Prelude 2018 Save the Date

By Michael LoCicero | Published: July 19, 2018

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Presents
PRELUDE 2018 — OCTOBER 4, 5 and 6
SAVE THE DATE

(New York, NY. July 18, 2018) The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents the annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 4, 5, and 6 at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).

The Segal Center’s PRELUDE FESTIVAL, dedicated to artists at the forefront of contemporary New York City theatre and performance, will be curated for the second year by the Public Theater’s Director of Devised Theater Initiative, Andrew Kircher in collaboration with Frank Hentschker. This year, PRELUDE will be produced by Alyssa Simmons.

Panels, workshops, and performances will provide audiences access to work-in-progress presentations that will premiere in this or future seasons.

Since 2003, the PRELUDE FESTIVAL has given audiences a fast-paced, first look at new work and ideas by groundbreaking New York theatre and performance artists by presenting brief readings, mini-performances, installations, panels, and discussions featuring some of New York City’s most thought-provoking performance artists and companies. PRELUDE has presented more than 300 emerging artists, including: Sarah Benson, Big Art Group, Cynthia Hopkins, Young Jean Lee, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and 600 HIGHWAYMEN alongside legendary figures like Richard Foreman, Marina Abramovic, Mabou Mines, Charles Mee, and many more.

PRELUDE remains the only festival of its kind in New York City that remains completely free and open to the public.

Full festival schedule to be announced in early September. For updates, please visit www.PreludeNYC.org.

All PRELUDE events are presented at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, New York, NY 10016. All are free of charge and open to the public. First come, first served. All programs are subject to change.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a non-profit center for theatre, dance, and film affiliated with CUNY’s Ph.D. Program in Theatre. The Center’s mission is to bridge the gap between academia and the professional performing arts communities both within the United States and internationally.

www.theSegalCenter.org

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Announcing PEN World Voices International Play Festival April 16, 17, 21

By Michael LoCicero | Published: March 29, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Paloma Estevez
pestevez@gc.cuny.edu

 

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Announces
The 2018 PEN World Voices International Play Festival
10 playwrights, 10 countries, 4 continents, 3 days.

Running April 16, 17 and 21 at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, the 2018 PEN World Voices International Play Festival features staged readings by ten internationally acclaimed playwrights. All readings are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

MONDAY, APRIL 16 l TUESDAY, APRIL 17 l SATURDAY, APRIL 21
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center,
The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street
www.TheSegalCenter.org

 

(March 29, 2018, New York, NY) The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is happy to announce the full line-up of its annual PEN World Voices International Play Festival. As part of the 2018 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, the International Play Festival will showcase play readings by ten voices from around the globe. With playwrights hailing from four different continents, the Festival aims to enrich awareness of global dialogues, by bridging American audiences and international theatre-makers. All readings will be followed by discussion with the playwrights and directors.

“Programming this year was inspired by the shifting power of politics, the rise of right conservatism in Europe and the U.S, the humanitarian crisis in Syria, amongst other pressing issues. We envision that in bringing diverse stories, we will be able to understand who we are. In the service of International exchange, artistic programming becomes an imperative responsibility in the midst of our current political climate. If we do not do this now, then when?” says Frank Hentschker, Segal Center Executive Director and festival founder.

The 2018 Festival’s program features work by: MAGALI MOUGEL (France), MIHAELA DRĂGAN (Romania), STEFANO MASSINI (Italy), LIWAA YAZJI (Syria), ARISTIDE TARNAGDA (Burkina Faso), ELFRIEDE JELINEK (Austria), WEI YU-CHIA (Taiwan), EDOUARD ELVIS BVOUMA (Cameroon), ANA LUZ ORMAZABAL (Chile), and YONATAN LEVY (Israel).

Founded in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts with the aim of broadening channels of dialogue between the U.S. and the world, PEN World Voices is the only international literary festival in America, and the only one in the world with a human rights focus. Since its founding, PEN World Voices has presented more than 1,500 writers and artists from 118 countries, speaking 56 languages.

The 2018 PEN World Voices International Play Festival has been made possible by the support of Susan and Jack Rudin(†) and Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Chair, The Graduate Center CUNY.

The PEN World Voices International Play Festival was conceived and created by Frank Hentschker in 2005. 2018 Festival Producer, Yu Chien Liu. Festival Curator: Frank Hentschker

For further information on the 2018 PEN World Voices International Play Festival, and all of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center’s ongoing programming, please visit www.thesegalcenter.org.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York,
365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street. Subway: Herald Square, lines B, D, F, M, N, Q, R.
www.theSegalCenter.org. Info: 212-817-1860.

 

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:

MONDAY, APRIL 16 — SEGAL THEATRE

4:00pm
SUZY STORCK | Magali Mougel (France)
Translated by Chris Campbell.
Directed by Sara Rademacher.
Another unbearably hot evening. Suzy Storck sits by the window. A glass of wine. A bottle. Three. Her husband has left. Maybe he’s coming home. Maybe he’s not. The radio buzzes. And still, the sun will just not set.

6:00pm
DEL DUMA / TELL THEM ABOUT ME! | Mihaela Drăgan (Romania)
Translated by Claudia Campeanu.
Directed by George Eli.
Real stories about how four Roma women deal with life, social pressure, early marriage and dreams of escape. A serious solo-comedy performed by the Roma author.

8:00pm
INTRACTABLE WOMAN | Stefano Massini (Italy)
Translated by Paula Wing.
Directed by TBA
A “theatrical memorandum” on Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian activist-journalist who exposed details of Russia’s war in Chechnya and fought government suppression, before her ruthless killing. In 2002, she was awarded the PEN Center USA Freedom to Write Award. In association with The Play Company, New York and Umanism NY (Valeria Orani, Director) as part of the Italian Playwrights Project. With additional support from Italian Cultural institute (Giorgio Van Straten, Director).

TUESDAY, APRIL 17 — SEGAL THEATRE

4:00pm
GOATS | Liwaa Yazji (Syria)
Translated by Katharine Halls.
Directed by Zishan Urgulu.
As the coffins pile up in a small town in Syria, a party leader decides to offer a goat for each martyred son. A father learns the hard way about the surreal reality of politics, war, martyrdom, and life. Presented with additional support from South-South Forum at Dartmouth College, Eman S. Morsi.

6:00pm
WAYS OF LOVING | Aristide Tarnagda (Burkina Faso)
Translated by Heather Jeanne Denyer.
Directed by Kareem Fahmy
Accused of murder, a woman dreams of the sun, the hills, and the wind while facing trial. She has no right hand with which to promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

8:00pm
ON THE ROYAL ROAD: THE BURGHER KING | Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
Translated by Gitta Honegger
Directed by Stefan Dzeparoski
A blind female seer with bleeding eyes, Miss Piggy, channels a confused Tiresias as she tries to get a handle on the bizarre behavior of Donald Trump’s persona.

SATURDAY, APRIL 21 — SEGAL THEATRE

2:00pm
A FABLE FOR NOW | Wei Yu-Chia (Taiwan)
Translated by Jeremy Tiang
Directed by Mei Ann Teo
Tales of war, the environment, and personal regret collide as mankind hurtles towards a surreal apocalypse in the company of a belligerent duck, bears of at least three different varieties, and a truly extraordinary chicken.

4:00pm
IN WAR AS IN GAMES | Edouard Elvis Bvouma (Cameroon)
Translated by Heather Jeanne Denyer
Directed by Gisela Cardenas
As the 2012 brutal siege rages outside, two Palestinian refugees debate the best plan of escape. Set out-side Damascus in the Yarmouk refugee camp, this black tragicomedy reveals the catastrophic absurdity of the Syrian civil war.

6:00pm
AGNETHA KURTZ ROCA METHOD |Ana Luz Ormazábal (Chile)
Translated by Ana Luz Ormazábal
Directed by Amelia Bande
A fictional Chilean philosopher and performance artist returns to her country after 30 years of self-exile. A conference play about language, identity, community, and immigration–both from and to Chile.

8:00pm
SADDAM HUSSEIN – A MYSTERY PLAY I Yonatan Levy (Israel)
Translated by Yonatan Levy & Amir Farjoun
Directed by Amir Farjoun
On the brink of military defeat, Saddam and his doppelgangers retreat to the bunker—and embark upon a spiritual quest. Blending politics, metaphysics, poetry and nonsense, the play follows the tyrant’s initiation into the esoteric secret of oil.

 

ABOUT THE MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER: Originally founded in 1979 as the Center for Advanced Studies in Theatre Arts (CASTA), The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center was renamed in March of 1999 to recognize Martin E. Segal, one of New York City’s outstanding leaders of the arts. The Segal Center curates over thirty events throughout the Spring and Fall academic seasons, all free and open to the public. Dedicated to bridging the gap between the professional and academic theatre communities, the Segal Center presents readings, performance, lectures, and artists and academics in conversation. In addition, the Segal Center presents three annual festivals (PRELUDE, PEN World Voices: International Pay Festival, and The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance) and publishes and maintains three open access online journals (Arab Stages, European Stages, and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre). The Segal Center also publishes many volumes of plays in translation and is the leading publisher of plays from the Arab world. The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a vital component of the Theatre Program’s academic culture and creating in close collaboration a research nexus, focusing on dramaturgy, new media, and global theatre. The Segal Center provides an intimate platform where both artists and theatre professionals can actively participate with audiences to advance awareness and appreciation. www.thesegalcenter.org.

