twi-ny recommended events

HERE AT HOME: THE RECEPTION

Donovan & Calderón throw a party to remember at HERE Arts Center in The Reception, which will be streamed as a live watch party on May 6 (photo by Maria Baranova)

HERE Arts Center
Facebook Live Watch Party
Wednesday, May 6, free, 7:00
www.here.org
www.donovanandcalderon.org

With theaters shuttered during the pandemic, HERE Arts Center has opened up its vaults to present previous productions on Wednesday nights, first streaming them via a live, free (though donations are accepted) watch party on Facebook before making them accessible for later viewing. On May 6 at 7:00, HERE will be showing The Reception, which was performed there in June 2017. It should be fascinating to watch it in context of the coronavirus, now that there are no in-person gatherings of any kind. Here is my original review:

This is one party you are not going to want to miss. HERE Resident Artists Donovan & Calderón invite audiences to a rather surreal gathering in the exhilaratingly funny and utterly bizarre dance-theater piece The Reception. Actor, dancer, and writer Sean Donovan and actor, director, and scholar Sebastián Calderón Bentin have been collaborating since 2003 on such cutting-edge works as Not Unclear, The Climate Chronicles, and 18½ Minutes. For The Reception, they have put together quite a guest list: master choreographers Jane Comfort and Ishmael Houston-Jones, performer and choreographer Leslie Cuyjet, actress Hannah Heller, and the well-mustachioed Donovan himself, an extremely talented comic actor who was a standout in such recent productions as the Builders Association’s Elements of Oz and the first two parts of Faye Driscoll’s Thank You for Coming trilogy. The five fabulously dressed partygoers — the costumes are by Felix Ciprián, with Heller’s sparkling gown a particular stunner — drink, dance, nosh, and schmooze on Neal Wilkinson’s circular wooden stage, cluttered with a couch, a few chairs, a table of snacks and bottles of alcohol, and a light-up globe. Snippets of dialogue come front and center and then disappear into the background, ranging from silly jokes to more serious tales of sexism, misogyny, and ageism, as Houston-Jones tries to score with every other character in hysterical ways. Words and actions repeat, high-heeled shoes come off and are put back on, and Donovan grows ever-more desirous of the “tarty things,” all set to Stevie Wonder’s infectious “Another Star” from his groundbreaking 1976 double album, Songs in the Key of Life. Tension and anxiety wax and wane, stimulated by a sly little take on a fundamental horror movie trope. The fun sound design is by Brandon Wolcott and Tyler Kieffer, which is complemented by Amanda K. Ringger’s inventive lighting, especially when the story takes a creepy turn. And the ending is splendidly mad.

Hannah Heller, Sean Donovan, Leslie Cuyjet, Jane Comfort, and Ishmael Houston-Jones hold nothing back in The Reception (photo by Maria Baranova)

Codirected by Calderón and Donovan, The Reception was inspired by such classic European cinema as Alain Resnais’s Last Year at Marienbad, Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel, Jacques Tati’s Playtime, and Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura. It was originally titled “Abbadon,” which in Hebrew means “place of destruction” and in Revelation refers to a king who was the “angel of the Abyss,” a hellish place of confinement. The five characters are trapped in their own private sphere, alternating between being deliriously happy, then nervous and worried, concerned for their immediate future. The social-gathering aspects of the show are beautifully precise even with improvisation, expertly detailing the interaction among the bash attendees, from movement to language to facial gesture, especially since all of the performers have collaborated previously on multiple projects: Cuyjet has danced with Jane Comfort and Company since 2005, Donovan and Heller both portrayed Dorothy Gale (and other roles) in Elements of Oz, and Houston-Jones and Comfort teamed up for The Studies Project, among other collaborations, making the proceedings that much more believable no matter how strange it gets. But underneath it all, literally and figuratively, lies the unknown, a dark side from which there might be no escape. In which case, the only thing to do is to keep on partying.

