EMERGENYC Postcard

8:57 PM / Posted by Ashley / comments (0)


This arrived in my e-mail this morning and couldn't think of a better place to share it...

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EMERGENYC - Call for Applications

12:18 PM / Posted by Ashley / comments (0)

I highly recommend this program. I had a wonderful time being part of it last year... Please feel free to contact me if you would like more information about it.



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Dear friends and colleagues —

After an incredibly successful first year of EMERGENYC (Hemispheric New York Emerging Performers Program), we are delighted to announce the Call for Applications for 2009. As you will see, this year's format has changed and EMERGENYC 2009 will be a shorter, more intensive version of the 2008 series, more closely approximating the intense and multi-faceted approach we have developed at our Encuentros. This year's topic will be ACTIVIST PERFORMANCE, so please distribute widely to young New York-based activist/performers ages 18-23, and to organizations that could make this call available to them.

We are including the Call and Application Form as an attachment (Word document) and also in the body of this e-mail. Application deadline is February 20th.

All the best,

Marlène


--EMERGENYC Hemispheric New York Emerging Performers Program Call for Applications 2009Activist Performance Series

The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University is now accepting applications for EMERGENYC, its 2009 Hemispheric New York Emerging Performers Program. This year's theme focuses on Activist Performance. As a part of the Institute's Hemispheric New York initiative, the Emerging Performers Program aims to support the development of New York-based artists between the ages of 18 and 23 through a program of workshops and events that will take place between April and June 2009. We seek talented, committed and highly motivated young activists/artists/performers whose work functions as a vehicle for political expression and social change, and who examine the broad range of identities, practices and histories of the Americas (the western hemisphere, thus "hemispheric") through genres such as spoken word, street performance, political cabaret, performance art, video performance, movement, and others.

Why Hemispheric New York?
New York City is a space of transformation in which expressive practices from throughout the Americas come into contact and combine into new artistic forms. The constant encounters and collisions of African-, Native-, Asian-, Latino- and European- American cultures that define the City, combined with the multiple political and counter-cultural movements that have flourished on its streets, are a key source of the artistic and activist innovation that has long characterized New York City. Experimental performance, hip-hop and salsa are powerful examples of the hemispheric fusions that the City's neighborhoods have incubated. Anti-consumerism activism like Reverend Billy's Church of Stop Shopping, artistic interventions such as the Guerilla Girls and Fulana's If You Fear Something, You'll See Something poster campaign are examples of the innovative conjunction of art and political protest. Drawing on this vitality, the program will enable young activists/performers to work with leading practitioners in the field, to take interdisciplinary leaps, and to develop their own strategies to use performance for social change.

The Program
Between April and June, the selected participants will take part in weekly workshops led by George Emilio Sánchez as well as by invited artists/activists such as Reverend Billy and Saviri D, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Fulana, and others. One of the goals of this year's series is to work in all five boroughs in New York City. We are asking applicants to define social issues that are important to them (e.g., globalization, the environment, the economy, racism, gender/sexuality, etc.), and to find a bridge to communities around those issues.
The program will be divided into three phases. Phase 1: every Saturday from April 4th to May 9th, participants will work closely with George Emilio Sánchez in developing performance and activist strategies, such as Boalian techniques, performance art and site-specific interventions. Phase 2: intensive daily sessions from May 16- 23, participants will work closely with leading activists, artists and scholars, and will explore specific tactics for work in the field (street performance, interviewing, videotaping, seeing other people's work, etc.). Phase 3: every Saturday from May 30th to June 13th participants will develop their work with communities of interest throughout the City (hopefully in the five boroughs), building on the strategies explored through the workshops. Final event (June 20th): participants will share their strategies and experiences in a public forum.

This program is free of charge.

Who Is Eligible
EMERGENYC is open to activists/artists/performers between the ages of 18 to 23 who live in New York City. Applicants must have prior experience in activism and/or various performance genres. The program welcomes applications from individuals enrolled in the City's colleges and universities AND from those who are not currently pursuing formal higher education.

How to Apply
Please send the following materials to hemi.newyork@nyu.edu no later than February 20th 2009:
1) Completed application form
2) A resume or biographical statement (maximum 500 words) that tells us about who you are, where you are from, your performance background and your current projects.
3) A statement of purpose (maximum 750 words) describing the reasons you want to participate in EMERGENYC. Please also describe the specific issues you would want to address through the program and any preliminary ideas about the communities where you would ground this work.
4) 2 letters of recommendation, which your recommenders must send directly to hemi.newyork@nyu.edu

Selected participants will be notified March 6th and program activities will begin on April 4th.