 

 

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2018 Segal Film Festival on Theatre and Performance March 1,2,3

By Michael LoCicero | Published: February 15, 2018

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents
The Fourth Annual
FILM FESTIVAL ON THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE

featuring works by or about:
CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF–JAN FABRE–ARIANE MNOUCHKINE–HEINER MÜLLER– ROMEO CASTELLUCCI–PINA BAUSCH

and many more

THURSDAY, MARCH 1   l   FRIDAY, MARCH 2   l   SATURDAY, MARCH 3

All Day – FREE – First Come, First Served.
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center,
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street
www.TheSegalCenter.org

 

(February 14, 2018, New York, NY) The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center announces the fourth annual Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP). The program includes a roster of more than 35 features, shorts, and documentaries by artists from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, The United Kingdom, and the United States. The festival takes place on Thursday, March 1; Friday, March 2; and Saturday, March 3 at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, located at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, NYC, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street.

 

Featuring films from four continents by:

Günter Atteln/Accentus Music (Germany); Yael Bartana Netherlands/Germany/US); Basav Biradar (India); Giulio Boato (France); Jacqueline Caux (France); Carlos Chahine/Autres Rivages (Lebanon); Jasmina Cibic (Serbia/UK);  Billy Clark, Jason Trucco/CultureHub (US); Eleonora Comelli & Pablo Pintor (Argentina); Nina Conti (UK); Ergao Dance Production Group (China); Ayana Evans/African Body Snatchers-Collaborative (US); Graziano Graziani (Italy); Phil Griffin (UK); Grzegorz Jarzyna (Poland) Rain Kencana (Germany); Rania Lee Khalil (US); Tania El Khoury (UK/Lebanon); Kathrin Krottenthaler, Frieder Schlaich/Filmgalerie 451 (Germany); Tiona Nekkia McClodden (US); Frances McElroy/Shirley Road Productions (US); Brian Mertes/Lake Lucille Chekhov Project (USA); Helina Metaferia (US); Ariane Mnouchkine (France); Avi Mograbi (France/Israel); Motus Theatre Company (Italy); Rima Najdi (Germany/Lebanon); Rithy Panh (Cambodia); Ruth Patir (Israel); Haydn Reiss/Zinc Films (US); robbinschilds + A.L. Steiner (US); Christoph Rüter (Germany); Cauleen Smith, Camille Turner & Jérôme Havre (Canda/US/France); Wim Vandekeybus/Ultima Vez (Belgium); Hu Xiaojiao (China)

 

Film Festival Schedule:
*followed by a discussion

Festival Schedule Thursday, March 1

Ariane Mnouchkine –  The Castaways of the Fol Espoir (France, 2014) 290 minutes
Theatre, Performance | 10:30am | Elebash Recital Hall

A film-crew in the early twentieth century, the cabaret known as Le Fol Espoir has been transformed into an amateur soundstage. The motion picture tells the story of a ship and its passengers–from the famous opera singer down to the petty criminal. The film is an optimistic political fable intended to educate the masses.

Christoph Rüter – The Time is out of Joint (Germany, 1991) 100 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 11:30am | Segal Theatre

From August 29, 1989 until March 24, 1990, Heiner Müller worked with the actors of the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin on the project Hamlet/Maschine, based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (translated by Heiner Müller) and Heiner Müller’s Hamletmaschine. During this period, spurred by the exodus of thousands of East German citizens through Czechoslovakia and Hungary, the “first peaceful German revolution from below” (H. Müller) broke out, setting the process of reunification in motion and leading toward the first democratic parliamentary elections on March 18, 1990. The film, documented over a period of months, describes a challenge never before confronted by a German theatre.

Nina Conti – Her Master’s Voice (UK, 2012) 65 minutes
Puppetry, Documentary | 1:30pm | Segal Theatre

Internationally acclaimed ventriloquist Nina Conti, takes the bereaved puppets of her mentor and erstwhile lover Ken Campbell on a pilgrimage to ‘Venthaven’ the resting place for puppets of dead ventriloquists. She gets to know her latex and wooden travelling partners along the way, and with them deconstructs herself and her lost love in this ventriloquial docu-mocumentary requiem. Ken Campbell was a hugely respected maverick of the British Theatre, an eccentric genius who would snort out forgotten artforms. Nina was his prodigy in ventriloquism and has been said to have reinvented the artform. This film is truly unique in genre and style. No one has seen ventriloquism like this before.

Grzegorz Jarzyna– G.E.N. (Poland, 2017) loop
Theatre, Installation | 2:00pm – 8:00pm | Elebash Recital Hall Lobby

G.E.N. is a story about an alternative community whose members contest reality so as to use provocations to change the system based on fear, manipulation and enslavement of individuals. While attempting to re-stabilize the system, they destroy their own community. Is it possible to log out from a reality that does not work? The performance is a response to Lars von Trier’s The Idiots (1998) about a group of young people who, by pretending to be mentally disabled, ridicule western social standards. G.E.N. is not an attempt to criticize the socio-political system, but rather to reflect on the human nature because, despite civilizational and evolutionary progress, humans do not develop morally. It is a journey across circles of global systems, social and partner relations, through individual psyche, in search for the elementary particle in charge of violence and hatred.

Cauleen Smith, Camille Turner, & Jérôme Havre – Triangle Trade (Canda/US/France, 2017) 15 minutes
Puppetry, Performance | 3:00pm | Segal Theatre

The film features three puppets avatars and three distinct worlds that were created by each of the artists to represent themselves. Animated by the artists and the lm crew, the puppets navigate their distinctive worlds that at once isolate them and offer them the possibility of transformative connection. As the puppets move through their respective landscapes, Havre, Smith, and Turner’s puppets re ect on blackness as a state of becoming, a mode of experience that reaches simultaneously into multiple futures and histories.

Rithy Panh – Les artistes du Théâtre Brûlé (Cambodia, 2005) 82 minutes
Dance, Documentary | 3:30pm | Segal Theatre

While much of Cambodia’s cultural heritage was eradicated through the deaths of many artists during the Khmer Rouge era, the country’s main theatrical structure, Preah Suramarit National Theatre remained standing throughout the Cambodian Civil War, even occasionally being used by the communist regime for official visits and propaganda pageants. Ironically, it was while the theatre was undergoing repairs in 1994 that it caught fire, was heavily damaged and has never been restored. It is in this roofless performance hall that a Khmer classical dance troupe continues to practise daily, and a troupe of actors attempts to produce a Khmer-language adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac on a stage overgrown with weeds.

robbinschilds + A.L. Steiner – C.L.U.E. [Color Location Ultimate Experience] (US, 2007) 11 minutes
Dance, Performance | 4:00pm | Elebash Recital Hall

C.L.U.E. is the gateway to experiencing the ultimate in any surrounding.  A living collective organ, molten, expanding and contracting as it responds to its immediate environment. Curious and open. Red, orange, yellow, forest, aqua, royal, majestic and purple. Guided by the celestial powers of rainbow and light. Finds intrigue not only in the beauty of rock, ash and earth, lake and sea, moss, leaf and open sky, but in the whine of debris, lyric of cement, sorrow of mall and hum of highway. Fluid as water or lava or blood or air, moves through tiny gullies and grooves, tastes to know but leaves behind only what was already there.

Rain Kencana – Send Me a Bigger Butterfly + Goldfish (Germany, 2017) 6 minutes + 3 minutes
Dance, Performance | 4:00pm | Elebash Recital Hall

Send Me a Bigger Butterfly: A dance couple transforms an industrial powerplant into a dreamscape of nostalgic remembrance that mixes up different layers of time and relation. Poem by Pj Wallace.

Goldfish: Ichi Go reveals her ambivalent attitude towards tradition in the modern world as she breaks out through a traditional Japanese garment inside an underground passageway in dance. With a poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa.

Eleonora Comelli & Pablo Pintor – La Playa [The Beach] (Argentina, 2014) 12 minutes
Dance, Performance | 4:00pm | Elebash Recital Hall

The Beach is crossed by THE TIME. The past and future exist together in the same present, in one place. How to adapt a dramatic-body material to the topic over time in the body? How can we transfer the essence of scene material to a film? The Beach was made with the same idea and with the same performers as the choreographic performance called Que azul que es ese mar (That sea is really blue).

