Jim Fletcher and Birgit Huppuch star in US premiere of Pollock at Abrons Arts Center (photo by Laurent Schneegans)
Abrons Arts Center, Underground Theater
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
February 22-25, $20
212-352-3101 www.abronsartscenter.org
Abrons Arts Center and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York have joined forces for the US premiere of Compagnie l’heliotrope’s Pollock, a riveting show about the tempestuous relationship between Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, who met in 1942, married in 1945, and stayed together, through good and bad — primarily Pollock’s alcoholism and infidelities — until his death in a car crash in 1956. Written by Fabrice Melquiot and directed by Paul Desveaux as part of a trilogy about American artists that also includes works about Janis Joplin and Diane Arbus, Pollock unfurls like one of Pollock’s paintings, nonlinear, experimental, and abstract, forming an intense and entertaining whole. Pollock (Jim Fletcher) and Krasner (Birgit Huppuch) tramp barefoot across Desveaux’s set, which features a pair of transparent plastic canvases, a small kitchen area, and microphones at either side, where Pollock and Krasner share some of their tale. The stage is a metaphor for Pollock’s thoughts; “Jackson Pollock drags on his cigarette and now he’ll go / into / into the bar that functions as his head / Jackson Pollock’s head is a bar not a head all I serve in my bar is pure genius no ice it rips out your tonsils plucks off your uvula,” the Wyoming-born Pollock says. Brooklyn native Krasner adds, “That’s what genius is / Pollock / It’s on your face like a mark of shame you’d like to hide but it’s got you in its grip / It won’t let go will never let go drink all you like Pollock you’ll never escape it / It’s how you’re made it’s there it’s / It’s on your face on every one of your paintings poor love my poor love and because your face lets you see where to put your feet like the paintings help you stand up straight / You keep your beautiful face for all to see and tuck your crutches under your arm / Then your genius explodes / You don’t wanna fall flat on your face.”
Pollock depicts the tempestuous relationship between Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner (photo by Laurent Schneegans)
The couple cuddle and argue, smoke cigarettes, drink from bottles, interview each other, dance, paint, and name-drop such friends and colleagues as Hans Hoffmann, Tony Smith, Pablo Picasso, Andre Derain, Pierre Matisse, Piet Mondrian, and Alexander Calder. They speak in poetic rhythms — the English translation is by Kenneth Casler and Myriam Heard — as they relate various aspects of their relationship, including events after Pollock’s death in a one-car accident that might have been a suicide; Pollock’s mistress at the time, Ruth Kligman, was in the car too but survived. “Painting / And killing myself / I don’t do anything else,” Pollock says. A moment later, Krasner examines a Pollock painting using mathematics and fractal density. “You’re exactly what I wasn’t expecting this evening,” he says. It’s not exactly what the audience was expecting either, but Pollock is an insightful and entertaining exploration of love and the creative process. Fletcher (Isolde,The Evening), a longtime member of Richard Maxwell’s New York City Players and who most recently played Lemmy Caution in Why Why Always at Abrons, Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty’s multimedia adaptation of Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, inhabits Pollock’s mind, body, and spirit, giving an expert performance that is complemented by Huppuch’s (Men on Boats, Telephone) bold, beautiful portrayal of Krasner, just as Pollock was complemented by Krasner. Many of the scenes and much of the dialogue were inspired by real episodes, as Melquiot and Desveaux drip, scratch, and splatter the elements together to come up with an impressive theatrical canvas.
The Hendrix Project kicks out the jams at the BRIC House as part of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar festival (photo by Nicolas Savignano)
Once upon a time, January was considered a relative artistic wasteland, as people suffered from a post-holidays letdown with a dearth of high-quality movies and Broadway shows opening up. But this century continues to fill that void with more and more cutting-edge, experimental, and offbeat music, dance, and theater with a growing list of performance festivals around the city. You can catch cabaret at Pangea, opera at Prototype, dance at American Realness, the 92nd St. Y, and New York Live Arts, jazz at JazzFest, Irish theater at Origin’s 1st, and a little of everything at Under the Radar and COIL, the latter back where it belongs at the renovated PS122. Below are only some of the highlights of this exciting time to try something that might be outside your comfort zone and take a chance on something new and different to kick off your 2018, especially with the majority of tickets going for about twenty-five bucks.
