in the New York lab (and vice versa). Each person is identified by a different color of the rainbow, proceeding in order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, which also represent the seven primary chakras. Don’t just grab a seat and stay put for the “show” (which reminds us of the experiments conducted in the Hatch on the television series Lost, just without the inherent danger); instead, be sure to walk around and check out every aspect of this unique chakra juicer. If you’re lucky, the technician might even let you turn the dentist drill on and off, like we did. Performed by Empress Asia, Marshall Factora, Esteban Jefferson, Jason Liles, Chris McGinn, Cecil Parker, Sunita Sharma, Juan Valanzuela, and Alex Wynne, “Seven” runs every thirty-seven minutes between 2:00 and 7:18 through Saturday at Nicole Klagbrun Project in Chelsea; admission is free and first come, first served, and it is advised that you stay for the full duration, which includes a rather silly but fun grand finale.

DARK SISTERS

Mothers seek the return of their children in DARK SISTERS (photo by RIchard Termine)

Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College
899 Tenth Ave. at 59th St.
November 17 & 19, $30 – $125, 8:00
212-279-4200
www.darksistersopera.org
www.jjay.cuny.edu

Set on a dramatically raked stage that feels as if the performers might slide down into the orchestra pit, Dark Sisters tells the story of a group of women whose lives are suddenly balancing on an emotional precipice. The five mothers are all married to a self-proclaimed prophet of God (Kevin Burdette); as the hundred-minute chamber opera opens, the police have just taken away the women’s many children, echoing the headline-grabbing 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas. Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Ruth (Eve Gigliotti), Almera (Jennifer Check), Presendia (Margaret Lattimore), Zina (Jennifer Zetlan), and Eliza (Caitlin Lynch) call out the names of their boys and girls in a haunting group chorale as they lay items of the children’s clothing on the ground while a projection of dark clouds moves slowly behind them. Although four of the women steadfastly support their way of life, Eliza starts to question hers, recalling her fate as a teen bride and hoping to save to her sixteen-year-old daughter, Lucinda (Kristina Bachrach), who is already promised to a much older man.

In the second act, featuring a dramatically modern multimedia set and video design by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer, the women find themselves on an investigative news program, being interrogated by a slick host (Burdette) about their lifestyle. While three of them again staunchly defend themselves, Zina looks as if she is about to go off the deep end as Eliza considers breaking rank and expressing individual thought. Conceived by thirty-year-old composer Nico Muhly, whose Two Boys collaboration with playwright Craig Lucas and director Bartlett Sher will come to the Met in 2013-14, Dark Sisters is a relatively slight but compelling minimalist opera, with Muhly’s subtle score referencing religious hymns. Stephen Karam, whose Sons of the Prophet is currently running at the Laura Pels Theater, wrote the libretto, which is direct and to the point, offering a surprise or two about polygamy and choice but generally not overly imaginative, which is also true of Annie-B Parson’s barely there choreography. Conductor Neal Goren nearly steals the show with his very visible prompts, while Check’s bravura voice leads the strong cast, directed by Rebecca Taichman. A co-commission of Gotham Chamber Opera, Music-Theatre Group, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the world-premiere run at John Jay College’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater has two performances remaining, on November 17 and 19, in conjunction with the school’s annual “Art of Justice” performance series.

JOHN JASPERSE: CANYON

John Jasperse’s CANYON should delight audiences at BAM this week

NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
November 16-19, $16-$45, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

In works such as Becky, Jodi and John at Dance Theater Workshop, Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies at the Joyce, and Misuse Liable to Prosecution at BAM’s 2007 Next Wave Festival, New York City–based choreographer John Jasperse has shared intimate moments with the audience in creating unusual and often challenging evenings of dance theater. This week Jasperse and his Thin Man Dance company return to BAM to present the New York premiere of Canyon, which deals with “the transformative power of losing oneself in visceral experience.” Running November 16-19, the seventy-minute piece features dancers Lindsay Clark, Erin Cornell, Kennis Hawkins, Burr Johnson, and James McGinn, a live score by Hahn Rowe, visual design by Tony Orrico, and lighting by James Clotfelter. There will be an artist talk with Jasperse and his collaborators following Thursday night’s performance, moderated by Mary-Jane Rubenstein, whose book Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe influenced the making of Canyon.