Frances McElroy/Shirley Road Productions – Black Ballerina (US, 2016) 53 minutes
Dance, Performance | 5:00pm | Elebash Recital Hall

A film like a labyrinth, created from recent interviews and historical images about the career of director, actor, and playwright Zé Celso, of the Oficina Theater–one of the greatest artistic personalities in the history of Brazil. Set in an unspecific time and without didactic lessons, the film is a powerful flow of images and sounds that leave the spectator in a state of constant attention, ending in a state of grace.

Tiona Nekkia McClodden – KILO | Iba se 99. (US, 2015) 10 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 6:00pm | Segal Theatre

KILO | Iba se 99. takes inspiration from an excerpt of a report produced by the Women’s Bureau division of the United States Department of Labor titled Negro Women War Workers, published in 1945. The film is also an exploration of the relationship between the US Navy Flag signal Kilo which has the assigned message of “I wish to communicate with you”, the first 12 Black women allowed to work on the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1942, and the Orisha Ochosi.

Jasmina Cibic – The Pavilion (Serbia/UK, 2015) 7 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 6:00pm | Segal Theatre

A group of performers attempts to reconstruct the Pavilion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia built for the 1929 Barcelona EXPO. Piecing together fragments of its design based on disappeared and lacking archives, a voice-over describes the methodology of gap-filling from other architectural solutions of modernist political visions of desire, which shared the emblematic design of the Yugoslav Pavilion. By colliding them, The Pavilion points to the universal and timeless optics of authoritarian construction of soft power mechanisms.

Yael Bartana – Inferno (Netherlands/Germany/US, 2013) 22 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 6:00pm | Segal Theatre

The starting point of Inferno is the construction of the “Third Temple of Solomon” in São Paulo by a Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal Church, according to biblical measures. Bartana confronts this conflation of place, history, and belief, and addresses the grandiose temple project through a vision of its future: Does its construction necessarily foreshadow its destruction? Inferno collapses histories of antiquity in the Middle East with a surreal present unfolding halfway around the world.

Ultimate Vez – In Spite of Wishing and Wanting (Belgium, 2002) 47 minutes
Dance, Performance | 6:30pm | Elebash Recital Hall

Dance video based on the eponymous 1999 performance, shot in the atmospheric surroundings of a racetrack in Brussels (BE), the beautiful ballroom-concert hall of the Vooruit Arts Centre in Ghent (BE), the streets of Ferrara (IT) and in Singapore. In Spite of Wishing and Wanting reunites the rhythms of Talking Heads co-founder David Byrne and Wim Vandekeybus’ scenic eclecticism: humorous theatrical sequences, energetic and powerful dance and a diversity of bodies within an all-male cast. Wim Vandekeybus himself trots in as a wild horse between the ten dancers-actors, devastated by their passionate desires.

Phil Griffin – Surrender: the Art of Jan Fabre (UK, 2017) 117 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 7:00pm | Segal Theatre

Jan Fabre is a Belgian artist whose work is never far from controversy. Surrender focuses on his intense preparations for one of the most radical theatre projects of all time: Mount Olympus, a 24 hour performance with 27 actors on stage.

Festival Schedule Friday, March 2

Jacqueline Caux – Out of Boundaries (France, 2004) 20 minutes
Dance, Documentary | 10:30am | Elebash Recital Hall

These films–videotaped conversations and numerous excerpts of rehearsals, performances and rare archival footage–capture fundamental changes made by Anna Halprin in the field of dance as the pioneer of “Post Modern Dance”.  Music by Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley.

Motus Theatre Company – Your Whole Life is a Rehearsal (Italy, 2016) 42 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 12:00pm | Segal Theatre

The documentary was created using a series of unreleased video materials from the rehearsals of The Plot is the Revolution at the Clinton Street Theater in New York in 2011. This film tells the falling in love and the fall of barriers between two companies (Motus and the Living Theatre) and two actors (Silvia Calderoni and Judith Malina) who entered a telepathic symbiosis. 

Hu Xiao Jiao – Nuo·Fate (China, 2017) 26 minutes
Dance, Documentary | 12:00pm | Elebash Recital Hall

A documentary film about dance. It tells the story of Professor Guo Lei of Beijing Dance Academy creating dance drama series based on Nuo culture. Producers and dancers very well explained the ancient Chinese culture Nuo through their vivid and firsthand creating and performing experience.

Graziano Graziani – Pina Bausch a Roma (Italy, 2016) 45 minutes
Dance, Documentary | 1:00pm | Elebash Recital Hall

The movie follows the experience of Pina Bausch in the eternal city to which she dedicated two unforgettable shows, Viktor (1986) and O Dido (1999). Through an interwoven series of treasured interviews –  spanning from Matteo Garrone to Mario Martone, from Vladimir Luxuria to Ninni Romeo, from Leonetta Bentivoglio to Andrés Neumann, from Maurizio Millenotti to Claudia Di Giacomo culminating with the gypsy family Firlović – a portray of the surprising city of Rome emerges as interpreted by Pina Bausch, a city both authentic and anti-conventional: a Rome that is quotidian, scanned by lunches in trattorias, filled with incursions to traditional ballrooms and walks to the city farmers’ market; and a Rome that is underground, spread out to its multiethnic city limits, explored by many visits to the gypsy camps and nocturnal excursions to transgender clubs and the LGBTQ cultural circle.

Basav Biradar – Before the Third Bell (India, 2017) 63 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 2:00pm | Segal Theatre

The film attempts to study contemporary theatre-making in India through the documentation of the creative processes of Muktidham–a play written and directed by Abhishek Majumdar. In today’s social, economic and political context, what does it take to create a collective voice in theatre? How does a theatre company approach collaborations and how do artists with different ideas and sensibilities come together to create a piece of theatre? These are some of the questions the film explores while following the creative journey of Muktidham over a period of four months.

*Grzegorz Jarzyna– G.E.N. (Poland, 2017) loop
Theatre, Installation | 2:00pm – 8:00pm, 5:00pm Talk | Elebash Recital Hall Lobby

G.E.N. is a story about an alternative community whose members contest reality so as to use provocations to change the system based on fear, manipulation and enslavement of individuals. While attempting to re-stabilize the system, they destroy their own community. Is it possible to log out from a reality that does not work? The performance is a response to Lars von Trier’s The Idiots (1998) about a group of young people who, by pretending to be mentally disabled, ridicule western social standards. G.E.N. is not an attempt to criticize the socio-political system, but rather to reflect on the human nature because, despite civilizational and evolutionary progress, humans do not develop morally. It is a journey across circles of global systems, social and partner relations, through individual psyche, in search for the elementary particle in charge of violence and hatred.

Kathrin Krottenthaler/Filmgalerie 451 – CHANCE 2000 – Farewell to Germany (Germany, 2017) 131 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 2:30pm | Elebash Recital Hall

Documentary about Christoph Schlingensief’s legendary election campaign theater project CHANCE 2000.

Carlos Chahine/Autres Rivages – Chekhov in Beirut (Lebanon, 2016) 51 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 3:30pm | Segal Theatre

Upon his return to Lebanon to direct his stage play of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, Carlos Chahine rediscovers his forgotten past. We are taken into the mysterious world of his childhood, sharing the haunting path of exile and the beauty of a lost world.

Ayana Evans/African Body Snatchers-Collaborative – African Body Snatchers (US, 2017) 25 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 5:00pm| Segal Theatre

Carried by the music of David Eugene Edwards, Blush is a dazzling voyage swinging between the heavenly landscapes of Corsica and the slummiest depths of Brussels. The film by Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus is an exploration of the savage subconscious and of conflicting instincts. In dance sequences of attraction, confrontation and repulsion the performers take on animal metamorphoses. 

Helina Metaferia – [Middle] Passage for Dreams (US, 2016/2017) 13 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 5:00pm| Segal Theatre

(Middle) Passage for Dreams is a three channel video project that features black bodies in serene environments while discussing assorted contemporary topics, including notions of empowerment, existentialism, and what it means to be Black in America at this time. Each segment features bodies positioned in benevolent landscapes that echo America’s violent history (i.e. black bodies on ground and police brutality, black bodies against trees and lynching, black bodies in water and transatlantic slave trade).

Ruth Patir – Sleepers (Israel, 2017) 16 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 5:00pm| Segal Theatre 

Sleepers was shot at St. Mark’s Church sanctuary in September 2016 in the midst of a tumultuous election season. The dreams of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama described in the film were collected by writer Sheila Heti. 

Billy Clark, Jason Trucco/CultureHub – All in the Mind (US, 2017) 20 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 6:00pm | Elebash Recital Hall

All in the Mind previews a world where individual consciousness has been woven into a collective web of telepathic communication. Written in 1981, playwright Robert Patrick anticipates virtual and augmented reality in a world in which all humans are connected in a shared consciousness. Echoing the science fiction worlds of Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov that were in the popular consciousness at the time, All in the Mind envisions a world in which all of humanity shares every birth, death, sunrise, and sunset in a common experience. Here too, there is the sinister underpinning of the unconnected “nurses” who exist offstage, in Antarctica. Yet the wit and humor of the pieces leaven the dystopian atmosphere, leaving it ambiguous as to whether the technologically enhanced future is an improvement or not–an ambivalence we all live with today.

