James and I went to the Irish Hunger Memorial today to see an excerpt of The Voyage of Garbhglas by Christopher Williams courtesy of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

The video above is a short segment of the 30-minute performance. I've also added one photo, and you can see more in my flickr set.

Never miss a chance to see this choreographer's work. His 3-hour work The Golden Legend at Dance Theater Workshop was funny, moving, and brilliant.

Details:

Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City, 290 Vesey Street at North End Avenue

Monday, August 2, 2010, 12:30–1PM
Tuesday, August 3, 2010, 12:30–1PM
Wednesday, August 4, 2010, 12:30–1PM
Thursday, August 5, 2010, 12:30–1PM

Did you catch the (textual) Allen Ginsberg reference near the beginning?

James and I re-watched the DVD for this tonight. Visit the composer's site for a synopsis. We both consider him one of the great geniuses of 20th century music, and think he should be much more famous.

Elliott Lynch and Sara Shaylie. Photo by Usry Alleyne

I'm doing a little writing about the Movement Research Festival going on right now on their Critical Correspondence site. I wrote about the appearance at Catch 30 of my new favorite dance / theater artist working in Minneapolis: Elliott Durko Lynch.

Check it out.

The photo above is of a performance in Minneapolis from the amazing mnartists.org website. He has a YouTube channel too.

Regular readers of this blog have seen many mentions of the theater company The Civilians. Their latest benefit is Monday, May 12th. Come join me and James at this fun event.

Update: I forgot to mention that Mary Testa and Celia Keenan-Bolger will be among the performers, and that the silent auction is likely to have some good art in it. I know that Mixed Greens is donating some pieces.

Paris Commune II Communards in the South Pacific

Monday,May 12, 8 PM to 1 AM, Performance at 9 PM
Element Nightclub, 225 East Houston Street
@ Essex Street / Avenue A, New York, NY 10002

Enjoy drinks and dancing in this trendy Lower East Side club, surrounded byThe CiviliansÂ’ artists, friends, and supporters. This Benefit event will include complimentary sponsored drinks, full cash bar, light hors dÂ’oeuvres, and an exciting silent auction.

In honor of our production of Paris Commune at the Public Theater, the company will perform a special sequel to the revolution. Following the Communards (in song) from life in the streets of Paris to exile on the French Polynesian island of New Caledonia, this one-time only event is guaranteed to prove that the fight (and the show) must go on.

Tickets $25 to $150. R.S.V.P. at www.thecivilians.org or by calling (212)-730-2019.

Meghan McGeary as Hannah

I wrote about an extraordinary musical theater work called "The Blue Flower" in early 2003. A quote:

The historical context and references range from the events leading to WW I, the Weimar Republic, a fictionalized menage of Franz Marc, Max Beckmann, Hannah Höch, and Marie Curie, plus Dada. Part of it takes place at the Cabaret Voltaire -- the last time Zurich was really interesting.

There is a new production running through March 2nd at The West End Theater (86th and Broadway). Visit www.theblueflower.org or go here to buy tickets.

Visit their myspace page to hear some of the music.

[the image above is from the Blue Flower's website]

James and I don't only follow the purely visual arts. We attend a lot of theater, dance, and other performance. The next few weeks have a lot of things of interest. I'll do several posts with recommendations, but this one is really important, and has a visual component too. Come see it with us on the 1st.

Ensemble Pi: The Rest is Silence

Saturday March 1st, 2008 at 8pm
Tickets at the door $15.

Venue:
The Great Hall at Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
map

Program:

• William Kentridge, Philip Miller: Two Shorts from Nine Projections featuring a live performance of original score for string quartet, trumpet and piano (2003)
• Frederic Rzewski: Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier, for piano (2003) U.S. premiere
• John Harbison: Abu Ghraib, for cello and piano (2006) N.Y. premiere
• Kristin Norderval: Far From Home, for two voices and computer-generated sound (2007)
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano trio No 2 in E minor, opus 67 (1944)

Guest Speaker: Naomi Wolf, author: The End of America

[image at top is Eyal Danieli, invitation for Ensemble Pi]

Tonight we saw the final perfomance of "Cats on Broadway" from the Bruce High Quality Foundation. That's our friend Matthew Lutz-Kinoy above in the Hasidic cat outfit. This was during the "Bohemian Rhapsody" section. At the end of the performance, the space is transformed into an American Aprrrrrrrl store as the ultimate symbol of gentrification.

Check out my flickr set for more photos.

As we move into the middle of August and Chelsea starts shutting down for the month, there are still some interesting things happening, especially related to performance. There are 2 events tomorrow I recommend:

• 4pm: A walk-thru of the exhibition with private dealer Betsey Geffen, aka Charley Friedman as part of Ceci n'est pas... (This is not...) at Sara Meltzer Gallery
• All day: "An improvisational dance performance by Felicia Ballos and Flora Wiegman. Staged in the midst of demolishing the exhibition format of Part One and constructing the setting for Part Two, the performance takes inspiration from the actions performed by the gallery workers, with each dancer creating her movements in response. " This is part of Carte Blanche at Elizabeth Dee Gallery.

See! I told you to go. Time Out NY loves it. We're seeing it tonight (Thursday).

Yet no mere catalog of the showÂ’s selling points can do justice to its overall effect. Some of the stories involve the seemingly insignificant disappearance of small objects; others treat the loss of graver things like language, parts of dead bodies and, in FriedmanÂ’s songs, romantic attachment. These disparate tales are crafted into a mosaic whose abstract design is visible from afar, yet whose constituent parts retain their particularity. At once erudite and democratic, Gone Missing is not merely a witty, quick-footed and entertaining evening of theater; it is also a finely tuned inquiry into the nature of memory that manages to be forward-looking at the same time. Gone MissingÂ’s links between past and present provide clear evidence of evolution in the world of modern theater. Miss it and weep.

I wrote about this excellent short work when we saw it in March. Now there is another chance to see it. It will be the best five bucks you spend this summer!

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The Hellenic Laboratory, a collection of works of Greek drama, poetry, and philosophy, continues for one-night only!

Monday, June 25th @ 7:30pm, Tickets only $5
The Kitchen 512 West 19th St (btw 10/11 Ave)
To reserve tickets call 212-255-5793 ×11

(more) MEZE, an evening of five short pieces to whet your appetite