UNDER THE RADAR
Public Theater and other venues
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
January 4-15 www.publictheater.org
After by Andrew Schneider, performed by Alicia ayo Ohs and Andrew Schneider, with Kedian Keohan and Peter Musante, January 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, Public Theater, Martinson Hall, $25
Parallel Lives: Billie Holiday & Edith Piaf, created and directed by Nona Hendryx, performed by Joey Arias, Tamar Kali, Liza Jesse Peterson, and Etienne Stadwjck, January 5-6, Joe’s Pub, $45
The Gates: An Evening of Stories with Adam Gopnik, January 5, 10, 12, 13, 14, Public Theater, Newman Theater, $25
The Hendrix Project, by Roger Guenveur Smith & CalArts Center for New Performance, performed by Samantha Barrow, Morgan Camper, Hannah Cruz, Jasmine Gatewood, Heaven Gonzalez, Ariyan Kassam, Liam O’Donnell, Dante Rossi, Henita Telo, Max Udell, Ieva Vizgirdaite, and Christopher Wentworth, January 11-14, BRIC House, $25
Pursuit of Happiness, Nature Theater of Oklahoma & EnKnapGroup, NYU Skirball, January 12-14, $25
Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce’s Fellow Travelers goes back to the Lavender Scare of the 1950s (photo by Philip Groshong)
Acquanetta, by composer Michael Gordon, librettist Deborah Artman, director Daniel Fish, and conductor Daniela Candillari, with Mikaela Bennett, Amelia Watkins, Eliza Bagg, Timur, and Matt Boehler, Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center, January 9-13, $30-$75
Out of Bounds — Breaking Ice: The Battle of the Carmens, by Alicia Hall Moran, new vocal work for an ice-skating audience, January 11, Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park, free, 1:40; January 14, location TBD, free, 2:30
Fellow Travelers, by composer Gregory Spears, librettist Greg Pierce, director Kevin Newbury, and conductor George Manahan, with Aaron Blake, Joseph Lattanzi, Devon Guthrie, Vernon Hartman, Marcus DeLoach, Christian Pursell, Paul Scholten, Alexandra Schoeny, and Violetta Lopez, January 12-14, Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, $30-$55
Out of Bounds: The Future Is Open, by Tori Wrånes, newly commissioned site-specific work, Washington Square Park, Northwest Corner, January 18-19, free, 5:30
Michelle Ellsworth’s The Rehearsal Artist promises an intimate experience at American Realness
AMERICAN REALNESS
Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
January 9-16 americanrealness.com
The Rehearsal Artist, by Michelle Ellsworth, January 9-11, the Invisible Dog Art Center, $25, 1:15 – 8:45
Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and Other Works by John Bernd, by Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez, with Nick Hallett and Jennifer Monson, Danspace Project, January 9, 11, 12, 13, $22-$25
#PUNK, by nora chipaumire, Abrons Arts Center Playhouse, January 11-13, $25
I <3 PINA, by Neal Medlyn, Abrons Arts Center Experimental Theater, January 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, $25
This, by Adrienne Truscott, Abrons Arts Center Playhouse, January 14-16, $25
ORIGIN’S 1st IRISH FESTIVAL
Multiple venues
January 9-29 www.1stirish.org
Dyin’ for It, by Derek Murphy, with Maria Deasy, Adam Petherbridge, Sarah Street, and Aoife Williamson, the Cell, January 17-28, $30
Guy Walks into a Bar, by Don Creedon, New York Irish Center, January 18, 25, $20-$25, 7:15
ShakesBEER with an Irish Twist, pub crawl, Stone St., January 27, February 3, $49 (includes four drinks), 3:00
Dear Mr. Beckett: Letters from the Publisher, with Billy Carter and Olwen Fouéré, the Irish Consulate, January 29, free with advance RSVP, 1:00