*Avi Mograbi – Between Fences (France/Israel, 2016) 84 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 6:30pm | Segal Theatre

Avi Mograbi and Chen Alon meet African asylum-seekers in a detention facility in the middle of the Negev desert where they are con ned by the state of Israel. Together, they question the status of the refugees in Israel using ‘Theater of the Opressed’ techniques. What leads men and women to leave everything behind and go towards the unknown? Why does Israel, land of the refugees, refuse to take into consideration the situation of the exiled, thrown onto the roads by war, genocide and persecution? Can the Israelis working with the asylum seekers put themselves in the refugee’s shoes? Can their collective unconscious be conjured up? 

*Brian Mertes/Lake Lucille Chekhov Project – I Am a Seagull (US, 2017) 93 minutes
Documentary | 6:30pm | Elebash Recital Hall

Life and rehearsal blend together in this filmic portrait of The Seagull. The play is interpreted by a handful of top shelf stage actors from New York City as they converge in an upstate lakeside retreat where they live and breathe Chekhov. Through juxtaposing phases of rehearsal, live performance and pure cinema this hybrid documentary captures the idealism, contradictions and raw instinct that fuels theatre-making itself. 

Festival Schedule Saturday, March 3 

Günter Atteln/Accentus Music – The Lost Paradise: Arvo Pärt/Robert Wilson (US, 2015) 56 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 12:00pm | Segal Theatre 

He is the most performed contemporary composer in the world. And yet he rarely ventures out in public, prefers to keep quiet about his music, feels at home in the forests of Estonia and generates therewith – perhaps involuntarily – the impression of a recluse, which is attributed to him again and again: Arvo Pärt. In The Lost Paradise, we follow him over a period of one year in his native Estonia, to Japan and the Vatican. The documentary is framed by the stage production of Adam’s Passion, a music theater piece based on the Biblical story of the fall of Adam featuring three key works by Arvo Pärt. The world-renowned director Robert Wilson has brought this work to the stage in a former submarine factory in Tallinn. Tracing their creative process, the film offers rare and personal insights into the worlds of two of the most fascinating personalities in the international arts and music scene.

*Haydn Reiss/Zinc Films – Robert Bly: A Thousand Years of Joy (US, 2015) 80 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 2:00pm | Segal Theatre

Robert Bly is one of the world’s most influential poets, social activists and cultural troublemakers. His bestseller Iron John was translated into 20 languages and inspired the Men’s Movement. Now in his 92nd year, A Thousand Years of Joy reveals Bly’s journey from farm boy to global troubadour. Featuring luminaries from the world of the arts and humanities including Joseph Campbell, Gary Snyder, Jane Hirshfield, Mark Rylance, Martin Sheen, and many others.

 

Rima Najdi – GRAPHIC WARNING: It is not ME it is YOU (Germany/Lebanon, 2015) 2 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 4:30pm | Segal Theatre

It is not ME it is YOU is a video that does not aim to show any reality as “real”, and for that matter it does not intend to be authentic. Reality doesn’t exist. We each have our own. The video is two layers of sometimes opposing realities. This video is not a political action, our bodies embodies all the politics and all wars that have been waged on our freedoms, faces, existence and utopias.

Ergao Dance Production Group – This is a Chicken Coop (China, 2017) 17 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 4:30pm | Segal Theatre

With the China’s reform and opening up, which began in 1979, there became big differences among areas’ economic development level. A population migration occurred with accelerated urbanization process, like birds. The cognition of hometown and native place has changed qualitatively. Like the impact of modern technology on chicken in chicken coop, no one could escape. They are all domesticated.

Tania El Khoury – Re-visiting Jarideh (UK/Lebanon, 2017) 8 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 4:30pm | Segal Theatre

Jarideh is a one-to-one performance created by Tania El Khoury in 2010. It takes place in a public café and explores surveillance and profiling in “the war on terror.” Jarideh is both a playful and a scary mission performed by both artist and audience. It employs real police’s instructions, spy cinema aesthetics, and resistance fighters’ stories in order to expose how security is defined through fear and difference.

*Rania Lee Khalil – Palestinian Wildlife Series (US, 2017) 30 minutes
Video Performance Art, Performance | 4:30pm | Segal Theatre 

Palestinian Wildlife Series combines video art and lecture performance to consider the effects of Occupation on plant, animal and mineral life. Using footage from a television wildlife documentary on African animals, recorded from a television set in East Jerusalem, the film uses this act of appropriation to reflect on themes of mediation, displacement and representation in relation to its subject. Screened with live voiceover by the artist. 

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani – Caesar Must Die (Italy, 2012) 77 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 5:30pm | Segal Theatre

Inmates at a high-security prison in Rome prepare for a public performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. 

Giulio Boato – Theatron | Romeo Castellucci  (France, 2018) 54 minutes
Theatre, Documentary | 7:00pm | Segal Theatre

Romeo Castellucci is a director, set designer, lights and costume designer of more than a hundred theatrical performances and operas. Theatron draws an unprecedented path through his thought and his work, bringing on the screen 25 years of career of the director. The film is not only the biography of one of the most acclaimed Italian directors in the world, but it is also a reflection on the deep roots of theatre, intrinsically linked to human nature.

Check out thesegalcenter.org/event/ftp2018/ for the latest updates.

Festival Curators: Festival founder Frank Hentschker (Executive Director and Director of Programming at MESTC) and Mike LoCicero (MESTC).

Festival Producer: Paloma Estevez
Assistant Curator & Festival Dramaturg: Amir Farjoun

All screenings are FREE and open to the public on a first come, first served basis.
Festival schedule is subject to change.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street. Subway: Herald Square, lines B, D, F, M, N, Q, R.

www.theSegalCenter.org. Info: 212-817-1868.


The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC), The Graduate Center, CUNY, is a non-profit Center for theatre, affiliated with CUNY’s Ph.D. Program in Theatre. The Center’s primary focus is to bridge the gap between the academic and professional performing arts communities by providing an open environment for the development of educational, community-driven, and professional projects in the performing arts. www.theSegalCenter.org

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Announcing Theater & Resistance Symposium

By Michael LoCicero | Published: December 19, 2017

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Theatre Without Borders, and Tamizdat Present

THEATER & RESISTANCE SYMPOSIUM
FRIDAY, JANUARAY 12, 2018
8:30AM–2:30PM
AT THE ELEBASH RECITAL HALL, CUNY GRADUATE CENTER
365 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

[New York, NY. December 12, 2017] The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Theatre Without Borders and Tamizdat join forces to present a timely community conversation exploring the challenges and power of progressive activist theater. At this cultural moment many in the arts are seeking ways to bring activism into their work; this symposium will be a platform for sharing ideas and resources. It will inform, empower, recharge, facilitate, and inspire.

A selection of resistant theater projects from around the world will present their work as examples; leading activist artists will discuss the challenges and successes; experts will present on diversity, climate and sustainability, artist rights, artist mobility, and public and board relations. An open discussion will follow. The Symposium is for artists and administrators alike, and is designed to build communities across borders, genres, and disciplines. We will share best practices and learn from our colleagues in the U.S. and abroad.

Scheduled speakers and panelists include: Chen Alon, Chantal Bilodeau, Clarence Choo, Matthew Covey, David J. Diamond, Lilly Fellman, Catherine Filloux, Sanjoy and Sima Ganguly, Sue Hamilton, Frank Hentschker, Souliman Khatib, Julia Levine, Jessica Litwak, Jonathan Meth, Dijana Milosevic, Issa Nyaphaga, Deepa Purohit, Martha Redbone, Ari Roth, Katy Rubin, Nisha Sanjani, Saviana Stanescu, Julie Trebault, Nia Witherspoon, Mia Yoo, and more.

Please register at mestc@gc.cuny.edu.
For more info contact conference@theatrewithoutborders.com.

 

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center [MESTC] is a non-profit center for theatre, dance, and film affiliated with CUNY’s Ph.D. Program in Theatre. The Center’s mission is to bridge the gap between academia and the professional performing arts communities both within the United States and internationally.www.theSegalCenter.org

Theatre Without Borders [TWB] is an informal, grass-roots, all-volunteer, virtual, global community that shares information and builds connections between individuals and institutions interested in international theatre and performance exchange. TWB was born out of a need to connect artists around the world. TWB advocates for theatre artists who see themselves as members of a global community, as well as citizens of their respective nations and cultures. TWB engages with artists at all levels of practice. TWB is not a funder, producer or presenter. We plant seeds and watch the plants grow and develop, thanks to our many partners. www.theatrewithoutborders.com

Founded in 1998 by an international group of musicians, Tamizdat is a nonprofit organization that facilitates international cultural exchange. Tamizdat’s mission is motivated by the conviction that the international exchange and mobility of culture is fundamental to the growth of global civil society. Tamizdat has been involved with a wide range of activities aimed at facilitating international cultural exchange… we have booked festival showcases in the U.S. and Europe, organized tours, sponsored events, and for years we ran a CD distribution coalition. Since 2000, Tamizdat’s primary program activities have sought to help the international performing arts community address problems presented by U.S. immigration policy and procedure. www.tamizdat.org

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PRELUDE 2017 Festival Announcement

By Yu Chien Liu | Published: September 7, 2017

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Presents

PRELUDE 2017 — OCTOBER 4, 5 and 6

[New York, NY. September 7, 2017] The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents its annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 4, 5, and 6 at The Graduate Center, CUNY, The City University of New York, curated by Andrew Kircher in collaboration with Frank Hentschker.

