Tag Archives: joe’s pub

THE BANG GROUP: HEAD OVER HEELS

The Bang Group presents the world premiere of HEAD OVER HEELS at Joes Pub on February 14-15

The Bang Group explores love and romance in the world premiere of HEAD OVER HEELS at Joe’s Pub on February 14-15 (photo by Jennifer Jones)

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. between East Fourth St. & Astor Pl.
Friday, February 14, and Saturday, February 15, $15 in advance, $20 at the door, 7:00
212-967-7555
www.joespub.com
www.thebanggroup.com

DANCENOW regulars the Bang Group are back at Joe’s Pub this week with a special Valentine’s Day world premiere. The New York City-based TBG, founded in 1995 by David Parker and Jeffrey Kazin, will be exploring the intricacies of the human heart in Head over Heels, a tapping evening-length nonnarrative tale featuring Amber Sloan, Nic Petry, Kazin, and 2013 Guggenheim Fellow Parker that reveals the ups and downs of love and romance. The quartet will dance and sing to the music of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Frank Loesser, Bob Merrill, Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane, and Burt Bacharach, played live by Anna Ebbesen, as well as tap out compositions by Steve Reich and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. TBG’s previous DANCENOW presentations were 2008’s ShowDown, a reimagining of Annie Get Your Gun, and 2011’s Misters and Sisters, a self-reflexive piece about musical theater. (Others who have participated in the DANCENOW program, which started at Joe’s Pub in 2003, seeking to “encourage artists to think outside the box and utilize this unique space,” are choreographers Doug Elkins, Nicholas Leichter, Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown, Monica Bill Barnes, and Takehiro Ueyama.) Head over Heels will be performed on February 14 and 15 at 7:00; tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

PROTOTYPE 2014

Chamber-opera adaptation of Willa Cather’s PAUL’S CASE kicks off 2014 Prototype festival

PROTOTYPE: OPERA/THEATRE/NOW
Multiple venues
January 8-19, $15-$25
Proto Packs: $75 for five shows, $90 for seven
866-811-4111
www.prototypefestival.org

Prototype: Opera/Theatre/Now, a festival of classical and postclassical musical-theater and chamber-opera works from around the world, returns for its second year, consisting of seven performances in five venues from January 8 to 19. Presented by Beth Morrison Projects and HERE, Prototype gets under way with the New York premiere of Paul’s Case (HERE, January 8-13), composer Gregory Spears and playwright Kathryn Walat’s chamber-opera adaptation of Willa Cather’s short story. Husband and wife Lauren Worsham and Kyle Jarrow’s Sky-Pony (HERE, January 10-13) investigates the four humors of Ancient Greek medicine, the Melancholic, the Sanguine, the Phlegmatic, and the Choleric, in a multimedia performance over four nights. In Thumbprints (Baruch Performing Arts Center, January 10-18), composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Susan Yankowitz follow a Pakistani woman’s fight for justice in the aftermath of a so-called honor crime. Composer Jonathan Berger and librettist Dan O’Brien’s Visitations (Roulette, January 11-13) consists of a pair of haunting one-act chamber operas, Theotokia, involving a man taunted by the mother of God, and The War Reporter, based on the real-life experience of journalist Paul Watson. In Du Yun’s multigenre Angel’s Bone (Trinity Church, January 12-15), a couple tries to turn a horrific situation to their advantage. In Have a Good Day! (HERE, January 15-19), composer Lina Lapelytė, librettist Vaiva Grainytė, and director Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė go inside the minds of mall cashiers. And New York-born, Moscow-raised musician Elizaveta will give a special one-night-only performance at Joe’s Pub on January 17. There will also be a series of talkbacks following specific performances, and Prototype, Coil, Under the Radar, and American Realness have joined forces to present free live concerts every night from January 9 to 19 in the Lounge at the Public Theater, including Invincible, Christeene, Ethan Lipton, Heather Christian & the Arbonauts, Sky-Pony, Timur and the Dime Museum, the Middle Church Jerriesse Johnson Gospel Choir, M.A.K.U. Sound System, DJ Acidophilus, and Nick Hallett, Space Palace, and Woahmone DJs.

QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Sineglossa’s REMEMBER ME is part of second Queer New York International Arts Festival

Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
October 23 – November 3, free – $18 (many shows $10 suggested donation)
212-598-0400
www.queerny.org
www.abronsartscenter.org

In a 2012 Huffington Post blog about the first Queer New York International Arts Festival, artistic codirector André von Ah wrote, “Queerness, in perhaps its barest and most basic concept, is about breaking the rules, shaking things up, and challenging preconceived ideas.” The second QNYIA continues to shake things up with twelve days and nights of performances, panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, and other events at such venues as Abrons Arts Center, the Invisible Dog, La MaMa, Joe’s Pub, and New York Live Arts, but sadly, it will be proceeding without von Ah, who curated this year’s programming with artistic director Zvonimir Dobrović but sadly passed away suddenly last month, still only in his mid-twenties. This year’s festival, which is dedicated to von Ah, opens October 23 with the U.S. premiere of Ivo Dimchev’s P-Project at Abrons Arts Center, the Bulgarian artist’s interactive piece that uses words that begin with the letter P to investigate societal taboos. Italy’s Sineglossa uses mirrored screens in Remember Me, based on Henry Purcell’s opera about Dido and Aeneas. Audience favorite Raimund Hoghe pays special tribute to von Ah with An Evening with Judy, in which he channels Judy Garland, Maria Callas, and others. Poland’s SUKA OFF investigates skin shedding in its multimedia Red Dragon. Brazil’s Ângelo Madureira plays “the dreamer” in his contemporary dance piece Delírio. Croatia’s Room 100 presents the U.S. premiere of its dark, experimental C8H11NO2. Dan Fishback offers a concert reading of The Material World at Joe’s Pub, the sequel to You Will Experience Silence; Fishback will also participate in the October 26 panel discussion “Creating Queer / Curating Queer” at the New School with Carla Peterson, Tere O’Connor, TL Cowan, Susana Cook, and Dobrović. The Club at La MaMa will host the New Music Series, featuring M Lamar, Shane Shane, Enid Ellen, Nath Ann Carrera, and Max Steele. The festival also includes works by Bojana Radulović, Elisa Jocson, Guillermo Riveros, Daniel Duford, Bruno Isaković, Gabriela Mureb, Heather Litteer, CHOKRA, Antonia Baehr, and Antoni Karwowski, with most shows requiring advance RSVPs and requesting a $10 suggested donation.

ALL THE FACES OF THE MOON

Mike Daisey mixes reality and fantasy in ambitious, epic twenty-nine-night tale at Joe’s Pub (photo by Joan Marcus)

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St.
Nightly through October 3, $26.50 ($20 with code DAISEY), no food or drink minimum, 7:00
212-967-7555
www.joespub.com
www.mikedaisey.blogspot.com

Monologist Mike Daisey is currently in the midst of an epic New York story at Joe’s Pub, a twenty-nine-consecutive-night “theatrical novel” that continues through October 3. Each evening, Daisey sits at a table for between sixty and seventy-five minutes, with a glass of water, a handkerchief to mop his perpetually sweaty face and brow, and a pad on which he has written an outline of what he is going to talk about. Behind him on an easel is a painting by Larissa Tokmakova (There There), who created a different canvas for each night. Daisey, whose last piece, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, stirred up quite a controversy when it was revealed that not every word in his story of Chinese workers who make Apple products at the massive Foxconn facility in Shenzhen was true, this time very deliberately mixes fact and fiction, reality and fantasy. The first part of each show generally deals with Daisey’s personal and professional life, as he discusses his childhood in Maine, self-deprecatingly talks about his girth, cynically examines life in the American theater, relates his bout with suicidal thoughts, makes fun of the price of food audience members are eating (unlike most shows at Joe’s Pub, there is no food or drink minimum), and brings up the potential of having sex in strange places with his wife, Jean-Michele Gregory, who is also the director.