WINTER ALT-FEST
Pangea NYC
178 Second Ave.
January 10-16 www.pangeanyc.com
Salty Brine: How Strange It Is, January 10, 17, 24, 31, February 7, $20, 7:30
Penny Arcade: Longing Lasts Longer, January 11, 14, $20, 7:00
Sven Ratzke: From Amsterdam to Mars, January 14, $20, 9:00
Tammy Faye Starlite: An Evening of Light, Tammy Faye channels Nico, accompanied by Keith Hartel, January 16, $20, 7:00
Gilles Peterson hosts British Jazz Showcase, with the Comet Is Coming, Nubya Garcia, Yazz Ahmed, and Oscar Jerome, Le Poisson Rouge, January 10, $20-$25, 7:00
Winter JazzFest Marathon, more than fifty artists at eleven venues, January 12-13, $50-$60 one day, $85-$95 both days
Ravi Coltrane Presents Universal Consciousness: Melodic Meditations of Alice Coltrane, Le Poisson Rouge, January 14, $35-$45, 7:00
A Tribute to Geri Allen, with Angela Davis, Esperanza Spalding, Craig Taborn, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Ingrid Jensen, Jack DeJohnette, Jaimeo Brown, Jeff Tain Watts, Kassa Overall, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh, Maurice Chestnut, Mino Cinelu, Ravi Coltrane, S. Epatha Merkerson, Tia Fuller, Vijay Iyer, and others, benefit for the Geri Allen Estate, the New School Tishman Auditorium, January 15, $35-$100
Deerhoof Meet Wadada Leo Smith and Nicole Mitchell: Maroon Cloud, Le Poisson Rouge, January 17, $25-$35, 8:00
Body of Work, by Atlanta Eke, PS122, January 10-11, $25
visions of beauty, by Heather Kravas, PS122, January 10-13, $25
Jupiter’s Lifeless Moons, by Dane Terry, PS122, January 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, $25
he his own mythical beast, by David Thomson, PS122, January 31, February 1, 2, 4, $25
Our of Israel returns to the 92nd St. Y for its eighth season
OUT OF ISRAEL: 70 YEARS OF ISRAEL, 70 YEARS OF DANCE / OPEN DOORS: 92Y HARKNESS DANCE CENTER ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE SHOWCASE
92nd St. Y www.92y.org
Out of Israel: works by choreographers Itzik Galili and Roi Assaf performed by Troy Ogilvie, a solo by Roni Chadash, a new composition by DANAKA collective, and films by Joseph Bach and Shamel Pitts, guest curated by Dana Katz, January 12 at 12 noon and January 13 at 8:00, $10 in advance, $20 at the door
Open Doors: works by choreographers Joanna Kotze, Kensaku Shinohara, Pam Tanowitz, and Larissa Velez-Jackson with Jillian Peña, January 12 at 8:00 and January 13 at 4:00, $25-$29
Jack Ferver will present his work-in-progress Everything Is Imaginable as part of Live Artery at New York Live Arts
LIVE ARTERY
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th St.