Since 2003, the PRELUDE FESTIVAL has given audiences a first look at new work and ideas by groundbreaking theatre and performance artists based in New York City. PRELUDE has presented more than 300 emerging artists, including Sarah Benson, Big Art Group, Cynthia Hopkins, Young Jean Lee, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, and 600 HIGHWAYMEN alongside legendary figures like Richard Foreman, Marina Abramovic, Mabou Mines, Charles Mee, and many more.

Inspired by the DIY maker movement, curator Andrew Kircher has assembled a program of significant new works-in-process, conversations, scholarship, and skills-building workshops. By merging the critical with the creative, PRELUDE will provide a space for artists to share, engage, and discover emerging practices in form, craft, and technology.

“We are thrilled to share this exciting lineup of new theatre and performance. As the name Prelude suggests, this program is a hint of what is to come— not just for future seasons, but for the form as a whole. Prelude is that unique moment in the theatre season when artists come together to share new work, creative methodologies, critical vocabularies, and practical skills,” says Kircher.

This year, PRELUDE includes a new series—Studio Visits. These evening-length hybrid performance events offer audiences a multi-angled view of the featured artist and their craft. Each Studio Visit will include an introduction by the artist, a presentation of new work-in-process, a critical response essay, and a Q&A with the responder.

Studio Visit artists include: Janani Balasubramanian [critical response by Cam Awkward-Rich], The Builders Association [critical response by Helen Shaw], Renegade Performance Group/André M. Zachary [critical response by Helga Davis], Jim Findlay [critical response by Andrew Friedman], and Rachel Kauder Nalebuff [critical response by Julia Felsenthal].

PRELUDE will also showcase samples of new work by:

Darian Dauchan, Jerry Lieblich/Paul Lazar, Cerebral Pussy [Jessy Yates, Holly Kristina Goldstein], Lorelei Ramirez, Maria Baranova, Milo Cramer with New Saloon, Seonjae Kim, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Sean Donovan, Sister Sylvester [Amal Omran, Hatem Hadawe, Kathryn Hamilton], Split Britches [Peggy Shaw & Lois Weaver], Temporary Distortion, and more.

Hosted by the Graduate Center, the focal point for advanced research in the CUNY system, the PRELUDE Festival is uniquely positioned to celebrate the artistry of criticism and scholarship alongside new works of theatre and performance. This year’s program will include presentations by Peter Eckersall [Executive Officer of Theatre and Performance Program, The Graduate Center, CUNY], Julia Jarcho [Assistant Professor, NYU], Jill Stevenson [Professor of Theatre Arts, Marymount Manhattan College], and Patricia Ybarra [Chair of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Brown University].

PRELUDE will also include critical dialogues, including an intergenerational conversation on the history and legacy of avant-garde theatre artists of color, convened by Daniel Alexander Jones. A series entitled How Did You Make That?, moderated by Ryan J. Haddad, will feature conversations with theatremakers from across the field, including Noel Allain, Jaclyn Backhaus, Melanie Joseph, Jennifer Kiddwell, Tommy Kriegsmann, Jacob Padrón, Scott Sheppard, and Arianna Smart Truman.

This year, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council partners with PRELUDE on a data experiment. We will survey PRELUDE artists, past and present, to come to a better understanding of where work is made. During this session, we will review the findings together and discuss what creative spaces are—or were—critical to this field.

Free workshops will be offered on October 5th and 6th at 12:30pm on intellectual property law [with Tami Morachnick, Legal Consultant], virtual reality production [with Philip Sanchez, Producer, Blurred Media], stage prop design [with Jay Duckworth, Properties Master, Public Theater], and Kickstarter [with Jessica Massart, Performance Lead, Kickstarter].

PRELUDE remains the only theatre and performance festival dedicated exclusively to New York City theatre artists. PRELUDE represents the only theatre and performance festival that is completely FREE and open to the public. For the full festival schedule, please visit www.PreludeNYC.org.

All PRELUDE events will be at the
CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, New York, NY 10016.
All are free of charge and open to the public. First come, first served.
All programs are subject to change.

Andrew Kircher is the Director of the Devised Theater Initiative and Associate Dramaturg at the Public Theater. As a creative producer, he has worked with companies including Ars Nova and Les Freres Corbusier, and was previously the associate director of the Under the Radar Festival. He is a PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, and is currently writing a dissertation entitled Dramaturgies of Intellectual Property Law in Read-Write Theatre.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center [MESTC] is a non-profit center for theatre, dance, and film affiliated with CUNY’s Ph.D. Program in Theatre. The Center’s mission is to bridge the gap between academia and the professional performing arts communities both within the United States and internationally.

www.theSegalCenter.org

PRELUDE 2017 is made possible in part with public funds from Creative Engagement supported by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council empowers artists by providing them with networks, resources, and support, to create vibrant sustainable communities in Lower Manhattan and beyond.

 

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World Voices International Play Festival, May 1, 2, and May 7

By Rebecca Sheahan | Published: March 21, 2017

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Announces

 The 2017 PEN World Voices: International Play Festival

Featuring plays by internationally acclaimed playwrights: HAKIM BAH (Guinea), PATRICIA CORNELIUS (Australia), RAMA HAYDAR (Syria), EUNSUNG KIM (South Korea), Mîrza Metîn (Turkey), BASHAR MURKUS (Palestine), SASHA MARIANNA SALZMANN (Germany), NATAL’YA VOROZHBIT (Ukraine), and MARCIA ZANELATTO (Brazil)

MONDAY, MAY 1   l   TUESDAY, MAY 2   l   SUNDAY, MAY 7

May 1 & May 2: The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center,

The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street May 7: Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E 3rd Street All Day –

FREE – First Come, First Served

(March 21, 2017, New York, NY) The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center announces the complete line-up of its annual PEN World Voices International Play Festival, running May 1, 2 at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (365 Fifth Avenue, New York), and Sunday, May 7 at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (236 E 3rd St, New, New York).  All readings are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC on a FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED basis.

As part of the 2017 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, The Segal Center will showcase play readings by nine voices from around the world. With the writers hailing from five different continents, the International Play Festival generates a conversation on art, politics, dreams, war, and philosophy, meant to give American audiences a rich awareness of the greater global dialogue. All readings will be followed by discussion with the playwright.

“International exchange at the artistic level becomes all the more salient in our current political climate. At its core, art is about empathy and understanding. In times of uncertainty, it is important that we reach out. The PEN World voices International Play Festival is the Segal Center’s way of reaching out,” says Frank Hentschker, Segal Center Executive Director and festival founder.

Founded in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts with the aim of broadening channels of dialogue between the U.S. and the world, PEN World Voices is the only international literary festival in America, and the only one in the world with a human rights focus.

The thirteenth annual PEN World Voices Festival will take on some of the vital issues of the Trump-era, with a special focus on today’s restive relationship between gender and power. Taking place in New York City, May 1-7, 2017, the weeklong festival will use the lens of literature and the arts to confront new challenges to free expression and human rights—issues that have been core to PEN America’s mission since its founding. At this historic moment of both unprecedented attacks on core freedoms and the emergence of new forms of resistance, the Festival will offer a platform for a global community of writers, artists and thinkers to connect with concerned citizens and the broader public to fight back against bigotry, hatred and isolationism.

The 2017 PEN World Voices International Play Festival has been made possible by the support of Susan and Jack Rudin(†) and Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Chair, The Graduate Center CUNY.

The PEN World Voices International Play Festival was conceived and created by Frank Hentschker in 2005. 2017 Festival Co-Curator, Antje Oegel. Assistant Curator: Soriya K. Chum. 2017 Festival Producer, Brooke Christensen.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York,
365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street. Subway: Herald Square, lines B, D, F, M, N, Q, R.
www.theSegalCenter.org. Info: 212-817-1860.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:
All plays in English.

MONDAY, MAY 1 — SEGAL THEATRE
4:00pm SHIT  I Patricia Cornelius (Australia)
Directed by Katie Pearl

Out of control girls, angry, nasty girls are a sight to behold. They’re terrifying, electrifying, they’re everything girls shouldn’t be, and we hate them. This is a work about these girls. Their names are Billy, Bobby and Sam.