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The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics is a collaborative, multilingual and interdisciplinary consortium of institutions, artists, scholars, and activists throughout the Americas. The organization's mission is to map new areas of knowledge based on understanding embodied practice—performance—as a way of creating new meaning and transmitting cultural values, memory and identity. Through courses, work groups, conference/festivals, a digital video library, an online scholarly journal, a tri-lingual website, and public forums, the Institute explores the relationship between expressive behavior and social and political life in the Americas.

For more information on the Hemispheric Institute, please visit: http://hemisphericinstitute.org
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APPLICATION FORM

Name:
Artistic Name (if any):
Street Address:
E-mail Address:
Phone Number(s):
Website (if any):
Date of Birth:
Languages spoken (other than English):
How long have you lived in New York City?
Please provide us with the names and contact information of your recommenders.
Recommender 1Name:E-mail Address: Phone Number:
Recommender 2Name:E-mail Address: Phone Number:
APPLICATION CHECKLIST (see Call for Applications for details) Completed application form Your biographical statement (250-500 words) Your statement of purpose (500-750 words) 2 letters of recommendation (to be sent directly to us by recommenders at hemi.newyork@nyu.edu) Optional: Samples of your work.

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EMERGENYC pictures

11:34 AM / Posted by Ashley / comments (0)



Long overdue pictures from the EMERGENYC performance at Museo del Barrio. There are A LOT more pictures from the actual performance but I have not seen them yet. I highly recommend applying to EMERGENYC for the next round in 2009. I'll post information about how to apply when I hear about it.


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EMERGENYC Presents "Offerings" at El Museo del Barrio

5:47 PM / Posted by Ashley / comments (0)

Come and check out my solo performance (a work in progress) called "What to Do In Case You Miss the Rapture". The performance explores beliefs and obsessions with "the end of the world".

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The Hemispheric Institute for Arts and Politics Presents:


OFFERINGS

Works in progress by the EMERGENYC 2008 cohort: Aisha Jordan, Arun Storrs, Ashley Marinaccio, Beatrice Glow, Bekah Dinnerstein, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Clare Barron, Edward McWilliams, Fernanda Coppel, Frantz Jerome, Kim Fischer, Leslie Guyton, Timothy Murray, Tina Louise Vásquez and Yael Miriam.

Saturday, October 18th
8:00 pm
El Museo del Barrio
1230 5th Avenue (at 104th Street)New York, NY 10029
Tel: 212.831.7272 Fax: 212.831.7927 Email: info@elmuseo.org

Subway#6 train to 103rd Street station, walk one block north to 104th Street, then two blocks west to Fifth Avenue. Entrance on the corner of 5th and 104th.#2 or #3 train to 110th Street and Lenox Avenue, walk one block east to Fifth Avenue, then south to 104th Street. Entrance on the corner of 5th and 104th.BusM1, M3, M4 northbound on Madison Avenue or southbound on Fifth Avenue to 104th Street. Entrance on the corner of 5th and 104th.CarTriboro Bridge - Take FDR south, exit at 106th Street to Fifth Avenue. George Washington Bridge - Take Harlem River Drive to FDR south, exit at 106th Street to Fifth Avenue. Cross-Bronx Expressway - Take 87 south, exit at 138th Street Bridge, follow signs to Fifth Avenue. Entrance on the corner of 5th and 104th.

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Musings on Estelle Parsons, Dara Torres and Dynasty Handbag

12:09 PM / Posted by Ashley / comments (0)

My thoughts are usually non sequitur but the musings below are abstractly connected... I swear...

I've been thinking a lot about our society's standards of beauty and ageism. I've been thinking about the emphasis, at least within the communities that I'm in (which of course reflects society at large), put on the young women who by 18 must be in the best shape of their lives (it's all "downhill" from there apparently) and at the peak of their sexuality. I've been thinking about the messages we send our teenage girls... "Sex sells! Show some more skin to get attention" and when the young women follow the "sex sells mentality" (ie: "racy Internet pictures/youtube videos" etc.) everybody loves to blame them and use them as prime examples of the "decline of morality in the country". Regardless of what happens, these girls are examples of "what not to do/be"and by the ripe old age of 25 are tossed away.