Mike Daisey and painter Larissa Tokmakova in the studio, preparing for ALL THE FACES OF THE MOON (photo by Sabrina Fonseca)

Working from an outline, Daisey veers off into riotous tangents, his inflections suddenly going from soft and gentle to loud and sharp as he rants, raves, and rages about Dungeons and Dragons, Bob Dole, McDonald’s, Apple, McSweeney’s, vampires, the First Church of Christ IKEA Redeemer, Manhattan Theatre Club, and, at the center of it all, a changing New York City. But then, about halfway through, Daisey shifts gears, delving into a fantastical, surreal world where parties go on for years, Death follows him, and a mysterious character known as the Big Guy hires an even more mysterious figure named Jack to kill him (the Big Guy). At first this transition is confusing, seemingly arriving out of nowhere, but it eventually all comes together, especially if you see or listen to multiple shows. (A podcast of each performance is posted online by noon the next day.) Daisey is an engaging performer who is not afraid to take risks, a master storyteller who puts it all out there, adapting to the situation as necessary, whether sensing a lull in the proceedings or making a reference that very few people get. There’s an immediacy and intimacy about his presentation that instantly grabs the audience, which is willing to forgive Daisey his past problems and join him on this wildly ambitious ride, which features such intriguing chapter titles as “The Naked Emperor Is Still Laughing,” “Jupiter Is a King Who Never Came Back,” “Saturn Is a Father Devouring His Children,” and “The World Is More Than We Will Ever Know.” As a bonus, ticket holders receive a special tarot card for that specific show, featuring the name of the chapter and a color image of Tokmakova’s painting for that night; the tarot cards are also available to those who write legitimate reviews of individual podcasts.

MIKE DAISEY: ALL THE FACES OF THE MOON

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St.
September 5 – October 3, $26.50 ($20 with code DAISEY), no food or drink minimum, 7:00
212-967-7555
www.joespub.com
www.mikedaisey.blogspot.com

Master storyteller Mike Daisey, who caused quite a stir with his last solo show at the Public Theater, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, is back at the Public this month with an ambitious new project. All the Faces of the Moon will take place at Joe’s Pub over the course of twenty-nine successive evenings, comprising a lunar month, with each night being a unique part of the New York tale as well as a story in its own right. Directed by Daisey’s wife, Jean-Michele Gregory, this world premiere runs September 5 – October 3, featuring such ninety-minute presentations as “The Fool Who Walks Through Walls,” “She’s the High Priestess to You, Jack,” “The Hierophant Plays It Loose,” “A Hanged Man Knows How to Bluff,” “If You Wish Upon a Star You Will Regret It,” and, finally, “Last Call.” Each story will be accompanied by a specially commissioned oil painting by Russian artist Larissa Tokmakova relating to that night’s theme. In addition to getting $26.50 tickets ($20 if you use the code DAISEY) to see individual shows at the Public, free podcasts will be available online the next day by noon to keep you up-to-date on what’s going on. “Each and every night is a completely new full-length show,” Daisey explains on his website. “And these stories are braided and woven together to create something completely new: a living theatrical novel set against a magical vision of New York City. At forty-four hours long it is the largest story ever attempted in the American theater.” And you can be there every step of the way, both at Joe’s Pub — where there will be no food or drink minimum for the show — as well as in the comfort of your living room.

PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL OF INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE

Multiple venues
April 29 – May 5, free – $30
www.worldvoices.pen.org

“Without literature, it’s all just words,” PEN America president Peter Godwin writes in his opening letter to the ninth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. The organization that fights for freedom and first amendment rights this year celebrates the idea of bravery in art, politics, and personal everyday life during the weeklong festival comprising more than fifty readings, live performances, discussions, workshops, master classes, and more. Below are just some of the many highlights for this annual tribute to the power of the written word and how it can and does make a difference throughout the world, featuring such participants as Martin Amis, Joy Harjo, Paul Auster, Ai Weiwei (via Skype), Salman Rushdie, Sapphire, Sonia Sotomayor, Lewis Lapham, Amy Wilentz, Naomi Wolf, Fiona Shaw, Oskar Eustis, Fran Lebowitz, Edna O’Brien, Colm Tóibín, Lynne Tillman, and many more at such venues as Joe’s Pub, the New School, the Standard, and NYU.