PAMELA ADLON IN CONVERSATION WITH MARIO CANTONE: FX’s BETTER THINGS

Pamela Adlon and Mario Cantone will talk about Better Things on May 5 online

Who: Pamela Adlon, Mario Cantone
What: Live online conversation and Q&A about Better Things
Where: 92nd St. Y Facebook page
When: Tuesday, May 5, free, 5:00
Why: During this pandemic, many of us have been catching up on shows we’ve missed over the years. For me, I’ve become obsessed with the Peabody-winning Better Things, the FX show on Hulu about a single mother and actress (Pamela Adlon) navigating through her career, raising three daughters, trying to find love (maybe), and taking care of her cheeky mom who lives across the street. The semiautobiographical show, which just completed its fourth season, was created by Emmy winners Adlon and Louis C.K.; Adlon played C.K.’s wife on the 2006 HBO comedy Lucky Louie and his best friend on the FX sitcom Louie. Adlon, who voiced Bobby Hill on King of the Hill and has starred in such other series as Californication, Bob’s Burgers, Rugrats, and The Facts of Life, created the show with C.K., and they wrote much of the first two seasons together (and often directed), but FX dropped C.K. once he was hit with a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations that he admitted to. Adlon is a force as Sam Fox, who mothers her kids, Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood), and Duke (Olivia Edward), in tough, unique ways that might not win her any Mother of the Year awards but is touching nonetheless without ever being maudlin, while Celia Imrie is a hoot as her doddering British mom. On May 5 at 5:00, Adlon will be live on the 92nd St. Y’s Facebook page talking about Better Things with Tony-nominated comedian and former children’s television show host Mario Cantone (Sex and the City, Steampipe Alley), followed by a live Q&A. Admission is free.

PERFORMANCE MIX FESTIVAL #34: REMOTELY YOURS

Who: New Dance Alliance
What: Online performance festival
Where: Facebook and Instagram
When: May 4-31, free
Why: New Dance Alliance’s thirty-fourth annual Performance Mix Festival is being called “Remotely Yours,” as the participating artists will be presenting live experimental programs consisting of archival videos, text, photos, and new work from wherever they are sheltering in place. Every day from May 4 to 31, an individual artist or company takes over NDA’s Facebook and Instagram pages at noon (although some will happen at other pre-announced times). The first week features NOT for reTALE | Emily Smith on May 4 at 8:30, Maya Orchin on May 5, Marion Spencer on May 6 at noon, 4:00, and 8:00, Juli Brandano on May 7, Julia Antinozzi on May 8, Nami Yamamoto on May 9, and Karen Bernard on May 10 at 3:00. The lineup for the second week is Birgit Larson, Racoco, Emily LaRochelle & Sarazina Joy Stein, Kameron Chatman, Annie Heath, MOLLY&NOLA, and Remi Harris + Mark Schmidt, the third week roster is Degenerate Art Ensemble, MAYDAY, Diana Crum, Bob Eisen, Cynthia McLaughlin and Company, Hanna Satterlee, and Camilo Godoy, and anchoring the fourth week are Anh Vo, Nate Yaffe, Tanja London alias qualia-c, Liberty Styles, Sarah Toumani Dance Co, Krista DeNio and Debra Disbrow, and Kyla Kegler. NDA describes itself as “an arts service organization whose mission is to actively promote emerging forms of innovative dance, music, video, and interdisciplinary performance. NDA’s initial aims were to support an artistic community which has limited institutional resources, and to provide that community with increased opportunities to share experimental works with the public.” That goal is even more critical during the coronavirus pandemic, so feel free to donate if you can, as the money helps provide artists with studio space, residencies, and workshops.

PARAMODERNITIES LIVE (with Q&As)

Who: Netta Yerushalmy
What: Dance series with performance and live discussion
Where: Netta Yerushalmy website
When: May 4-9, free, 3:00 (videos with Q&As will remain online through May 24)
Why: Last year, New York City-based choreographer and dancer Netta Yerushalmy presented her full six-part, four-hour series, Paramodernities, at New York Live Arts. Each work, which had been previously individually staged at such locations as Judson Church, the National Museum of the American Indian, Live Artery at New York Live Arts, the 92nd St. Y, and Madison Square Park, deconstructs and re-creates a classic dance piece through performance, text, and discussion, with dancers and scholars participating. I was fortunate to catch several iterations (#s 2&3, rehearsals for #5), which all proved to be captivating and involving; the choreographers who get the Yerushalmy treatment are Vaslav Nijinsky, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse, and George Balanchine. Every day from May 4 to 9 at 3:00, Yerushalmy will stream one work, followed by a live discussion and Q&A with special guests.

The wide-ranging, diverse cast consists of dancers Michael Blake, Gerald Casel, Marc Crousillat, Brittany Engel-Adams, Joyce Edwards, Stanley Gambucci, Taryn Griggs, Magdalena Jarkowiec, Nicholas Leichter, Jeremy Jae Neal, Hsiao-Jou Tang, Megan Williams, and Yerushalmy, with scholars and writers Thomas F. DeFrantz, Julia Foulkes, Georgina Kleege, David Kishik, Carol Ockman, Mara Mills, and Claudia La Rocco. “This project requires people to really care about different kinds of knowledge and to want to implicate their bodies in this very different kind of space and to be vulnerable,” Yerushalmy says about Paramodernities, which will be a new experience when viewed from our homes, where we are sheltering in place, unable to be physically together. I can’t recommend Paramodernities Live highly enough; it is an innovative platform that explores the past, present, and future of dance through a sophisticated and experimental historical context that will leave you in awe.

