The Bronx-based hip-hop ensemble Universes will appear as part of the Theatre Communications Group conference at the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver from June 10 to 14.  On June 12 at 8:00 pm, two of the group's founders, Stephen Sapp and Mildred Ruiz, will perform their Denver Project at Denver's Curious Theatre Company, after which they will emcee a late night party.  The next day, June 13, Denver Project will again be performed, followed by a reading of Ameriville, which Universes had revealed to a select audience in a staged reading May 19 at New York Theatre Workshop.

Sapp and Ruiz have worked with Denver’s homeless, social agency workers and city officials to create a rich portrait of those living on the city’s margins in The Denver Project. The play breaks the bounds of traditional theater, fusing poetry and theater, politics and choreography, and the passionate tales of that city’s shadowed community.

Curious Theatre Company first commissioned Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz to contribute a short play to The War Anthology two years ago. Curious Theater's New Voices, a young playwriting program, has repeatedly hosted Sapp as a summer intensive guest playwright since 2005. The Denver Project is Curious' second world premiere commission with Sapp and Ruiz. The work has been in development through community dialogue and artistic workshops since July, 2007.  It's billed as "a poetic explosion connecting stories of the homeless community in Denver through tribal rhythm, physical theatre and song."

Everybody got a "brain box" when they came to the theater to see SITI Company's production of Who Do You Think You Are, directed by Anne Bogart, at Arizona State University on March 1. The play, which is based on the neurophysiological basis of our beliefs, was presented there as part of the ASU Gammage Residency program; Bogart is the second artist to be embraced in it.

The piece is described as a "theater essay" in which the company explores the quickening field of neurology and brain science to further explore the human experience.  Ms. Bogart has described it as a play about The Brain that actually asks, "if we know more about what's happening in our brains, inside our bodies, can we stop violence in the world from actually happening?"  To master the issues of the play, the company immersed itself in formative writings by cognitive scientists, including Antonio Damasio (The Feeling What Happens), Joseph Ledoux (The Synaptic Self), John Ratey (A User's Guide to the Brain) and Doug Hofstatter (I am a Strange Loop).  At ASU audiences, too, could immerse themselves in the world of the show before they saw it. Everyone attending the play got a brain in a box when they came.  The box also contained research and information about neuropaths and the neuropathology of emotions.  They were also served brain food:  broccoli and other vegetables, chocolate, and other substances that affect the brain. 

The audience contained a broad cross section of the Arizona State community, including subscribers (ASU has a list of 14000 or so) and donors, a cross-section of students and grad students, and local actors who had taken SITI Company's workshops.  The performance provoked much dialogue that many theatergoers stayed long after the show for energetic post-play discussions.  Throughout the development process, there had been systems set up for community feedback.  Evaluation forms were used at the workshop process level, both with participants and spectators.  A performance company of physically challenged actors gave especially provocative input. 

Anne Bogart explains the central thesis of the play by asking, "Can the study of neurology help to change what seems like the inevitable human proclivity towards, for example, violence? On the simplest level, can understanding the chemistry of anger reduce said anger?"  The play was conceived in New York, but a lot of its development was carried out at ASU, where the Gammage Residency has allowed the institution to commit three years of creative time and resources to an artist.  According to Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, Executive Director at ASU for Public Events, the residency allows an artist to come and dream with them. "The artist says, 'This is what I'm dreaming.'  Then the institution says, 'Great, this is what we can do."

At this point, SITI Company will be going into year three of its residency.  Initially, Ms. Bogart had asked for a developmental opportunity for Hotel Cassiopeia, her work on artist Joseph Cornell. In Year One, SITI Company members came and met with faculty, students and grad students and did some workshops.  The communities got to know each other.  There was even an earlier version of the "idea boxes" invented:  ASU provided "Cornell boxes" -- recreations of Joseph Cornell's found-object collages -- for theatergoers attending its production of Hotel Cassiopeia. In the next two years, the intention was to create some new theater pieces, the first of which was Who Do You Think You Are?  Bogart has now come to campus several times demonstrating her creative process in the theater, engaging students and faculty in Viewpoints and Suzuki Method and testing new material that was about to come out. 

