Performance Ideas
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Myth and the Contemporary, Dec. 11, 7:30 pm
Panelists: Meredith Monk,, John Jesurun,, Mary Lucier, Eiko Otake, Theodora Skiptares,
Moderator: Bonnie Marranca

Meredith Monk is a composer, choreographer, singer, creator of new opera, musical theatre works, films, and installations. A pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance,” she has created more than 100 works. She is a recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Monk has made more than a dozen recordings, and her music has been heard in numerous films.

Mary Lucier has been a sculptor, photographer, and performance artist before turning to video in the early seventies. Her video pieces are widely exhibited in museums and galleries in the U. S. and abroad. Among her many works are Ohio at Giverny, Last Rites (Positano), Noah’s Raven, and House by the Water. Mary Lucier is represented in the current Whitney Museum exhibition entitled Into the Light.

Eiko Otake is one half of the dance partnership known as Eiko and Koma who choreograph and perform only their own works. Since leaving their native Japan almost three decades ago, they have presented their works at theatres, universities, museums, galleries and festivals across North America, Europe, and Asia. Recently, they premiered a new piece, Be With, in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Anna Halprin and Joan Jeanrenaud, a former member of Kronos Quartet, at the Kennedy Center in Washington. In January it will be seen at the Joyce Theatre.

John Jesurun is a playwright, director, and media artist. Among his many plays are Deep Sleep and fifty-two pisodes of his serial play Chang In a Void Moon. His White Water is currently running in Mexico City. The End of Cinematics, an opera in collaboration with composer Mikel Rouse, premieres in fall 2002 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. His new media work, Virtual Actor, made in collaboration with scientists from Bell Labs, will be presented in December as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Arts in Multimedia program.

Theodora Skipitares is a visual artist and theater director who has been working for more than two decades in New York. She began as an autobiographical solo performer before incorporating realistic puppet figures, original music scores, film and video in larger theatre works that examined historical and social themes. Recently, she has been working in Vietnam and India. Next month, she will travel to Cambodia where, with La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart, she will create an opera with life-size shadow puppets. Along with Dan Hurlin, she is co-director of the Arts at St. Ann’s Puppetry Lab.

Bonnie Marranca, Moderator.
She is the author of Ecologies of Theatre and Theatrewitings, and editor of several anthologies, including Conversations on Art and Performance, Plays for the End of the Century, and The Theatre of Images.

This project is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs Challenge Program, The New York State Council on the Arts and Ellynne Skove. Special thanks to Barbara Dufty of Meredith Monk/The House Foundation for the Arts and to the Location One staff for their technical and administrative support.