Monday, May 4
Paramodernities #1: The Work of Dance in the Age of Sacred Lives
A response to Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (1913)
with special guest Jack Halberstam

Tuesday, May 5
Paramodernities #2: Trauma, Interdiction, and Agency in “The House of Pelvic Truth”
A response to Martha Graham’s Night Journey (1947)
with special guest Pam Tanowitz

Wednesday, May 6
Paramodernities #3: Revelations: The Afterlives of Slavery
A response to Alvin Ailey’s Revelations (1960)
with special guest Tracy K. Smith

Thursday, May 7
Paramodernities #4: An Inter-Body Event
with material from Merce Cunningham’s Rainforest, Sounddance, Points in Space, Beach Birds, and Ocean (1968-90)
with special guest Fred Moten

Friday, May 8
Paramodernities #5: All That Spectacle: Dance on Stage and Screens
A response to Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity (1969 film)
with special guest Jeremy O. Harris

Saturday, May 9
Paramodernities #6: The Choreography of Rehabilitation: Disability and Race in Balanchine’s Agon
A response to George Balanchine’s Agon (1957)
with special guest Peter N. Miller

THE WITCH OF EDMONTON (Live on Zoom)

witch

Who: Red Bull Theater
What: Live unrehearsed online Zoom reading
Where: Red Bull Theater website and Facebook and Vimeo
When: Monday, May 4, free, 7:30
Why: In 2011, Red Bull Theater staged Thomas Dekker, John Ford, and William Rowley’s 1621 Jacobean tragedy, The Witch of Edmonton, at the Theater at St. Clement’s. The New York-based company, which on April 20 brought back the cast of its 2015 revival of Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore for a free, online, live unrehearsed reading, is now doing the same with The Witch of Edmonton, assembling most of the original cast for a virtual presentation on May 4 at 7:30. Performing from wherever they’re sheltering in place will be Charlayne Woodard as Elizabeth Sawyer, Craig Baldwin as Warbeck and Countryman, Justin Blanchard as Frank Thorney, Christopher Innvar as Sir Arthur Clarington, Carman Lacivita as Somerton and Countryman, Christopher McCann as Thorney, Amanda Quaid as Katherine, Everett Quinton as Old Ratcliffe and Anne Ratcliffe, Miriam Silverman as Winifred, Derek Smith as Dog, Raphael Nash Thompson as Justice, Sam Tsoutsouvas as Carter, and newcomers Antoinette Robinson, David Manis, and Carson Elrod, with music by Daniel Levy. In a statement, company founder Jesse Berger, who directed the 2011 production, explained, “We want to engage you and our entire community with something stimulating and of genuine value. We’re not promising a finished performance but rather a unique way to experience the rarely seen The Witch of Edmonton.” It’s free to watch, although donations are accepted. Next up in this program are live, unrehearsed readings of Red Bull’s bloody good 2016 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus on May 18, its 2005-6 version of Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy on June 1, and Jeffrey Hatcher’s fab 2017 adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector on June 15.

DAYS OF POSSIBILITIES

orloff

Who: New Circle Theatre Company
What: Live Zoom performance of Days of Possibilities
Where: Facebook Live
When: Monday, May 4, free, 7:00
Why: On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four unarmed college students at Kent State University during a protest against the US bombing of Cambodia. New Circle Theatre Company in New York City will commemorate that tragic event, which shook America to its core, with a live performance of Rich Orloff’s Days of Possibilities, an online adaptation of his 1989 documentary theater piece Vietnam 101: The War on Campus, for which he interviewed more than one hundred alumni of Oberlin College. Created specifically for Zoom, the new play will feature twenty actors performing from their homes; it is directed by David Kronick. In a statement, Orloff, whose other plays include Advanced Chemistry, Someone’s Knocking, Big Boys, and Chatting with the Tea Party, said in a statement, “I think the events of that era need to be remembered, not just for their historical importance, but for lessons we can use today. Days of Possibilities offers stories of hope and courage during a time of great uncertainty. To fight for what they believed in, students risked being expelled, jailed, tear-gassed, and even shot. I think we can be inspired by the idealism of that time, especially if we don’t want to accept today’s social and political problems as inevitable and instead choose to find ways to fight for a better world. The technological tools we can use today were undreamed of fifty years ago, but I like to think that dreaming and working for a better future is timeless.” On Monday night at the same time, the play will also be performed by theater companies in Tennessee, Massachusetts, Maryland, and California as well as a high school in Arizona. (If you miss the livestream, you can catch the recorded show later.)

