This year PRELUDE is organized around the idea of “Why Does Live Matter”? And that has been organized into subcategories of investigation. Check it out below and check out the full line-up and information at preludenyc.org.

COMMUNICATION

Where exchange becomes communitas that intense community spirit binding an otherwise unstructured collective of individuals together in equality, solidarity and togetherness. The question we pose to this group of artists are: How are your live performances more than simply the exchange of ideas, expressions of your thoughts, or broadcast reflections of our world and our places in it?

• Live Writers
• Joyce Cho
• Robert Quillen Camp
• Hoi Polloi
• Trajal Harrell
• The TEAM

PROVOCATION

The artists represented in this group use provocation techniques from subtle aesthetic interrogation to overt shock tactics, all the while attempting to activate overstimulated city dwellers and provoke a change in mental direction. The questions we have for them are: Are they successful? What makes live performance their ideal vehicle for cultural or personal revolution?

• HERE
• Aaron Landsman
• The Field
• Julie Atlas Muz
• Jim Findlay
• Penny Arcade
• Ishmael Houston-Jones

SIMULATION

One is living the simulacra when the simulation becomes so believable a person, a group, or even an entire nation loses hold of the difference between the simulation and “reality”. The question we pose to these artists is: How can the digital tools of simulation be used to both trick us live audience members into losing our hold on “reality” in the spaces of performance, and at the same time reveal to us the losses that we experience in the spaces of our everyday?

• Joe Silovsky
• Kimon Keramidas
• Reid Farrington
• Andrew Schneider
• Reggie Watts
• DJ Spooky

SPOTLIGHT: CATALONIA

SPOTLIGHT: CATALONIA will showcase the work of contemporary Catalan theater artists, in collaboration with New York directors and translators. Prelude welcomes Barcelona-based writers and will present excerpts of Solavaya by Àngels Aymar (dir. HIllary Spector/trans. Caridad Svich), Offside by Sergi Belbel (dir. Mallory Catlett/trans. Marion Peter Holt), Girls Shouldn’t Play Soccer by Marta Buchaca (dir. May Adrales/trans. Rowan Ricardo Phillips) and Against Progress by Esteve Soler (dir. Dan Safer/trans. Hillary Gardner) Plus, a full reading series to be hosted by The Lark, New Georges, Repertorio Español & La MaMa.Presented in partnership with The Institut Ramon Llull, with additional support from Sala Beckett

• Àngels Aymar
• Sergi Belbel
• Marta Buchaca
• Esteve Soler

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This Thursday, Sept. 2, 6:30 pm at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th St.) French theatre scholar Sophie Proust will offer an overview of her research-in-progress on contemporary U.S. creative process in theatre undertaken in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.

Sophie Proust has observed the rehearsal processes of a collection of significant U.S. theatre artists, including Elizabeth LeCompte (The Wooster Group), Judith Malina (The Living Theatre), Caden Manson and Jemma Nelson (The Big Art Group), John Collins (Elevator Repair Service), Dan Rothenberg (PIG IRON COMPANY from Philadelphia) at The Play Company, Brad Krumholz (NACL: North American Cultural Laboratory), in New York, Aimée Hayes at the Southern Rep, Kathy Randels and Ashley Sparks (ArtSpotProductions), Shad Willingham (Tulane University), Anthony Bean (ABCT; Anthony Bean Community Theater) in New Orleans, Debbie MacMahon (Grand Guignolers) at the Actors’ Gang, Jon Lawrence Rivera at the East West Players, Derick LaSalla at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center in Los Angeles, Wilma Bonet (The San Francisco Mime Troupe), Rob Ready (Pianofight’s) at the Off-Markets Theaters in San Francisco. In addition to observing these directors at work, she interviewed Elizabeth LeCompte (Wooster Group), Judith Malina (Living Theatre), Caden Manson and Jemma Nelson (Big Art Group), Richard Foreman, Richard Schechner, the choreographer and programmer of ISADORA Mark Coniglio in New York, the choreographer Kay Cole, the artistic director of LACT José Valenzuela, Peter Sellars, Lawrence Rivera, Tim Dang (artistic director of East West Players), in Los Angeles, Rob Ready, Michael Sullivan, Wilma Bonet in San Francisco, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott and Chuck Smith and Robert Falls (Goodman Theatre), Ann Filmer (16th Street Theatre at the Steppenwolf Theatre), the Central Regional Director of Actors’ Equity, Kathryn Lamkey, in Chicago. In addition to observing these directors at work, she interviewed Elizabeth LeCompte (Wooster Group), Judith Malina (Living Theatre), Caden Manson and Jemma Nelson (Big Art Group), Richard Foreman, Richard Schechner, the choreographer and programmer of ISADORA Mark Coniglio in New York, the choreographer Kay Cole, the artistic director of LACT José Valenzuela, Peter Sellars, Lawrence Rivera, Tim Dang (artistic director of East West Players) in Los Angeles, Rob Ready, Michael Sullivan, Wilma Bonet in San Francisco, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith and Robert Falls (Goodman Theatre), Ann Filmer (16th Street Theatre at the Steppenwolf Theatre), the Central Regional Director of Actors’ Equity Kathryn Lamkey, in Chicago, and others.

In her presentation at the Segal Center Sophie Proust will give an overview of her research-in-progress and engage in a discussion.

SOPHIE PROUST is Associate Professor in Theatre Studies and a researcher at the CEAC at the University of Lille 3 (France) as well as associate researcher at the CNRS (ARIAS). She is the Francophone General Secretary of the IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research) and co-convener with Josette Féral of the IFTR’s working group on the creative process. She is author of La direction d’acteurs dans la mise en scène théâtrale contemporaine [Directing Actors in Contemporary Drama] (L’Entretemps, 2006), with a preface by Patrice Pavis. As a working theatre artist, she has been an assistant director to Yves Beaunesne, Denis Marleau and Matthias Langhoff. In addition, she served an internship as an observer for one of Robert Wilson’s productions. Her research focuses on the process of theatrical creation (rehearsals, dramaturgy, directing actors, notation of the theatrical work, authors’ rights.) From 2008 to 2010, she is a Visiting Scholar in New York, invited by Marvin Carlson then Daniel Gerould, at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (CUNY), in order to pursue her research on the creative process. She is also a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. Proust is currently working a book project entitled The Creative Process of US Stage Directors.

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The Polish Cultural Institute and Martin E. Segal Theatre Center present

An evening with TR WARSZAWA’s Artistic Director GRZEGORZ JARZYNA

The Polish Cultural Institute and Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, the Graduate Center, CUNY, present an evening with Grzegorz Jarzyna, Poland’s famous director of theater and opera, and Artistic Director of TR Warszawa, one of the country’s most consistently astonishing theater groups. Jarzyna will discuss his work with Susan Feldman, Artistic Director of St. Ann’s Warehouse. The evening will include a DVD presentation of excerpts from Jarzyna’s previous acclaimed performances.

Monday, May 12, 2008, 6:30 PM

Martin E. Segal Theatre Center

The Graduate Center, CUNY

365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016

tel. 212.817.1860

Admission Free!!

St Ann’s Warehouse will present the US premiere of Jarzyna’s Macbeth at the Tobacco Warehouse, Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park on June 17 (12 performances total, June 17-29, 2008).

“A master of suspense, the heir of Hitchcock, Jarzyna composes his performances like movies.”– Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“The best international theater New York still needs to see.” – The Village Voice

>>>MORE ON GRZEGORZ JARZYNA

>>>MORE ON TR WARSZAWA

>>>MORE ON UPCOMING MACBETH AT ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE

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