Monday, April 29

Opening Night Reading: Bravery, with A. Igoni Barrett, David Frakt, Darrel Vandeveld, Joy Harjo, Jamaica Kincaid, Ursula Krechel, Earl Lovelace, Vaddey Ratner, Mikhail Shishkin, and Najwan Darwish, hosted by Baratunde Thurston, the Great Hall of the Cooper Union, $20, 7:00

Tuesday, April 30

2013 PEN Literary Gala, with Philip Roth, American Museum of Natural History, $1,000, 7:00

An Evening with McSweeney’s, with Francisco Goldman, Clancy Martin, Wyatt Mason, José Luís Peixoto, Francesco Pacifico, and others, Joe’s Pub, $15, 9:00

Wednesday, May 1

Bravery in Poetry, with Hilton Als, Paul Auster, Henri Cole, Edward Hirsch, Mary Karr, Yusef Komunyakaa, Eileen Myles, Sapphire, and others, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, $30, 7:30

Speaking in Languages on the Edge, with Gillian Clarke, Joy Harjo, Natalio Hernandez, Bob Holman, and others, Joe’s Pub, $15, 9:30

Thursday, May 2

Master/Class: Jamaica Kincaid with Ru Freeman, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, $20, 6:30

Master/Class: Sapphire with Nicole Sealey, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, $20, 8:30

Obsession: Andrew Solomon on Sleep, with Andrew Solomon and Joan Golden-Alexis, hosted by Katie Halper, the Standard, East Village Hotel, $20, 9:00

Friday, May 3

African Writers Workshop with Igoni Barrett, NYU Africa House, 10:00 am

The Literary Mews: Outdoor Indie Book Fair (with readings by Epiphany magazine, Four Way Books, St. Petersburg Review, Gigantic magazine, and Open Letter Books), presentation by photographer Nancy Crampton, Irish Song Workshop with Pádraig Ó Cearúill, Magically Grimm: German Folk Songs with Tine Kindermann & Band, Kasperl-Puppet Theater, The Griot: African Storytelling, and Chapbook Binding, Washington Mews, NYU, free, 10:00 am – 4:00

The Testament of Mary: A Discussion on the Broadway Show, with star Fiona Shaw, writer Colm Tóibín, and director Deborah Warner, moderated by Jeremy McCarter, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, free, 1:30

The Novelist as Truthteller: The Achievement and Legacy of Vasily Grossman, with Agata Tuszynska and Martin Amis, moderated by Edwin Frank, the Public Theater, $15, 6:30

A Literary Safari, with Michal Ajvaz, Nadeem Aslam, Loree Burns, Dror Burstein, Gillian Clarke, Mia Couto, Eduardo Halfon, Natalio Hernandez, Nick Holdstock, Randa Jarrar, John Kenney, Tararith Kho, Jaime Manrique, Margie Orford, Jordi Punti, Noemi Szecsi, Padma Venkatraman, Gerbrand Bakker, James Kelman, Téa Obreht, and others, Westbeth Center for the Arts, $15, 6:30

Master/Class: Fran Lebowitz with A. M. Homes, Tishman Auditorium, the New School, $20, 6:30

Saturday, May 4

Asia Society Presents: Monkey Business, with Paul Auster, Mina Ishikawa, Genichiro Takahashi, and Charles Simic, facilitated by translators Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen, Asia Society, $12, 2:00

Revitalizing Endangered Languages, with Gillian Clarke, Natalio Hernandez, Daniel Kaufman, and Lorna Williams, moderated by Nick Holdstock, the Public Theater, $15, 3:00

An Evening with Lapham’s Quarterly, with Lewis Lapham, Oskar Eustis, Maryann Plunkett, Jay O. Sanders, and others, Joe’s Pub, $15, 7:00

Obsession: Naomi Wolf on Truth, with Naomi Wolf and Ben Schrank, hosted by Katie Halper, the Standard, East Village Hotel, $20, 9:00

Sunday, May 5

Granta: 2013 Best of Young British Novelists, with Hari Kunzru, Sigrid Rausing, John Freeman, and several 2013 Best Young British Novelists, Joe’s Pub, $15, 2:00

Burma: Bones Will Crow, with Khin Aung Aye, James Byrne, and Zeyar Lynn, moderated by Phillip Howze, the Public Theater, $15, 3:00

Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture: Sonia Sotomayor, the Great Hall of the Cooper Union, $30, 5:00