BULL (with live Q&A)

Photo Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films (c) Bert Marcus Film

Amber Havard makes a powerful screen debut as a disaffected teen in Bull (photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films / © Bert Marcus Film)

BULL (Annie Silverstein, 2019)
Opens virtually May 1
Live Q&A Sunday, May 3, free with advance RSVP, 4:00
www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/bull

Last week, the Professional Bull Riders hosted the first sports event in America since the Covid-19 shutdown postponed or ended stadium sports, including basketball, baseball, hockey, and others, as well as the Olympics. On April 25-26, PBR, whose latest motto is “Be Cowboy,” held its Las Vegas Invitational in Guthrie, Oklahoma, with competitors maintaining social distancing guidelines and riding in an arena with no fans. It was such a success that PBR will return to the Lazy E in Guthrie for “Unleash the Beast” tournaments May 9-10 and 16-17. You can now go behind the scenes of bull riding in Annie Silverstein’s deeply affecting debut feature film, Bull, but you will have to stream it at home rather than watching in a theater with other people.

An Un Certain Regard selection at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Bull is a gently told coming-of-age story involving fourteen-year-old Kris (first-timer Amber Havard) and the middle-aged Abe Turner (Rob Morgan), a former professional bull rider who now works as a bullfighter, the men who protect the riders as they try to stay on the bull for the toughest eight seconds in sports. It’s the fighter’s responsibility to make sure the bull doesn’t gore or trample the rider after he dismounts or is ejected, as the fighters put their own lives in danger over and over again in the course of one event.

Kris is a quiet white girl who lives with her grandmother (Keeli Wheeler) and little sister (Keira Bennett); Kris’s mother (Sara Albright) is in prison but is nearing parole. Abe is a dour black man living alone down the street from Kris. Abe chastises Kris when her pitbull kills one of his chickens. Kris doesn’t seem to care about it — she doesn’t appear to care about much of anything, walking around with a sullen look, saying little. When Abe is away at a tourney, Kris breaks into Abe’s house and invites her friends to a wild party there during which they trash the place. When Abe gets back and catches Kris there, he calls the cops. Kris’s mother begs Abe and Officer Diaz (Karla Garbelotto) to let her go. Offered the chance to make things right, she mumbles to the officer, “Can’t you just take me to juvie?” Her eyes are distant, resigned to a life she has already given up on. Meanwhile, despite the beating his body is taking, Abe is determined to keep on fighting, either with PBR or the regional black cowboy rodeo circuit. Kris starts working for Abe, doing laborious chores while also becoming interested in bull riding herself. Abe has no intention of turning into a mentor to her, but soon they are forming an unusual bond, two lonely souls in desperate need of real human connection.

Expanding on her award-winning short Skunk, Silverstein has created a tender, moving tale that subtly reveals such issues as race, opioid abuse, the prison system, and parental neglect in rural America. Silverstein wrote the script with her husband, Johnny McAllister, after more than five years of research, including getting to know the men, women, and children living in such communities as Acres Homes outside of Houston and the athletes participating in local rodeos. She had previously spent ten years working with children in her native Seattle, which helped her define the character of Kris. Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner glides between intimate, handheld shots and the explosive excitement of bull riding, filming in such locations as the Old William Johnson Arena in Egypt, Texas, and the Roy LeBlanc Okmulgee Invitational Rodeo in Oklahoma.

Kris (Amber Havard) and Abe (Rob Morgan) form a unique bond in film set around black rodeo circuit (photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films / © Bert Marcus Film)

Professional bullfighters Demetrius “Teaspoon” Mitchell and JW Rogers served as consultants and appear in the film, along with pros Devonte Toler, Tyler Travis, Cody Tesch, Nate Justice, and Lucas Teodoro; most of the cast are nonprofessionals in their first film, including Havard, who was discovered in a school cafeteria and beat out a thousand other girls for the part. She has an extraordinary screen presence, so modest and genuine that you will want to reach into the screen and shake her out of her character’s malaise. Morgan, who has appeared in such television series as Stranger Things and Daredevil and such films as The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Just Mercy, is edgy and boldly sensitive as the uneasy, unsettled Abe; the two actors avoid cliché as their lives become unexpectedly entangled.

On May 3 at 4:00, Silverstein, Havard, Morgan, and producer Monique Walton will participate in a live Q&A moderated by Gamechanger CEO Effie Brown, focusing on the film itself as well as the history of black rodeo communities; you can register in advance for free here. To find out more about bull riding and bullfighting, please check out the annual twi-ny talks I’ve conducted with PBR stars over the last five years.