John Jasperse’s CANYON celebrates the thrill of the dance (photo by Tony Orrico)

Updated: Dance does not always have to be about something. In such previous works as Becky, Jodi and John, Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies, and Misuse Liable to Prosecution, John Jasperse dealt with a number of themes, from personal relationships and environmentalism to the fine line between fantasy and reality. In his latest evening-length piece, Jasperse eschews high concept in favor of, quite simply, the thrill of the dance. The seventy-minute Canyon puts Jasperse’s breathtaking choreography front and center, a celebration of the joy of movement, with Jasperse, Lindsay Clark, Erin Cornell, Kennis Hawkins, Burr Johnson, and James McGinn running, jumping, twisting, and rolling to an exciting score composed by Hahn Rowe and performed live by Olivia De Prato on violin, Ha-Yang Kim on cello, Doug Wieselman on bass clarinet, and Rowe on violin, guitar, and electronics. Because this is Jasperse, there are odd elements as well, courtesy of visual designer Tony Orrico, that include yellow tape that begins outside on the street and wends its way through the BAM Harvey lobby and bathrooms and into the theater, down the steps, across the stage, and onto the back wall, where they resemble an abstract map. Meanwhile, a large white box continually roams the space, adding to the fun. And what fun it is.

PERFORMA 11: I’LL RAISE YOU ONE . . .

Strip poker is the name of the very public game at Art in General (photo by Zefrey Throwell)

Art in General Project Space
79 Walker St.
Through November 19, free, 10:30 am – 6:00 pm
212-219-0473
www.artingeneral.org
www.performa-arts.org

Over the last several years, New York City–based performance artist Zefrey Throwell has staged numerous events that comment on current cultural trends while involving nudity and/or graphic sexual situations. In such guerrilla productions as “The Ecstasy of St. Patrick,” “Flitzing Away the Day,” and “Ocularpation: Wall Street,” Throwell lays bare the ills of society, focusing on religion, fashion, and the economy, respectively. For his latest project, commissioned for Performa 11, Throwell is presenting “I’ll Raise You One…,” a seven-day strip poker game being held in Art in General’s storefront space on Walker St. every day from 12 noon to 6:00 pm. Yes, a group of seven men and women will be betting and bluffing to avoid ending up in the buff while being watched by people out on the street, turning capitalism into the titillating voyeuristic sport it really is, one in which most of the citizenry lose their shirts while only a handful thrive. Performa 11 continues through November 21, featuring such special performances as Mika Rottenberg and Jon Kessler’s “Seven,” Dennis Oppenheim’s Compression Fern screening and action, Laurent Montaron’s “The Invisible Message,” Guy Maddin’s “Tales from the Gimli Hospital: Reframed,” and Robert Ashley’s “That Morning Thing.”

THE ART OF THE DATE: A GALLERY WALK ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE

Lower East Side Visitor Center
54 Orchard St. between Grand & Hester Sts.
Wednesday, November 16, free with RSVP, 6:00 – 9:00
www.newyorkdating.eventbrite.com
www.lowereastsideny.com

In the 1972 comedy Play It Again, Sam, Allan (Woody Allen) is in a museum trying to pick up a woman (Diana Davila). “What are you doing Saturday night?” he asks her. “Committing suicide,” she replies, to which Allan responds, “What about Friday night?” On Wednesday, November 16, it might not be so dire as a group of singles mingle for an evening of free art, conversation, music, and drinks and snacks. “The Art of the Date: A Gallery Walk on the Lower East Side” will take participants (free with advance RSVP) from the Lower East Side Visitors Center on Orchard St. to four nearby galleries: Lesley Heller Workspace, which currently has a solo show by Tom Kotik and a group show called “Headcase”; Lost Weekend NYC, which is displaying 1980s photographs by celebrity snapper Patrick McMullan; Dino Eli Gallery, which is showing “Artists on the Prowl: The Hunter, the Wanderer, the Trash Collector & the Street Master”: and Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, which is featuring “Transformation and Perception: Paintings by Jill Weber.” In addition to the art, there will be free food from Bruschetteria, PopChips, and Lucky Penny Bake Shop, free drinks courtesy of Beck’s, and music by DJ Michael Little.