TWI-NY TALK: ALICIA JO RABINS

Alicia Jo Rabins explores her personal fascination with the Bernie Madoff scandal in enticing one-woman show at Joe’s Pub (photo by Aaron Hartman)

A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
Thursday, November 15, $15-$20, 7:00 pm
212-539-8778
www.aliciajo.com
www.joespub.com

On November 8 at Joe’s Pub, multidisciplinary artist and Torah scholar Alicia Jo Rabins presented the world premiere of her one-woman show, the vastly entertaining A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff. After reading about Madoff when his Ponzi scheme fell apart and made all the papers in December 2008, Rabins became obsessed with the man and his story, spending the next several years poring over seventeen books about the case and meeting with people directly and indirectly impacted by the scandal. In the show, Rabins, backed by cellist and musical director Colette Alexander, percussionist David Freeman, and guitarist Lily Maase, sings, plays the violin, and shares personal anecdotes in a warm, involving, and funny way. She incorporates Buddhist sutra, an actual apology letter written by Madoff, and a Jewish prayer into the proceedings as she examines the situation from the points of view of an FBI agent, a credit-risk officer, a whistleblower, a happy investor, a therapist, a lawyer, and a monk. As she prepared for the second performance, taking place November 15, Rabins corresponded with twi-ny about mysticism, money, Madoff, her marriage to musical partner Aaron Hartman, and more.

twi-ny: The role of belief in things unseen (and often dimly understood) plays a large part in both finance and religion. Did you find anything in your background in Jewish studies useful as you explored the financial world and this story? What do you think it ultimately was that led to your fascination with Bernie Madoff?

Alicia Jo Rabins: I was fascinated to find that, as you said, there is this overlap between the bewilderment and allure of esoteric mysticism and esoteric finance. They both traffic in ultimate intangibles — the idea of energy and the idea of money. But more simply, I was fascinated by the simplicity of Madoff’s scheme, the fact that it wasn’t a complicated series of equations no one could have seen through but a simple lie that the SEC could have easily stopped at any point if they had checked to see if his hedge fund had ever actually executed any of the trades their records described. So it seemed to me that the whole story was more about the financial world’s desire to believe in Madoff than Madoff’s desire to deceive.

Alicia Jo Rabins will be back at Joe’s Pub on November 15 for an encore performance of A KADDISH FOR BERNIE MADOFF (photo by Jason Falchook)

twi-ny: Regarding that desire to deceive, in the show you explore whether Madoff is a villain or just someone who got caught up in a situation that spiraled out of control. What do you think is the truth?

Alicia Jo Rabins: I think the gray area between those two is the interesting part of the story. That, plus the shared responsibility of those who should have known better but didn’t (I’m not talking about ordinary investors but about fund managers, financial advisers, the SEC, and huge banks), and why exactly no one stopped him for decades, is the area this piece explores. I suppose the piece itself, with all its contradictory viewpoints, is my answer to that question!

twi-ny: The opening performance produced a rousing ovation, and you will be performing it again at Joe’s Pub on November 15. How do you think the first show went?

Alicia Jo Rabins: I loved performing that first show — it felt incredible, and somewhat surreal, to be in a room with an audience after two years of working on this piece!

twi-ny: What are the future plans for it? It deserves to be seen by a lot more people!

Alicia Jo Rabins: Well — thanks! I’m already talking to a few producers about bringing the show out west and to Europe, in both museums and theaters — so I feel like the production will have a touring life, which would be wonderful.

twi-ny: Over the last four years, in addition to your Madoff obsession, you’ve gotten married, had a child, and released a pair of Girls in Trouble records. Has it been hard balancing all of these elements?

Alicia Jo Rabins: Oh yes, the balance is a constant struggle, and if it weren’t for my friends, my families, and Aaron’s unflagging support, there’s no way I’d be able to do all this. (And many days I can’t.)

twi-ny: What does Aaron think of your Madoff fixation?

Alicia Jo Rabins: I’ll have to ask him and get back to you. I can say that he did find it quite amusing that at one point our bookshelf had a full shelf of pregnancy and childbirth books, above a full shelf of my Torah teaching books, above a full shelf of books about Bernie Madoff.