Last night I saw a video of a performance by Dynasty Handbag called 'bags' ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jGrS0NSIPo ) in an EmergeNYC seminar given by Jose Munoz. I had seen Dynasty Handbag perform live awhile back but had never had the opportunity to contextualize it. Well, after our discussion tonight, I can't wait for more. For me, this performance really represented this idea that you are tossed around like a piece of trash, by people (who are, in fact, represented by plastic bags... pieces of trash) and the power relationships that you have with specific people. Is there room for creative/artistic/personal development in the "real world"? Should there be? These are the larger questions that this performance raised for me. As a product of this specific socialization, you are told who you are, what you should be and what you need to be. It reminds me of the issues raised in a brilliant show playing at the Minetta Lane Theater called "The Adding Machine". If you haven't seen it yet... RUN! It's worth it.

I've recently started a health kick, inspired by Estelle Parsons and Dara Torres. My goal is not necessarily to drop weight, but simply to get into damn good shape. A few days ago I came across an article in the New York Times by David Belcher about Estelle Parsons, the current lead in "August: Osage County" on Broadway. She is in stellar shape at 81! And of course there is one of my favorite Olympic Athletes, Dara Torres who, at 41 is competing in her 5th Olympics in swimming (Dara Torres - http://daratorres.com/bio.php). Not gonna lie, whenever I see her I think to myself... there is no excuse to not hit the gym.

This is a mighty long introduction to the article below. I hope you are as inspired by her as I am!


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From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/theater/29estelle.html?_r=2&8dpc&oref=slogin&oref=slogin#

July 29, 2008
The Role Is a Workout, but She’s Fit
By DAVID BELCHER


Estelle Parsons tears up the staircase in the haunted dollhouse of a set in the Broadway production of “August: Osage County” with the nimbleness of an Olympian. For the next several months this 80-year-old Oscar-winning actress will inhabit the physically demanding role of Violet Weston, the drug-ravaged matriarch of “August,” Tracy Letts’s Tony Award-winning play.
Her stamina may be a tribute to a lifetime of simple physical fitness for Ms. Parsons, who will turn 81 in November while finishing her six-month contract. She lifts weights and swims, she said, and has hiked the backwoods of her native New England for most of her life. She hasn’t smoked in many years and rarely drinks. She almost never eats red meat, save for the occasional lamb chop. She started practicing yoga about 30 years ago. She is the antithesis of Violet, whose self-destructive rampage gives “August: Osage County” its squirming core.
“Here I am, Miss Healthy, fit Swedish flicka playing this drug addict,” she said last week, wearing workout clothes in her apartment on the Upper West Side. “But this play is very physical. It’s closer to Restoration comedy or French farce, so you have to go out and really deliver the goods at every performance.”
As Violet, a mother who tosses back painkillers as if they were Flintstones vitamins, Ms. Parsons spends 90 minutes of the 3-hour-and-20-minute play onstage and goes up or down the three-story set for a total of 352 steps during each performance. At a time that most actresses her age would be happy to spend 15 minutes on Broadway in a couple of wheel-Grandma-out-for-a-song numbers, Ms. Parsons is tackling one of the most shrewish, complex mothers to terrorize a Broadway stage in decades — part Mary Tyrone, part Momma Rose.
“She is certainly giving a performance to remember,” Charles Isherwood recently wrote in The New York Times, “one that may prove to be a crowning moment in an illustrious career.”
Taking on this role would be a challenge at any age, considering that the 68-year-old Deanna Dunagan, who won a Tony Award in June for originating the role, cited exhaustion in her decision to leave the production. Ms. Parsons must navigate two sets of stairs (the stage depicts the Weston family’s sprawling Oklahoma house), smoke cigarettes, argue with pretty much everyone onstage, dance to an Eric Clapton song and verbally eviscerate 10 other characters in a family dinner scene.
“I think it’s had an effect on my psyche because every one of those scenes is one that I don’t want to have in my own life,” Ms. Parsons said. “Violet doesn’t want to sit down and be interrogated. Every scene is something she really doesn’t want to have, except when she’s drugged out, and then she seems to be comfortable.”
For Ms. Parsons being comfortable means being active. In addition to her weight lifting and swimming (she swims for 30 minutes twice a week), she goes on 30-minute bike rides on two other days. She takes a break from exercise on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when she has two performances. At her summer home upstate, she also rides her bike or hikes or swims on Mondays, her day off. She played tennis for years and still cross-country skis. And she does yoga in her dressing room and at home whenever she gets a few minutes.
“I’ve always been a fit person,” Ms. Parsons said. “I’ve been acting all my life, and I’ve always felt you should be in shape. I’m used to devoting my whole life to the work and what it requires.”
That lifelong devotion to performing has rubbed off on her co-star Amy Morton, who plays Barbara, the daughter who takes on Violet. “Estelle has so much stamina and so much energy, and she has stayed working and never retired,” Ms. Morton said. “She’s quite the opposite of Violet, but let’s hope everyone is the opposite of that character.”
Ms. Morton, who has portrayed Barbara since “August: Osage County” had its premiere at the Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago last summer and is onstage longer than any other character, understands a thing or two about how grueling the play can be to perform.
“I don’t know that I’ll be able to do this play at 80,” Ms. Morton said. “And Estelle didn’t have the luxury of the rehearsal process that the original cast had. Most of her rehearsals for three weeks was blocking with the understudies. She was just sort of thrown onstage.”
Being in shape took on a new meaning for Ms. Parsons after she won a supporting-actress Oscar in 1968 for “Bonnie and Clyde,” playing Clyde’s sister-in-law.
“I started doing a lot of hiking after ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ because I just had to run away,” she said. “It’s very hard when you’re in a movie that big. You become notorious, and people often bothered me in public.”
This led her to the Appalachian Mountain Club, an outdoors group. “Those people I hiked with hardly ever knew who I was,” she said. “Maybe they didn’t go to the movies. It was just a completely different orientation.”
She and her husband, the lawyer Peter Zimroth, have been fitness enthusiasts for years now. This commitment is part of a lifelong routine handed down from her self-proclaimed “Swedish peasant” roots. It has also led to a balance of city and country living.
“The outdoor activity is great fun, and it’s such a change from urban life,” she said. “But listen, I’m a theater person. I’m not going to give up my life to go sit in the woods.”
When her fellow Steppenwolf alumnae Laurie Metcalf and Rondi Reed (who also won a Tony for “August: Osage County”) suggested the role of Violet to her over lunch one day, Ms. Parsons said she hesitated but was thrilled with the idea of returning to Broadway.
“After meeting Deanna backstage after I signed on, I called my agent and asked, ‘Listen, am I a lamb being led to the slaughter?’ ” Ms. Parsons recalled. “Deanna seemed to think that doing eight shows a week was nearly impossible.”
But after more than a month in the role, Ms. Parsons says she’s up for the challenge.
“Estelle doesn’t even consider this role daunting,” Ms. Morton said. “She considers it fun. She’s always amazed that people say that she should be exhausted.”
Ms. Parsons doesn’t want to dwell on the physical demands of the role, however, and shrugs off the notion that it is a feat for an octogenarian.
“I don’t like to feel like a freak,” she said. “I don’t want people coming to the show just to see what an 80-year-old looks like onstage. Isn’t that what actresses do? They just keep on working.”