January 13-15 newyorklivearts.org
Saturday, January 13, $10 each
Abby Zbikowski, abandoned playground (excerpt), 12 noon; Kimberly Bartosik, I hunger for you (work-in-progress), 2:00; RoseAnne Spradlin, “X,” 3:00; Netta Yerushalmy, Paramodernities (work-in-progress), 5:00; Susan Marshall, Construction (collaboration with So Percussion) and Closed System (work-in-progress), 6:00; Walter Dundervill, Skybox (excerpt), 7:00
Sunday, January 14, $10 each
Joanna Kotze, What will we be like when we get there (work-in-progress), 1:00; Kota Yamazaki, Darkness Odyssey Part 2: I or Hallucination (excerpt), 4:00; Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, The Deep Blue Sea, 5:00; Deborah Hay/Eric Geiger, Jess Humphrey & Leslie Seiters, Pause, 6:00; RoseAnne Spradlin, “X,” 8:00; Jack Ferver, Everything Is Imaginable (work-in-progress), 8:30
Monday, January 15, $10 each
Netta Yerushalmy, Paramodernities (work-in-progress), 11:00 am; Jennifer Nugent & Paul Matteson with Ted Coffey, Visual Proof, 1:00; Jack Ferver, Everything Is Imaginable (work-in-progress); 3:30; Joanna Kotze, What will we be like when we get there (work-in-progress), 5:00; Kimberly Bartosik, I hunger for you (work-in-progress), 6:30
Croatia’s Perforations Festival returns to New York City with unusual and innovative productions at Abrons Arts Center and La MaMa
Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East Fourth St., second floor
November 17-26, $25 lamama.org/perforations
Croatia’s Perforations Festival, featuring ten days of cutting-edge performances from Central and Eastern Europe, returns to the city with seven productions running November 17 to 26. Founder and curator Zvonimir Dobrović notes, “It is always a privilege to present such an exciting roster of energetic and creative artists to new audiences. These artists have been the driving forces behind the current wave of resistance to neo-conservatism in Eastern Europe and their work has been an oasis of hope for a whole generation.” The festival kicks off November 17-18 at Abrons Arts Center with Jasna L. Vinovrški’s interactive Staying Alive, then moves to La MaMa with the Great Jones Repertory Company’s adaptation of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Pylade, directed by Ivica Buljan; Marta Ziółek’s Make Yourself, with the Polish Ziółek serving as moderator and guide; Via Negative’s One Hundred Toasts, with music by Glenn Miller, Michael Nyman, Alfred Schnittke, and the Stooges; Bruno Isaković and Mia Zalukar’s multimedia, multidisciplinary Suddenly Everywhere; TukaWach/Magda Stawman-Tuka and Anita Wach’s double bill, How the Hares Are Dying and Private Inventor, exploring ontological insecurity and transformation; and Ina Sladić’s two-part Penny/Audience, in which Sladić receives live instructions from Penny Arcade in the former and the audience in the latter. Tickets to all performances are a mere twenty-five bucks to check out some innovative and unusual theater.
Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville meets the ASMR phenomenon in Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty’s multimedia futuristic sci-fi noir, Why Why Always, continuing at Abrons Arts Center’s Underground Theater through October 29. The prescient 1965 man vs. machine film starred Eddie Constantine as secret agent Lemmy Caution, who leaves the Outerlands and enters Alphaville posing as reporter Ivan Johnson in order to find out what happened to fellow agent Henry Dickson and to track down mysterious scientist Professor Von Braun. Irons and Petty reimagine the story using multiple monitors and cameras, live feeds and prerecorded scenes, overlapping dialogue, disembodied voices, mirrors and scrims, and more, in black-and-white and color. Longtime New York City Players member Jim Fletcher (Isolde,The Evening) stars as Caution, driving through darkness and moving through Alphaville in his trench coat, gun at the ready. Natacha (Elizabeth Carena), the professor’s daughter, is assigned to accompany him, making sure he doesn’t break any of Alpha 60’s rules, while a pair of seductresses (Laura Bartczak and Marion Spencer) hover around to take care of his more private needs. Wooster Group and Elevator Repair Service veteran Scott Shepherd (who currently can be seen in Measure for Measure at the Public) appears with Madeline Best on video, and Irons and Petty (Keep Your Electric Eye on Me, Standing By: Gatz Backstage) handle the technological aspects and live processing, including going onstage to reposition the cameras as necessary.