6:00pm TAKE OUT THE RUBBISH, SASHA  I  Natal’ya Vorozhbit (Ukraine) Translated by Sasha Dugdale
Directed by Sarah Hughes

In Kiev, Katya and Oksana prepare a funeral meal for their beloved husband, stepfather and Army colonel Sasha. But he isn’t going without a fight. The women in his life and the country need him.

8:00pm HUNGRY DOGS  I  Mîrza Metîn (Turkey)
Translated by Lucy Wood
Directed by Dan Safer

Twin brothers Beşer and Beşir, who lost their parents in war, migrated as teenagers to Istanbul. After many years of separation they meet again, when Beşer enters Beşir’s house with a stolen safety box.

TUESDAY, MAY 2  —  SEGAL THEATRE
4:00pm TRANSCENES: Four Short Plays from Brazil
Works by Marcia Zanelatto (Curator), Jô Bilac, Daniela Pereira de Carvalho, and Joaquim Vicente.

Curated by Marcia Zanelatto (Brazil) & translated by Emily Walsh
Directed by Katherine Brook

Short plays about gender identity in Brazil: a judicial fight, a dinner with a murderer, the death of the mother and a flower leads a rally.

 6:00pm TICHA-TICHA I  Hakim Bah (Guinea)
Translated by Heather Denyer
Directed by Ethan McSweeney

Ticha-Ticha awaits the return of Michael, the love of her life, who is, however, drawn to her daughter, Penda. This intense and poetic play deals with love, lust, female genital mutilation, and murder.

8:00pm METEORITES  I  Sasha Marianna Salzmann (Germany)
Translated by Jenny Piening
Directed by Mallory Catlett

Germany is in the World Cup final; Berlin is dreaming again of a summer fairy tale to forget the world torn by wars. Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Salzmann sends her protagonists on a seemingly endless search for a new self, which denies traditional concepts of identity.

SUNDAY, MAY  7  — NUYORICAN POETS CAFE, 236 E 3rd Street
4:00pm Desert of Light  I  Rama Haydar (Syria)
Translated by Rama Haydar & Rebekah Maggor
Directed by Rebekah Maggor

As the 2012 brutal siege rages outside, two Palestinian refugees debate the best plan of escape. Set outside Damascus in the Yarmouk refugee camp, this black tragicomedy reveals the catastrophic absurdity of the Syrian civil war.

6:00pm Parallel Time  I  Bashar Murkus (Palestine)
Translated by Rebekah Maggor
Directed by Rebekah Maggor

Parallel Time, a disturbingly humorous prison play, evokes the daily struggle of life behind bars for a group of Palestinian inmates. It follows their collective fight to overcome the despair of long-term incarceration.

 8:00pm Sister Mok-Rahn  I  Eunsung Kim (South Korea)
Translated by Dayoung Jeong
Directed by Seonjae Kim

Desperate to reunite with her parents, a North Korean defector decides to return to her nation’s capital, Pyongyang. All she needs is 50 million won. Thus she is forced to navigate South Korean capitalism.

ABOUT THE MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER: Originally founded in 1979 as the Center for Advanced Studies in Theatre Arts (CASTA), The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center was renamed in March of 1999 to recognize Martin E. Segal, one of New York City’s outstanding leaders of the arts. The Segal Center curates over thirty events throughout the Spring and Fall academic seasons, all free and open to the public. Dedicated to bridging the gap between the professional and academic theatre communities, the Segal Center presents readings, performance, lectures, and artists and academics in conversation. In addition, the Segal Center presents three annual festivals (PRELUDE, PEN World Voices: International Pay Festival, and The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance) and publishes and maintains three open access online journals (Arab Stages, European Stages, and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre). The Segal Center also publishes many volumes of plays in translation and is the leading publisher of plays from the Arab world. The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a vital component of the Theatre Program’s academic culture and creating in close collaboration a research nexus, focusing on dramaturgy, new media, and global theatre. The Segal Center provides an intimate platform where both artists and theatre professionals can actively participate with audiences to advance awareness and appreciation. www.thesegalcenter.org.

THE GRADUATE CENTER, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, of which the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center is an integral part, is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to twenty-eight interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns. Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, The Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events. www.gc.cuny.edu.

     

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The Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance, March 2, 3, and 6, 2017

By Rebecca Sheahan | Published: January 27, 2017

Press Contact:
Joy Sarah Arab
segalff@gc.cuny.edu,
212-817-1860

http://thesegalcenter.org/event/ftp2017/

SAVE THE DATE

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents

The Third Annual
FILM FESTIVAL ON THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE

Featuring works by or about:  MARÍA IRENE FORNÉS – KOJI FUKADA – GLOBAL ARTS GROUP – NADIA RANOCCHI & DAVIDE ZAMAGNI – RIMINI PROTOKOLL –  CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN,  and many more

Thursday, March 2
Friday, March 3
and Monday, March 6, 2017

All Day – FREE – First Come, First Served.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center,
The Graduate Center, City University of New York,
365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street

(January 27, 2017, New York, NY) The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center announces the third annual Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP). The film festival will take place on Thursday, March 2; Friday, March 3; and Monday, March 6 at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, located at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, NYC, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street.

The Segal Center’s Film Festival on Theatre and Performance presents experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers from around the world to audiences and industry professionals. The program includes a roster of more than 30 features, shorts, documentaries, advance screenings, meet-the-filmmaker Q&A sessions, and panels with leading international theatre artists from Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Slovenia, South Africa, Ukraine, The United Kingdom, and the United States.

Highlights of the 2017 Festival include:

  • Rimini Protokoll Home Visit Europe & Remote X (Germany)
  • Michelle Memran The Rest I Make Up: María Irene Fornés (excerpt, USA)
  • Chloé Déchery & Chris Eley What Do You See When You Turn Out the Light? (Australia/France)
  • Brigitte Poupart Over My Dead Body on Dave St-Pierre (Canada)
  • Guy Davidi Mixed Feelings on Amir Orian (Israel)
  • Koji Fukada Sayonara (Japan)
  • Global Arts Group A Snake Gives Birth to a Snake (South Africa)
  • Penny Arcade & Steve Zehentner The Lower East Side Biography Project (USA)
  • Marielle Nitoslawska Breaking the Frame on Carolee Schneemann (Canada/USA)

Confirmed Festival screenings include work by or about: Rodrigo Abreu & Mariana Bley; Penny Arcade & Steve Zehentner; Sahar Assaf; Blind Boys of Alabama; Lee Breuer & Adam Larsen; The Chocolate Factory Theater; Guy Davidi; Chloé Déchery & Chris Eley; Popo Fan; María Irene Fornés; Koji Fukada; Global Arts Group; Janez Janša; Robert Lepage; Michael Lessac; Sean Lewis; The Living Theatre; Michelle Memran; The National Theatre of Hungary; Frédéric Nauczyciel; Needcompany; Michael Beach Nichols & Deidre Schoo; Marielle Nitoslawska; Zachary Oberzan; Amir Orian; Aneta Panek; The Prelude Festival; Brigitte Poupart; Rimini Protokoll; Nadia Ranocchi & Davide Zamagni; Brian Rogers; András Salamon; Carolee Schneemann; Andrew Schneider; Arran Shearing; Tahweel Theatre Ensemble; Aurélia Thiérrée; A Two Dogs Company 

Full festival schedule will be posted the week of February 6, 2017

Festival Program is subject to change.

Festival Curators: Festival founder Frank Hentschker (Executive Director and Director of Programming at MESTC), Antje Oegel (AO International and Director of Special Projects at MESTC), and Nina Segal (Playwright and Producer), and Soriya Chum (Dramaturg).

Festival Founding Producer: Joy Sarah Arab

All screenings are FREE and open to the public on a first come, first served basis.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York,

365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street. Subway: Herald Square, lines B, D, F, M, N, Q, R.

www.theSegalCenter.org. Info: 212-817-1868.

 ###

 

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Stefano Massini’s SOMETHING ABOUT THE LEHMANS

By Isabella Pinheiro | Published: November 22, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ITALIAN PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR,
STEFANO MASSINI (PICCOLO TEATRO DI MILANO-TEATRO D’EUROPA),
ADDRESSES LEHMAN BROTHERS BANKRUPTCY IN NEW PLAY.
READING & CONVERSATION.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center & UMANISM,
with The Italian Cultural Institute of New York, and in
collaboration with 369gradi, present:

The Italian Playwrights Project
Stefano Massini’s SOMETHING ABOUT THE LEHMANS
Stefano Massini / Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d’Europa

Monday, December 5, 2016 at 6:30pm.
FREE & open to the public.
First come, first served. thesegalcenter.org

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
at The Graduate Center, City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (bet. 34th & 35th), New York, NY 10016

The Italian Playwrights Project presents Something About the Lehmans, a conversation with playwright Stefano Massini about his work as well as the role of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano and contemporary theatre in Europe. At the artist talk, moderated by Dr. Frank Hentschker (The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Executive Director and Director of Programs), Massini will be joined by Valeria Orani (Umanism founder and director), and Giorgio Van Straten (Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York).