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Summer 2008 Update

11:10 PM / Posted by Ashley / comments (0)

In the midst of all these things... I still need to find a "money job".

Lots of projects in process. I am getting ready to work on directing a play for Manhattan Theatre Source's Estrogenius Festival in October ( http://www.theatresource.org/estro.htm ). I haven't found out yet which play they've given me but I know the four possibilities. I recently interviewed with the Artistic Director of the American Theatre of Actors, James Jennings, last week to talk about potential directing gigs. He gave me several plays to read. If all goes well, I will be directing three shows there per season.

COTE is going well. We're in the middle of our "Summer Park Meet-ups", where we gather in Washington Square Park on Monday nights at 7pm and read plays/play theatre games. We'll be continuing through August where we'll be reading submissions of works in progress that playwrights/screenwriters have been sending to us. We have an exciting season planned for 2008-09. We'll be announcing it in August as soon as we hear back from the rights/royalties and theatre rental spaces. This week we're deciding on the final selection of one-acts that we'll be presenting in September at The Tank.

Auditions have been a little slow these past few weeks post Springboard. I've had about two per week but there is nothing more that I am really right for. I know this will pick up in September. In the meantime, it's given me the opportunity to work on my solo-performance/photography/visual art instillation piece that I'm working on through the Hemispheric Institutes's EmergeNYC Lab called, "What to Do In case You Miss the Rapture", which is basically an exploration into the current "end times/apocalyptic" obsession that Americans have. I'm collecting interviews/stories/writings/drawings from all different types.

My EmergeNYC Colleague Beatrice is working on a fantastic action (please see details below). If you are in the NYC area on July 16th, you definitely should come and participate.

