I have heard great things about this company. And I saw a DVD of their work and really, really liked it. This is, like, the hippest Japanese alternative, experimental, contemporary theater happening. they do this crazy weird fidgeting/gesture movement stuff with what (apparently) is kind of like, heightened colloquial language ala Richard Maxwell. Though it is in Japanese, so that will be a little hard to understand. 

But still – put this on your calendar and check it out!!

chelftisch Theater Company

Five Days in March

U.S. Debut Tour

Written & directed by Toshiki Okada

at Japan Society

333 East 47th Street New York, NY 10017

Phone: 212.832.1155 

Thursday, February 5, 7:30 PM

Friday, February 6, 7:30 PM

Saturday, February 7, 7:30 PM

more info at japansociety.org

chelftisch's Five Days in March © Toru Yokota.

“By juxtaposing global events and personal revelations [Okada] beautifully captures the distance and conflict between them.”  Yomiuri Newspaper

“Comical… excellent… [This scene is] characteristic of the theatrical symbolism in Okada’s work that gives it such strength”. Le Soir

In the days before the U.S. began its war against Iraq in March 2003, two Japanese urban hipsters meet at a post-rock show and get swept up into a one-night stand that turns into five days’ continuous sex. Such is the anticlimactic story in Five Days in March, the prestigious Kishida Kunio Drama Award-winning play by Toshiki Okada. Characterized by seemingly insubstantial narrative accompanied by exaggerated fidgeting gestures-turned-choreography, the ground-breaking and modern works of chelfitsch Theater Company have made them the most talked-about theater company in Japan. The story unfolds through actors who slip in and out of character while casually narrating and playing out scenes. Oblivious to the imminent invasion of Iraq, the slackers obsess over the details of a love affair, perfectly capturing the irony and impotency of Generation Y in Japan today.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

Tickets 

$35/$32 Japan Society members

Buy Tickets Online or call the Japan Society Box Office at (212) 715-1258, Mon. – Fri. 11 am – 6 pm, Weekends 11 am – 5 pm.

Related Event: 

An Evening with Toshiki Okada & Dan Safer - February 3, 2009

Five Days in March tour dates:

• Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), January 15-17
• PuSh International Performing Arts Festival (Vancouver, BC), January 21-24
• On the Boards (Seattle, WA), January 28-February 1
• Japan Society (New York, NY), February 5-7
• Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH), February 12-14
• Touhill Performing Arts Center, University of Missouri, St. Louis (St. Louis, MO), February 17
• Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL), February 20-22

The seven-city North American tour of chelfitsch Theater Company is organized and produced by Japan Society and is supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan; The Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN Program; and The Saison Foundation for the Japan Society’s Japanese Theater NOW initiative.

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my dear old friend Bazima is hosting her very own reading series!! first one is Wednesday!

The How I Learned… at Happy Ending Reading Series presents

“How I Learned to Steal From the Liquor Cabinet: Stories About Drinking (…Or Not Drinking)”

Featuring:

Mike Albo (The Underminer, Hornito, New York Times’ Critical Shopper)

Erin Bradley (Nerve.com)

Rosie Schaap (This American Life, the forthcoming Drinking with Men)

Hosted by Blaise K.

Wednesday, January 28th at 8pm

Happy Ending

302 Broome Street (between Forsythe & Eldridge)

It’s the hot pink awning that says “HE Health Club” on it. You know the one.

(212) 334-9676

Get directions

THE SERIES

How I Learned… at Happy Ending is a brand new monthly reading series featuring super talented writers, comedians, bloggers, performers and personalities, as chosen by hostess Blaise Kearsley based primarily on their hygiene and their make-out prowess. A complete mash-up of the personal, the biographical, fact, fantasy, and whatever is left in between, How I Learned… offers such educational topics as “How I Learned To Be Super Successful”, “How I Learned About Sex”, “How I Learned That Everyone is Against Me”, “How I Learned My Adolescence Is Over”, “How I Learned We Were Breaking Up”, “How I Learned That It’s Not All My Parents’ Fault (Only About 75%)” and more! How I Learned… at Happy Ending strives to share invaluable life lessons against a dimly-lit, self-indulgent, potentially sexually tense and booze-fueled backdrop. It’s education that works.

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Okay so these guys are good and I think you should go check them out. 

One of the first things I did when I started fixing up IRT was to create and implement the residency program. NONSENSE COMPANY was the first (and only) out-of-state residency I put together. They’re here reprising the show they did last year at FRIGID Festival and not too many people got to see. While they’re here they’re going to build a show that will be world-premiering at PS122 next season.  