The event will also feature a reading of an excerpt from Something about the Lehmans, translated by Allison Eikerenkoetter, directed by Marco Calvani, and performed by actor Robert Funaro.

Something About the Lehmans (Mondadori 2016) by Italian playwright Stefano Massini tells the story of the historic rise and fall of the Lehman Brothers investment house. The play premiered at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano-Teatro d’Europa in 2015 and was the last work of legendary Italian theatre director Luca Ronconi. It has since been produced widely in Europe. Oscar Award-winning director Sam Mendes will be staging The Lehman Trilogy.

After the event at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, the audience is invited to meet the artists and curators of the Italian Playwrights Projects at the Umanism Fundraising After Party to support the Italian Playwrights Project activities. The After Party will take place at The Archive Bar (12E 36th St. New York). Suggested minimum donation of $50 includes VIP Pass with food and drink.

The Italian Playwrights Project was created by Valeria Orani (Umanism NY) and Frank Hentschker (The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center), in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute in New York, Giorgio Van Straten, Director. This event is made possible by the generous support of Joseph LoCicero/ The Segal Company.

Event Information:

Monday, December 5, 2016 at 6:30pm
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York,
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
FREE + Open to public. First come, first served.
Info: www.thesegalcenter.org/event/italian-playwrights-project-something-about-the-lehmansitaly-with-stefano-massini

UMANISM Fundraising After Party
From 8:30pm at The Archive Bar (12 E.36th St. New York)
LIMITED ADMISSION
Suggested minimum Donation: $50 (includes VIP Pass with food and drink)
Info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/italian-playwright-project-stefano-massini-fundraising-after-party-tickets-29061501734           

Stefano Massini – Biography
Stefano Massini (Florence, September 22, 1975) is an Italian playwright and director. With a degree in Ancient Literature from the University of Florence, he started his career in theater in 2000 as an assistant of Luca Ronconi at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, and as an assistant to international directors at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival. In 2005, with L’odore Assordante del Bianco, he won the Pier Vittorio Tondelli Award, the highest playwriting award in Italy. In 2004, he won the Flaiano Prize, and received a nomination at Vallecorsi Prize with La Fine di Shavuoth. With the 2005-2006 season, he began his collaboration with the Drama Centre “Theatre of Women” at Teatro Manzoni in Calenzano (Florence), developing the project Trittico delle Gabbie, among other productions. Inspired by the events following the 2008 economic crisis, between 2009 and 2012, Massini wrote his most ambitious and successful work, The Lehman Trilogy, translated into 14 languages. Staged for the first time in 2015 in Italy in an extended version by Luca Ronconi, The Lehman Trilogy has gained great success from critics and audiences and numerous prizes, including five Ubu Awards. Since May 2015 Stefano Massini is the new artistic advisor of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, replacing his master Luca Ronconi, who died three months before.

More about the Italian Playwrights Project: The Segal Center invited Italian Artistic Director Valeria Orani from 369gradi (Italy) and UMANISM (NY) to collaborate on this ambitious new translation, performance and publishing initiative. “Valeria’s initiative is the most significant Italian playwright project in the last two decades in the Americas, and we are honored to be able to support this project,” says Segal Center Executive Director Dr. Frank Hentschker. Valeria Orani adds: “We have a truly fantastic selection of some of the most significant contemporary Italian playwrights working today and we believe that American audiences will connect with the themes in their works.”        

Italian Playwrights Project has three principal goals:

  • To raise the awareness of contemporary Italian writing for the stage in the Americas and to foster the development of collaborative relationships between playwrights from Italy and American theatre artists.
  • After the December 2015 readings and other events, the launch of a contemporary Italian theatre festival in New York with fully staged productions of selected plays.
  • The publication of a translated anthology of the selected Italian plays.

About the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center: The Segal Center bridges the gap between the academic and performing arts communities through dynamic public programs and digital initiatives that are free and open to all. Home to theatre artists, scholars, students, performing arts managers, and the local and international performance communities, the Segal Center provides a supportive environment for conversation, open exchange, and the development of new ideas and new work. Year round, the Center presents a wide variety of FREE public programs which feature leading national and international artists, scholars, and arts professionals in conversation about theatre and performance. Programs include staged readings to further the development of new and classic plays, festivals celebrating New York performance (PRELUDE) and international plays (PEN World Voices), screenings of performance works on film, artists in conversation, academic lecture series, televised seminars, symposia, and arts in education programs. In addition, the Center maintains its long-standing visiting-scholars-from-abroad program, publishes a series of highly regarded academic journals, as well as single volumes of importance (including plays in translation), all written and edited by renowned scholars. www.theSegalCenter.org

About UMANISM NYC: UMANISM is a company dedicated to the promotion and support of contemporary Italian culture and its professionals in New York. A movement, an open platform connecting Italy to the USA recognizing and expanding the creative potential of projects by Italian artists, supporting them in each step of the production and communication in the larger and more challenging context of New York www.UMANISM.com

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For more info:
UMANISM Press Office
Alessia Meloni
+1 646-579-4589
E: info@UMANISM.com

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PRELUDE 2016 Full Schedule Announced

By Isabella Pinheiro | Published: September 22, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact: Nina Segal / ninasegal@gmail.com / 347-836-2050

 

THE MARTIN E. SEGAL THEATRE CENTER ANNOUNCES

PRELUDE 2016:
THE ANNUAL FESTIVAL SHOWCASING THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
BY NYC ARTISTS

THE 2016 FRANKY AWARD GOES TO:
MIGUEL GUTIERREZ

The festival will be followed by the PRELUDE 2016 Closing Night Party
with performances by KIPPY WINSTON and an exclusive DJ set by MANCHILDBLACK.

www.preludenyc.org

(NEW YORK September 22, 2016) The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY is pleased to announce the full lineup of its thirteenth annual PRELUDE Festival.  Dedicated to artists at the forefront of contemporary New York City theatre and performance, PRELUDE 2016 features an array of artists working in theatrical and interdisciplinary performance.  The festival gives audiences and artists a survey of the current moment in New York via in-process performances, conversations, and workshops.

The themed portion of PRELUDE 2016 will focus on the theme of failure. “Failure has long been a crucial element in experimental theater, dance, and performance of all kinds,” said PRELUDE curator Tom Sellar. “How are New York City’s progressive stage artists thinking about the ethics and applications of failure given today’s economic pressures? In a highly polarizing election season, how are theater-makers engaging with broader systemic failures of national institutions and political systems?” Performances, conversations, and workshops will explore these questions.

Beginning Wednesday October 5, PRELUDE 2016 will feature more than 30 artists and companies.

Helmed by curators Antje Oegel and Tom Sellar, with festival founder Frank Hentschker (Executive Director, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center), PRELUDE 2016 provides a unique preview of new work being created by groundbreaking New York theatre and performance artists working in theatrical, interdisciplinary, and mixed media performance. The festival is a public lab for sharing new ideas through performances, conversations, and workshops featuring some of the most exciting artists working today.  PRELUDE is the only festival of its kind in New York that remains completely free and open to the public.

Featured artists: Aaron Landsman, Alessandro Magania, AmeriSHOWZ, Big Dance Theater, Brian Rogers, Built for Collapse, Carl Hancock Rux, Christina Masciotti, Claudia Wilsch Case, Cori Olinghouse, Dan Safer/Witness Relocation, David Levine, Ellie Covan, I AM A BOYS CHOIR, Ikechukwu Ufomadu, Ilan Bachrach/Robert M. Johanson, Institute of Failure—Tim Etchells/Matthew Goulish, Joey Weiss, John Collins, Jonathan McCrory, Jonathan Payne, Joseph Silovsky, Kate Benson, Kate Watson-Wallace, Katy Pyle/Ballez, Kippy Winston, Kyoung’s Pacific Beat, luciana achugar, Marissa Perel, Mark Russell, Matthew Korahais, Melanie Joseph, New Saloon, Ni’Ja Whitson, Noreen Whysel, Ruby Lerner, Sahra Motalebi, Sean Edward Lewis/LILAC Co., Sibyl Kempson/7 Daughters of Eve, Tanya Elder, The Builders Association, The Living Theatre, Tina Satter/Half Straddle, and Tiny Little Band.

The final night of PRELUDE 2016 on Friday, October 7, will conclude with the presentation of the fourth annual FRANKY AWARD—created to recognize an artist who has made a long-term, extraordinary impact on contemporary theatre and performance in New York City.

This year’s FRANKY will be presented to Miguel Gutierrez, a fearless choreographer and performer who has been on the forefront of transforming contemporary dance in New York City.