An interesting aspect of Who Do You Think You Are, according to Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, is that it was more collaborative than SITI's work to-date.  "This was the first piece that the company dreamed together, it's not from Ann's mind alone," she said. 

ASU became producer/commissioner of record, sharing the honor with Ohio State University's Wexler Center, which also provided a residency and support.

The residency is actually a partnership between ASU Gammage and ASU Herberger College of the Arts, School of Theatre and Film. 

Through this residency, the collaboration between the artist and the community as recognized as increasingly fertile.  Said Colleen Jennings-Roggensack,"SITI Company's presence at ASU serves as an invaluable resource for faculty, students and the theater community."

Krasnoyarsk, the third largest city in Siberia, is a "city of contrasts," according to choreographer David Dorfman, whose company appeared there April 21 to 27 as part of the "Isadora" International Dance Festival.  He was struck by the city's combination of upscale stores and scenes still strongly connected to its Soviet past.  The company performed underground by Dorfman, a work with text for his mid-sized ensemble which explores the principles of political activism from the perspective of the Weather Underground.  Former company member Lisa Race’s Garden: Retreat, a piece featuring Race and aided by Dorfman and their son Samson Race Dorfman was shown as well. 

A local group of 15 dancers was engaged for underground and the work's spoken text was translated verbally into Russian and performed in real time.  Says Dorfman, "Translation tends to slow down the rhythm of this show, but is well worth it for the added understanding.”  Dorfman's company had appeared last July in the Open Look International Dance Festival in St. Petersburg, a city which is considered Russia's "gateway to the West" and where a few more people spoke English than in Krasnoyarsk.  Nevertheless, in both locations during and after the show, there was a great sense of communication.  "The piece questions what we all would do for freedom and social justice," says Dorfman, "and they got it."  In a composition class he taught, Dorfman found a few dancers with a sensibility similar to his.  “It seemed like a small dance world.”

Immediately following, Dorfman and performance artist Dan Froot, long-time collaborators, journeyed to Zimbabwe for the Harare International Festival of the Arts April 29 - May 4, which showcases the best of Zimbabwean performances and fine arts while at the same time staging and exhibiting the most exciting and creative international and regional performances.  They presented their program called "Live Sax Acts," containing three short duets: Horn, Bull and Wolf.  The New York Times (Roslyn Sulcas) had reviewed the three works at New York City’s Symphony Space in April, calling both Mr. Dorfman and Mr. Froot very funny and describing the evening as having "a brilliant, Chaplinesque physical timing and fast-talking drollery that perfectly evokes the bonds and barriers between men."  In Zimbabwe, the show’s title became confused occasionally with “Live Sex Acts” drawing some curious folks and inquiries from the police.  “We hope they found it funny.” 

According to Dorfman, “Audiences were outspoken very honest, lovely and candid.  And although they seemed to be looking for more of a literal narrative, at times they laughed wildly, and had astute things to say after the shows.”  Both Dorfman and Froot regarded their presence at the festival and the entire trip a success.

• Available tour dates:
  August 24  – September 21, 2008
  October 1 – 19, 2008
  October 27 – November 1, 2008
  November 17 – December 31, 2008
  January 19 – February 22, 2009
  March 1 – May 30, 2009                     

LUCY GUERIN INC.

North American tour dates: September and October 2009

RUBBERBANDANCE GROUP

• North American tour dates:
  October 27 – November 16, 2008
  January 12 – 18, 2009
  March 9 – 15, 2009
• European tour dates:
  May - August 2009

SITI COMPANY

• American tour dates:
  September 1 – 14, 2008 and October 5 - 31, 2008 (Radio Macbeth)
  April, May, June and July 2009 (Under Construction and Who Do You Think You Are)

UNIVERSES

•   Available tour dates:
    August 18 – September 22, 2008
    October  10 – December 7, 2008
    January 26 – February 15, 2009
    April 6 -  May 31, 2009