This show is a really good show and is still relevant, even with the new president. Also, just stylistically, these guys are really innovative and fun and authentic and DIY- avant-garde “new music” meets experimental minimalist theater with an indie rock aesthetic. They’re here all the way from San Diego so go show them some love and enjoy the show.

THE NONSENSE COMPANY

PRESENTS

GREAT HYMN OF THANKSGIVING/CONVERSATION STORM

By Rick Burkhardt

Directed by Rick Burkhardt & Andy Gricevich

Performed by Ryan Higgins, Andy Gricevich, and Rick Burkhardt

FEBRUARY 3-15 @ IRT

Around a dinner table, three actor/musicians sing, pray, beat forks, deliver the news, and snap between scenes in mid-sentence in GREAT HYMN OF THANKSGIVING a brutal deconstruction of War-on-Terror-speak. In CONVERSATION STORMthree friends from three sides of the political spectrum argue their way through a ticking time bomb scenario, brutalizing their own positions, destroying the lines between real and hypothetical, past and future, day and night. GREAT HYMN OF THANKSGIVING/CONVERSATION STORM was awarded “Best New Play” at the 2007 San Francisco Fringe and “Best of the Fest” at the 2008 NYC FRIGID Fest. CONVERSATION STORM has also been selected for publication in the anthology Plays and Playwrights 2009.

The Nonsense Company performs GREAT HYMN OF THANKSGIVING/CONVERSATION STORM, an award-winning pair of intricate and urgent pieces blurring the boundary between experimental theater and avant-garde music, both written by internationally-known composer and company member Rick Burkhardt. The production will run Feb 3-Feb 7 at 8pm and Feb 11-14 at 8pm with matinee performances on Feb 8 & Feb 15 at 3pm at IRT 154 Christopher Street 3B. Tickets ($15) are available online at www.nonsensecompany.com. All performances will be open to the press.

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JOHN JESURUN’S FIREFALL AT DTW

FEBRUARY 4-7 AT 7:30

POST SHOW TALK WITH JULIETTE MAPP ON FEB. 4

“Jesurun’s visionary new theater swoops into your mind violently…and vanishes leaving you dazed and tingling. A pleasure to watch.” – The Village Voice

John Jesurun’s groundbreaking pieces challenge perception through an intense integration of language, media, and space. A MacArthur Fellowship recipient, John’s new work FIREFALL confronts the intersection between harmony, uncertainty, and belief. Performers interact within a governing website structure that is antithetical to an agreed upon script. Unintentional “drama” materializes as they resist being absorbed by their own growing multi-dimensionality.

WITH: ALEX ANFANGER,RACHEL BELL,CLAIRE BUCKINGHAM,STEPHANIE AUSTIN GREEN,KYLE GRIFFITHS,RAY ROY,CHRIS WENDELKEN,BEN FORSTER/LIGHTING- JEFF NASH,TECH DESIGN- RAY ROY/PHOTO: PAULA COURT

JOHN JESURUN’S FIREFALL

TICKETS $26 (DISCOUNT $15)

at

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP

219 WEST 19TH ST. NYC

212-924-0077 

dancetheaterworkshop.org

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Downtown darling Ain Gordon got a commission from LexArts in Kentucky to create a show about Lexington. His research led him to discover the fascinating story of Samuel and Daphney Oldham who, in 1830, were the first free African-Americans to build their own home in Lexington, KY. Five years later, they disappeared, never to be heard from again. The house still stands – a mystery, a monument to the lost histories of the South and the subtle shifting sands of collective memory.

Gordon has crafted an eloquent, haunting and poetic monologue that imagines the Oldham’s story as told by Daphney, returned from the great beyond. This powerful new one-woman play with video is performed by Brooklyn’s own Michelle Hurst, presented by 651 Arts at the Irondale Center.

There’s a nice, in-depth article on the show at flyover (an artsjournal blog) and there are some MP3 interviews on the Kentucky-based arts blog of writer Rich Copely.

Mark your calendar and be sure to check it out!

651 ARTS and The Irondale Ensemble Project present

a Pick Up Performance Co(S.) production

in collaboration with LexArts

In This Place

Written and directed by Ain Gordon

Starring Michelle Hurst

January 29- 31 | February 6 & 7 | 7:30pm

at

The Irondale Center

85 South Oxford (between Lafayette & Fulton)

Brooklyn

Tickets: $20 | $15 students, seniors

www.651arts.org

www.irondale.org

www.theatermania.com

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Most recent update I can find about the imminent closing of the Ohio Theatre is AD Robert Lyons’ letter on their site.