 

PRELUDE 2016 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE
For the most up-to-date festival information, go to www.PreludeNYC.org

 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5th

4:30pm-6pm Segal Theatre

CONVERSATION: “To Fail As No Other Dare”: Imperfection in the Creative Process

     Participants include: John Collins and Sibyl Kempson

6pm-7pm Segal Theatre

CONVERSATION: Pieces We Never Did

7pm-8pm Segal Theatre

PRESENTATION: Matthew Goulish

Peculiar Detonation

8pm-9:30pm Segal Theatre

Matthew Goulish

Broken Red Balloon Dog NY Edition

 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6th

12:30pm-2:30pm Seminar Room C-198

WORKSHOP: The Depth of Surfaces with Tina Satter

2:30pm-4pm Segal Theatre

Tina Satter/Half Straddle

Cadences (screening) – 2:30pm

Brian Rogers/The Chocolate Factory

Screamers (screening) – 3:30pm

4pm-6pm Segal Theatre

Kate Benson

Porto – 4pm

Jonathan Payne

Poor Edward – 4:30pm

Tiny Little Band

Your Hair Looked Great – 5pm

Christina Masciotti

Raw Bacon from Poland – 5:30pm

4:30pm-6pm Elebash Recital Hall

CONVERSATION: America 2016: Evaluating System Breakdowns

Partcipants: Melanie Joseph, Ruby Lerner, and Carl Hancock Rux.

6pm-7:30pm Segal Theatre

CONVERSATION: Care As a Choreographic Structure and Practice

Participants include: luciana achugar, Cori Olinghouse, Marissa Perel.

Conceived and moderated by Kate Watson-Wallace.

6pm-8pm Elebash Recital Hall

Aaron Landsman

Perfect City – 6pm

The Living Theatre (in Elebash Recital Hall Lobby)

Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism – 6:30pm

Alex Rodabaugh

AmeriSHOWZ – 6:45pm

Alessandro Magania

Radio Delirio – 7:00pm

Sahra Motalebi

Directory of Portrayals – 7:30pm

7:30pm-9:30pm Segal Theatre

Ni’Ja Whitson

Time Trickle ‘Cross You (The Hunted) – 7:30pm

Big Dance Theater

Section Six from Untitled – 8:00pm

luciana achugar

Blessed Art Thou – Bendita Tu Eres – 8:30pm

8pm-9:30pm Elebash Recital Hall

David Levine

Talk Show XIII: Death of a Salesman

 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7th

3pm-4pm Elebash Recital Hall

PRESENTATION: The Builder’s Association

Historical Failures and American Spectacular Entertainment

4pm-6pm Elebash Recital Hall

WORKSHOP: Preserving Performance with Claudia Wilsch Case, Tanya Elder and Noreen Whysel

4pm-6pm Segal Theatre

Katy Pyle/Ballez

Nijinska Channel – 4pm

Joey Weiss and Matthew Korahais

Take Me Through This on the Ground – 4:30pm

Joseph Silovsky

The History of Oklahoma in Three Violent Acts – 5pm

6pm-7:30pm Elebash Recital Hall

CONVERSATION: Early Failures of Theaters That Define New York

Participants include: Mark Russell and Jonathan McCrory

6pm-8:30pm  Segal Theatre

Kyoung’s Pacific Beat

Pillowtalk – 6pm

Sean Edward Lewis/Lilac Co.

Igor Mortis – 6:30pm

Ilan Bachrach and Robert M. Johanson

Most Wanted – 7pm

Built For Collapse

Danger Signals – 7:30pm

I AM A BOYS CHOIR

This is what you shall do… – 8pm

7:30pm-9:00pm Elebash Recital Hall

New Saloon

Just You Wait – 7:30pm

Dan Safer/Witness Relocation

The Loon – 8pm

7 Daughters Of Eve Thtr. & Perf. Co.

12 Shouts to the Ten Forgotten Heavens – 8:30pm

8:30pm-9:30pm Segal Theatre

Ikechukwu Ufomadu

Ike on Art

 

THE FRANKY AWARD/CLOSING NIGHT PARTY
The 4th annual FRANKY award will be presented to Miguel Gutierrez, featuring a special performance from Kippy Winston, at The Liberty NYC, 29 W 35th St., New York, NY 10001.

All programs are free and open to the public; first-come, first-served. For the most up-to-date festival schedule, please visit www.PreludeNYC.org. 

 

About PRELUDE:

Since 2003, The Segal Center’s PRELUDE FESTIVAL has presented more than 300 emerging artists, including: Sarah Benson, Big Art Group, Cynthia Hopkins, Young Jean Lee, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, alongside legendary figures like Richard Foreman, Marina Abramovic, Mabou Mines, Charles Mee, and many more.

 

About The Curators:
Antje Oegel is the founder of AOInternational (AOI), a NYC-based agency that represents American and international theater artists and Associate Director of Programs at the Segal Theater Center at the Graduate Center/CUNY. Originally from Germany, Antje worked at the Euro-Scene Leipzig, an international theater and dance festival and then became the co-artistic director of the theatre Schaubühne Leipzig. Antje came to NYC in 2002 and worked at MCC Theater before becoming a theater agent at Bret Adams, Ltd. In addition to her work at AOI and the Segal Theater, Antje co-runs 53rd State Press along with founder, Karinne Keithley Syers. 53rd State Press is dedicated to publishing performance texts and new plays. She is also the co-founder of Drama Panorama, a Berlin-based forum for international theater translation.

Tom Sellar is editor of Yale’s international performance journal Theater. Under his editorship since 2003, Theater has commissioned and published plays, criticism, reportage, and creative dossiers by leading global artists and authors. Tom is professor of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale University, where he teaches courses in contemporary global performance and theater, critical practice, and performance curating. His criticism and arts writing has appeared in Artforum, The New York Times, the Guardian, American Theatre, and other national publications. From 2001-2016 he was a frequent contributor to the Village Voice, where he served as chief theater critic for two years. A New York City native, he is a proud resident of Brooklyn.

 

About The Segal:

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a non-profit center for theatre, dance, and film affiliated with CUNY’s Ph.D.  Program in Theatre.  The  Center’s  mission  is  to  bridge  the  gap  between  academia  and  the professional performing arts communities both within the United States and internationally. www.theSegalCenter.org

 

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PRELUDE 2016 — Preliminary Artists Annouced

By Yu Chien Liu | Published: July 25, 2016

Prelude 14 Full Logo v2 white no period

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact:
Nina Segal
ninasegal@gmail.com
347.836.2050

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Presents
PRELUDE 2016 — OCTOBER 5, 6 and 7
PRELIMINARY ARTISTS ANNOUNCED

(New York, NY. July 22, 2016) The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents its annual PRELUDE FESTIVAL on October 5, 6, and 7 at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). The theme of this year’s festival will be FAILURE.

The Segal Center’s PRELUDE FESTIVAL, dedicated to artists at the forefront of contemporary New York City theatre and performance, will be curated for the second time by Antje Oegel (Founder, AO International) and Tom Sellar (Editor, Theater magazine and Professor at Yale University). The Festival Producer is Nina Segal.

The themed portion of PRELUDE 2016 will focus on the theme of failure. “Failure has long been a crucial element in experimental theater, dance, and performance of all kinds,” said Sellar. “How are New York City’s progressive stage artists thinking about the ethics and applications of failure given today’s economic pressures? In a highly polarizing election season, how are theater-makers engaging with broader systemic failures of national institutions and political systems?” Panels, public salons, and original performances will explore these questions.

In addition to this thematic program, there will be showcases of approximately 30 works in progress, scheduled to premiere in this or future seasons, from New York City artists and ensembles including I Am A Boys Choir, Christina Masciotti, Paul Lazar, John Del Gaudio and Kate Benson, Kyoung’s Pacific Beat, Big Dance Theater, Robert Johanson and Ilan Bachrach, and Katy Pyle. A workshop with The Builder’s Association is also scheduled.

The final night of PRELUDE will conclude with the presentation of the fourth annual FRANKY AWARD—created to recognize an artist who has made a long-term, extraordinary impact on contemporary theatre and performance in New York City. Previous honorees include Kate Valk (Wooster Group), Paul Lazar & Annie-B Parson (Big Dance Theater), and Jay Wegman (Abrons Art Center/Skirball Center).

Since 2003, the PRELUDE FESTIVAL has given audiences a fast-paced, first look at new work and ideas by groundbreaking New York theatre and performance artists by presenting brief readings, mini-performances, installations, panels, and discussions featuring some of New York City’s most thought-provoking performance artists and companies. PRELUDE has presented more than 300 emerging artists, including: Sarah Benson, Big Art Group, Cynthia Hopkins, Young Jean Lee, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, and 600 HIGHWAYMEN alongside legendary figures like Richard Foreman, Marina Abramovic, Mabou Mines, Charles Mee, and many more.

PRELUDE remains the only festival of its kind in New York City that remains completely free and open to the public.

Full festival schedule to be announced in early September. For updates, please visit www.PreludeNYC.org.

All PRELUDE events are presented at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, New York, NY 10016. All are free of charge and open to the public. First come, first served. All programs are subject to change.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC) is a non-profit center for theatre, dance, and film affiliated with CUNY’s Ph.D. Program in Theatre. The Center’s mission is to bridge the gap between academia and the professional performing arts communities both within the United States and internationally.
www.theSegalCenter.org
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