Meanwhile, Carena, Bartczak, and Spencer occasionally break out of character and engage in ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response), slow, repetitive movements that have little to do with the plot but create both calm and stimulating atmospheres. Christina Campanella does the narration, with voiceovers by Olivier Conan and Irons, additional music by the Chocolate Factory’s Brian Rogers, costumes and props by Amy Mascena (clothing changes are made at front stage right, visible to some of the audience), complex sound design by Irons and Petty and implemented by Ian Douglas-Moore, and moody lighting courtesy of Jon Harper, referencing Raoul Coutard’s cinematography from the film. The production style of Why Why Always evokes such works as Reid and Sara Farrington’s Casablancabox and Big Dance Theater’s Comme Toujours Here I Stand, tech-heavy, complicated re-creations of Casablanca and Cléo from 5 to 7, respectively. What does it all mean? “That’s always how it is,” Caution says. “You never understand anything. And in the end, it kills you.” It won’t kill you, but it will keep you calmly stimulated and entertained throughout its ninety-minute running time.
This past January, Yanira Castro | a canary torsi presented Performance | Portrait at the Invisible Dog Art Center, a multimedia interactive work that continues Castro’s exploration of the intimate relationship between audience and performer. The company is now back at the Invisible Dog with AUTHOR, the third part of a trilogy that also includes CAST at the Chocolate Factory Theater and STAGE at Abrons Arts Center. AUTHOR is on view Wednesday to Saturday from 1:00 to 7:00 and Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00 from September 9 to 17 (free), with an opening reception September 9 at 6:00. The participatory piece involves a computer game in which visitors will share their memories of being a spectator, interacting onscreen with contributing artists Kyle Bukhari, Simon Courchel, Leslie Cuyjet, devynn emory, John Hoobyar, Iréne Hultman, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Luke Miller, Heather Olson, Sai Somboon, David Thomson, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Pamela Vail, Tara Aisha Willis, and Darrin Wright. And you get to go home with a printed memento of your experience. Admission is free but advance registration is strongly suggested here. In the forty-five-minute CAST, running Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:00 from September 13 to 23 at the Chocolate Factory ($20), a rotating quartet of performers will work with a new script every night, computer-generated from more than one hundred hours of recorded conversations. Finally, STAGE, “a visual and aural fantasia,” takes place at Abrons Arts Center on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from September 14 to 23 at 9:00 ($20), a collaboratively choreographed work with a live improvised sound score by Stephan Moore and lighting by Kathy Couch. (The times are arranged so you can see all three parts of the trilogy on certain days, although each is a standalone piece.) You can get a $30 pass for all three events here, but act quickly, because Castro, whose previous works include Paradis, Court/Garden, and Wilderness, always presents intriguing, popular events that sell out in advance.
Annie Dorsen turns FIAF auditorium into planetarium for Crossing the Line Festival
French Institute Alliance Française and other locations
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
FIAF Gallery, 22 East 60th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
September 6 – October 15, free – $60
212-355-6160 crossingthelinefestival.org www.fiaf.org
FIAF’s annual Crossing the Line Festival enters its second decade with the eleventh edition of its always exciting multidisciplinary lineup featuring unique and eclectic works from around the world. This year’s focus is on Congolese choreographer and CTL veteran Faustin Linyekula, who will be presenting the world premiere of the site-specific Banataba at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (9/9, 9/10, 9/12, $65), the U.S. premiere of In Search of Dinozord with Studios Kabako at the NYU Skirball Center (9/22, 9/23, $40), and the world premiere of Festival of Dreams at Roberto Clemente Plaza on 9/23 and Weeksville Heritage Center on 9/24 (free, 3:00). The festival begins September 6-7 with Ryoji Ikeda’s supercodex (live set) at the Met ($45-$60), a follow-up to his dazzling Superposition from 2014. In #PUNK, taking place 9/14-15 in FIAF’s Tinker Auditorium ($30), Zimbabwe-born, New York–based Nora Chipaumire channels the musical rage of Patti Smith; the 9/14 show will be followed by a Q&A with Chipaumire and Linyekula, moderated by Ralph Lemon. Performance festival regular Annie Dorsen (Magical, Yesterday Tomorrow) takes a new narrative approach to the internet in The Great Outdoors, 9/21-23 in FIAF’s Florence Gould Hall ($35). Alessandro Sciarroni continues his “Will you still love me tomorrow?” trilogy with the New York premiere of UNTITLED_I will be there when you die at La MaMa 9/28-30 ($25, 8:00).