*****

Dearest Friendly Friends,

I am creating a viral, collaborative piece, “Crime on13th,” for the Hemispheric Institute’s EmergeNYC commission that will be shown this October in New York (yes, I will be living in Peru by then) and am sincerely asking for your participation.
I have been compiling different NYC Crime Maps like“Death by Lover,” “Death by Sibling,” “Death byStranger,” “Stabbing,” “Gunshot,” “Robbery” etc. Ihave restricted the time frame to 2004-Present (the time I have lived here). Contrary to popular belief ofEast Village’s façade as a safe neighborhood, I foundthat the 13th Street that I lived on to be quite thehaunted path…with bodies in trunks...rapists on theloose and…! I have had an intruder in my bedroom aswell as suffer a horrific chase.
Therefore, I would like to involve everyone in a WHISTLE BLOWING 'vigil.' Each one of us will bestationed at a specific crime scene with a whistle. Starting in Alphabet City, the whistle-shrieks willform a sound-chain through violated spaces indomino-effect until reaching Broadway by Grace Church.
Please respond if you would like to participate or ifyou have a story to share. Ideally, I am looking for25 whistler blowers to cover the grounds. It willhappen on Wednesday July 16th at 8:30 PM. We willmeet at 8 PM to take positions and distributewhistles. Credit will be given to participants.

THANKSA BUNCH and I hope to see everyone before I leave!

Positivity, love, luck,
Beatrice

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Callbacks, Solo Performance and EMERGENYC!

11:49 PM / Posted by Ashley / comments (0)

I have a callback tomorrow for the National Children's Theatre tour tomorrow. Looking forward. I recently have had my 4th callback for Mrs. Lascalzo in "The Awesome 80's Prom" Off Broadway. Lot's of callbacks... hoping to book something soon!

I can't stress enough how thrilled I am to be involved in the Hemispheric Institute's EMERGENYC 2008 (http://hemisphericinstitute.org/emergenyc/) . In just 3 meetings, I've really felt myself stretching as an artist and performer. It's also given me a rich foundation to work from for my next directing projects. We've been working on a lot of Boal technique with George Sanchez and have had some fantastic workshops with Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Patricia Hoffbauer. I'm looking forward to working with Reverend Billy at the end of the month, among others. The other artists in the group are insanely talented and dynamic. I can't wait to see how the final performance is going to turn out in November, especially since the work thus far has been fantastic.

I know that I will be continuing the solo performance piece I started working on with Karen Finley this semester called "What to do In case You Miss the Rapture (... and other apocalyptic tales)". It started out as a response to my experiences within the Evangelical community and looking specifically at the beliefs in "end times" and eschatology... all of those fine topics. It actually was inspired by a pamphlet that a church group handed me in Times Square last summer called "What to Do In case You Miss the Rapture"... it's a bizarre little pamphlet complete with drawings and inscriptions ... and I knew it would make a fabulous theatre piece in the future, so there. The topic has broadened since last summer though to include testimony from people of many religious orientations. Currently, it's a response to our culture's dooms day obsession. I've edited several interviews (enough to have about 15 minutes worth of material) but I have an outline and will continue working on it this summer and have it done (or at least have a workshop ready script) by the time EMERGENYC is finished.

I'm currently directing a short piece in a theatre festival at Theatre for a New City coming up on Memorial Day Weekend. This is actually a very exciting collaboration. I will be directing performance artist Katherine Adamenko (http://www.ladypants.com/) in a short piece from a new play called "Halma and Raina" by Issak Esmail Issak . The play was produced in Iran last year (an incredible story) and has had productions in other countries outside of the US (Norway and Canada, I believe). We're hoping to get it picked up in NYC. Katherine is a founding member of a new feminist performance artist group called Estrogen Radical Artists (ERA) (http://www.myspace.com/EstrogenRadicalArtists) which I can't wait to see get itself off the ground.... definitely a much needed initiative.

I saw a great show last night at the Women's Project (http://www.womensproject.org/07-08_season.htm) called CroOked by Catherine Trieschmann and directed by Liz Diamond. It was absolutely beautiful and moving (my kind of play). Trieschmann tackles some heavy issues, very realistically and poignantly. I highly recommend it. As soon as Co-Op Theatre East has enough money to buy rights (pretty soon! hehe) this is a show that I NEED to direct. It's a "coming of age" story with some very contemporary twists. I'm pretty sure this is its last week. Anyway, be on the lookout for future productions. The cast was great too!

Oh, and I'm now *officially* a "Master of Performance Studies" ... so, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you may need a "Master of Performance Studies", you know where to find her.



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