The horrible rumors you’ve heard are true. The building has been sold. The future of our beloved Ohio Theatre is in jeopardy. I’ve been waiting for the sale to close before sending out information. The sale has now closed.

We were originally told we had to vacate the first floor by the end of this January! I am currently negotiating with the new landlord to allow us to stay through June. At least. That would mean the spring schedule would continue as planned:

January:      Target Margin           10 Blocks on the Camino Real

March:         Soho Think Tank       Red-Haired Thomas

April:            New Georges              Angela’s Mixtape.

May:             Voice&Vision/Crossing Jamaica Ave I Have Been to Hiroshima Mon Amour

June:            Clubbed Thumb          Summer Works 09.

Beyond that, the future is uncertain.

There’s more, including the sad fact that they’ve already lost use of the 6th floor rehearsal space. It’s an enormous blow to downtown Manhattan’s cultural life.

Until further word gets out from the Ohio I would encourage you, theater-goer, to provide twofold support: go see the work and give if you can. Camino Real is getting good mainstream press – see this Times Q&A piece with Target Margin AD David Herskovitz (mentions the Ohio but not the closing) It runs Jan 14-31; tickets (here) are $15 for the first week and $20 after.

Meantime, share if you have updates…

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this should be way cool.

LAPS is happening!

Saturday, January 10: 6-10PM.

Sunday, January 11: 4-8PM.

FREE admission, homemade chocolate chip cookies and cheap drinks!

The Chocolate Factory Basement

5-49 49th Avenue

L.I.C., NY 11101

Directions

www.chocolatefactorytheater.org

LAPS: Live Sh– Alternative Presenter Fair

Live Sh– invites a number of independent presenters (including performance series, record labels, galleries, and collectives) to share video and documentation from their associated artists in a casual fair format. The event will include informal discussions with presenters from around the country, including institutionally-affiliated guests. LAPS is a direct response and alternative to APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters).

LAPS will likely include the following: (after the jump)

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Okay so its APAP time again and its busier than ever. PS122 has COIL, The Public has Under The Radar, at CSV will have Witness Relocation and International WOW presenting the shows they did during Spotlight Japan at PRELUDE two years ago. HERE Arts Center has Culturemart 2009 which includes, among other things, a new show called Amazingland created and performed by Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford (All  Wear Bowlers) and Steve Cuiffo (Lenny Bruce, Major Bang). That’s like a downtown theater supergroup!

I’ll take some time and make a schedule – see if I can get out of the day job for a few days and actually go see a bunch of shows. OMG!

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Erik Friedlander is playing twice within the next week. This is very good news for any fans of cello, contemporary jazz, or contemporary instrumental music in general. Friedlander is a mindblowing genre-crossing cellist and composer; he’s done a lot of modern jazz, American roots, choral pieces, and more. He’s collaborated with John Zorn, Mike Patton, and Teho Teardo, among others. Errol Morris grabbed one of his songs for the series of talking head iPhone ads Morris directed.

Tonight he’s at the Asia Society as part of a group of Korean and American musicians improvising together. 8-10pm, tickets $16.

And Thursday he’ll be at The Stone on Avenue C & 2nd for a performance/CD release party with his Broken Arm Trio. I’m stoked. (update: starts at 10pm)

A good Friedlander beginner’s playlist is here. And here’s one of my favorite pieces:

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In conjunction with the Whitney exhibit Alexander Calder: The Paris Years (1926-1933), artist Colin Gee will be performing a new series at the Whitney twice this week. Details:

“Objective Suspense, a Whitney Live commission conceived and performed by Colin Gee, is a serious of intimate performance experiences inspired by Alexander Calder’s innovative idea of movement and the love of the circus.

Though no one but the artist could animate Calder’s Circus-an early example of performance art-Gee’s surprise interventions, using figures of his own devising, charge the atmosphere of the gallery with parallel senses of suspense and animation

With Calder’s Circus nearby, Gee manipulates abstract forms in several short acts that focus on the dynamics of movement.  Using eye contact, rhythm, play, and stillness, Gee re-orients perceptions of the circus itself.”

Performance times are unnannounced to maintain a sense of surprise but will repeat every 15 minutes for at least several hours. I hear Wednesday and Sunday afternoon this week are a good times to go…

Two Spheres within a Sphere, Calder, 1931

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