Moroccan dancer-choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen’s Corbeaux (Crows) is a site-specific living sculpture that will move throughout the Brooklyn Museum’s Beaux-Arts Court 9/30 and 10/1 (free with museum admission). Drag fave Dickie Beau conjures Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland in Blackouts 10/5-8 at Abrons Arts Center ($30). Adelheid Roosen and Nazmiye Oral transform FIAF’s Le Skyroom into an intimate living room in No Longer without You 10/12-15 ($25), in which traditional Muslim immigrant Havva Oral and her Westernized daughter, Nazmiye, discuss faith, sexuality, identity, and more. In addition, Alain Willaume’s immersive exhibition, “VULNERABLE,” will be on view 9/15 to 10/28 in the FIAF Gallery (free), and Sophie Calle’s Voir la mer, set by the Black Sea in Istanbul, will be projected on Times Square billboards every night in October at 11:57 as part of the monthly Midnight Moment program.
Ivy Baldwin explores grief and mourning in Keen [No. 2] at Abrons Arts Center (photo by Maria Baranova)
Abrons Arts Center, the Playhouse
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
Thursday – Sunday through June 11, $20
212-598-0400 www.abronsartscenter.org
In her artist statement, Brooklyn-based dancer and choreographer Ivy Baldwin explains, “Choreography is a way of processing the experiences of my life, my dancer’s lives, and the world around us. . . . I love making dance that is mysterious, darkly emotional, embraces absurdity, and explores twisted humor, violence, and human fragility. . . . As an artist, I strive to let my imagination rule the roost, embrace the chaotic and messy, and most importantly, to be present, open-minded, and brave.” Baldwin opens herself up bravely in her latest evening-length piece, Keen [No. 2], which continues at Abrons Arts Center June 8-11. Co-commissioned by Abrons Arts Center, the Chocolate Factory, and the Joyce as part of Joyce Unleashed, a program that presents experimental off-site works, it is a follow-up to Keen (Part 1), which began Baldwin’s exploration of mourning, grief, rituals, and loneliness following the loss of her longtime friend, dancer, and muse, Lawrence Cassella, who died on January 28, 2016, from the immune system disease HLH. Keen (Part 1) took place at the Glass House in Connecticut, where Anna Carapetyan, Eleanor Smith, Katie Workum, and Baldwin performed inside a glassed-in room (with the audience outside) and along the grounds. (You can see excerpts here.) Keen [No. 2] continues many of the same themes indoors at Abrons, where Baldwin will be joined by Smith and Workum in addition to Anna Adams Stark, Katie Dean, Marya Wethers, Dia Dearstyne, Heather Olson, Kay Ottinger, Tara Sheena, and Tara Willis. The set design is by Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen, who contributed the twisted paper sculptures for Baldwin’s Oxbow at the BAM Fisher in November 2014 (the night we saw it, an ill Cassella was replaced by Luke Miller), with sound by Justin Jones, lighting by Chloe Z. Brown, and costumes by Mindy Nelson. But don’t expect overly sentimental movement filled with sadness; Baldwin favors mystery and absurdity, and, in a rare turn for her detailed perfectionism, has given the dancers the opportunity for structured improvisation. Thus, each show will be different, just as each day is different as people deal with personal loss in their own way.
