CULTUREMART festival 2008 at HERE Arts Center

HERE Arts Center�s annual CULTUREMART festival will take place from 4 - 21 Jan 2008. Featuring 11 new works that blur the lines between dance, theatre, music, new media, puppetry and visual art, CULTUREMART upholds the concept that it�s no longer possible for a single art form to reflect the flurry of images and sound bytes experienced on a daily basis.

This year�s festival features 8 works by the newest resident artists, 2 works that have previously been seen in CULTUREMART festivals, and 1 production by a HERE residency alumna who has been invited back to present a new work�Alexandra Beller.

CULTUREMART alumni include Young Jean Lee, Lisa D�Amour, Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle, Collision Theory, Troika Ranch, Will Pomerantz, Corey Dargel and the Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf.

The festival shows are:

• The Lily�S Revenge / Ego

  The Lily�S Revenge by Taylor Mac
  Synopsis: A self-uprooted lily goes on a quest to combat its oppressors and destroy nostalgia. In his latest work, playwright and gender-bending performer Taylor Mac responds to an ever-growing homogeny in the world around him. Through puppets, elaborate costume designs, live music and vaudevillian theatrics Mac brings back the macabre, and reveals our national pastime of melancholy remembrances.

  Ego by David Michael Friend Synopsis: Questioning the difference between art and kitsch, Ego enters an artist's mind as he develops his newest masterpiece. Dissatisfied with the state of puppet theater, the artist is confident that he alone can push the art form to the next level. As his zeal for perfection grows, so does his self-assurance, making him a prime candidate for divine creator status.

  Dates: 4 & 5 Jan 2008.

  
  
• Miranda 5X / Water

  Miranda 5X by Kamala Sakaram
  Synopsis: This one-woman, multi-media chamber opera is based around the idea of a murder-mystery play. By combining real-time video of the solo performer with digital effects, lighting, backgrounds and camera angles, the audience is able to see through the eyes of the five different murder suspects, and to experience their last interactions with Miranda, the murder victim.

  Water by Sheila Callaghan, William Cusick, & Daniella Topol
  Synopsis: It purifies. nIt cleanses. It nourishes. And like all other essential resources, it betrays. What do people do when the thing they most need is the thing they cannot trust?

  Dates: 8 & 9 Jan 2008.

  
  
• The Gospel According to Jack Vitrolo
  by South Wing Theatre Company
  Synopsis: Jack Vitrolo makes a quiet living selling athletic shoes, but when a group of paramedics kidnap his pregnant wife in an ambulance, Jack is forced to hunt for her in the bowels of a gigantic municipal hospital - encountering freakish obstacles along the way.

  Dates: 10 & 12 Jan 2008.

  
  
• Mosheh � a VideOpera
  by Yoav Gal
  Synopsis: Re-enacts the biblical saga of Moses as an ancient-futuristic ritual, contrasting the feminine perspectives of Moses' sister, wife, and two mothers with the voice of God, a jealous and fearsome father figure.

  Dates: 12 & 13 Jan 2008.

  
  
• Paris Syndrome / 837 Venice Boulevard

  Paris Syndrome by ex.Pgirl
  Synopsis: Based on the phenomenon of extreme culture shock experienced by some Japanese tourists when they visit Paris, Paris Syndrome is the latest dance-theatre piece from the international ensemble of women known as Ex.Pgirl. Through their trademark use of humorous video interviews, playful multi-lingual text and physicality, Ex.Pgirl engages the ideas of madness, love, beauty, and cultural misunderstanding that surround this psychological condition.

  837 Venice Boulevard by Faye Driscoll
  Synopsis: Humorous and dark, 837 Venice Boulevard both satisfies and satirizes our human compulsion to try to solve mystery and understand reality. Choreographer Faye Driscoll examines the relationship between time, identity and memory, structuring childhood memories as a mystery story in her investigation of the universal need to �make sense� of the past. Dealing with awkwardness, humor and sex, she bears witness to uncomfortable, radiant realities and queer non-normative sensibilities.

  Dates: 12 & 13 Jan 2008.

  
  
• Foodstable / What Comes After Happy

  Foodstable by Richard Toth
  Synopsis: Like the notorious gore film that inspired it (H.G. Lewis� 1963 cult classic Blood Feast), Foodstable mutilates its source material to create a beautifully fractured performance. As innocent romance struggles to survive in a world awash in horror and fear, physical theatre writer-director Richard Toth molds and shapes the film�s images and sound to create song, dance, and a dialogue with contemporary performers.

  What Comes After Happy by Alexandra Beller
  Synopsis: This new company work by Alexandra Beller displays a blend of passionate movement and demanding text. She challenges the American obsession with happiness, deconstructing self-help manuals, spiritual guidance and children's television in an effort to find out why we must be so happy.

  Dates: 16 & 17 Jan 2008.

  
  
• Red Fly/Blue Bottle

  by Christina Campanella & Stephanie Fleischmann
  Synopsis: Does remembering help process loss or prolong it? In this multimedia song cycle, an elderly entomologist reflects on a bygone war. Through layers of found sounds and a collection of hypnotic songs, composer/performer Christina Campanella traces the departure of the old woman�s companion, and the mysterious mission to which he�s been dispatched.

  Dates: 19 & 21 Jan 2008.