'Sixteenth American Living Room Festival'

HERE Arts Center presents the 16th The American Living Room Festival. New York�s first and longest-running summer festival dedicated to emerging art is set for the 20 Jul - 21 Aug 2005 at the HERE Arts Center.

The Annual American Living Room (TALR) festival supports the development of new, multidisciplinary works & artists in a setting that strives to make theatre as much a part of everyday life as watching TV. This year�s festival presents 30 events -- directing projects, performances, puppetry pieces and new musical compositions -- involving approximately 300 artists. Work was developed in response to this year�s theme: The �Carousel of Progress� in America. The artists� work responds to this theme, depicting how they see, smell, taste, hear, feel & interpret America�s progress as it was, as it is and as it will be.

Pieces are presented in TALR�s signature �comfortable living room environment� with an eclectic mix of easy chairs & plump couches, presenting challenging and compelling theater in a laid-back familiar setting.

TALR was created in 1989 to provide a supportive environment for emerging directors to cultivate works of their choice. In 1993, TALR expanded to include artists from all disciplines in order to experiment and test accepted notions of movement, music, text and puppetry. Featured artists of past festivals include: Mike Albo, Paul Boocock, Robert Cucuzza, Elevator Repair Service, International WOW Company, Les Freres Corbusier, Camryn Manheim, Walter Thompson Orchestra, Will Pomerantz, Basil Twist, Tory Vasquez, Claude Wampler, The Committee & Deke Weaver.

Until 2003, the festival was co-presented with Lincoln Center Theater. In 2004, the the festival�s structure and content was revamped. Rather than offering two to three projects on one bill, a central theme was established for works and artists were offered a one or two-night run. The 2004 festival invited original and thought-provoking work in response to the current political climate and offered 66 performances of 37 new works including collaborations with the OBIE award-winning Imagine 2004 festival, THAW (Theatres Against War). Positive feedback from audiences and artists has prompted HERE to continue the thematic format into 2005.

AMERICAN LIVING ROOM FESTIVAL 2005 SCHEDULE:
All performances start at 8:30pm and cost $15

• Still Life With Runner - Wed 20 & Thu 21 Jul
  Written by Steven Gridley & co-directed by Steven Gridley & Jacob Titus
  The thoughts of a runner wander as he competes in a race. He tries to stay focused and intent on the task in front him, but his mind slips. Utilizing dance, ceremony, nostalgia and a treadmill, Still Life explores the relationships between two brothers: one who runs, and one who can run no longer.
  
• Saudade - Fri 22 & Sat 23 Jul
  Created by The South Wing & directed by Kameron Steele
  A young woman pays the price for foreign love under a military dictatorship, an immigrant seeks citizenship despite terrible sacrifice and a renegade citizen attempts to flee a crumbling empire. Through three narratives, Saudade investigates what happens when one severs their relationship with �home.�
  
• Aurolac Blues - Mon 25 & Tue 26 Jul
  Written by Saviana Stanescu & directed by Nina Hein
  Sniffing Aurolac seems all that is left to two Romanian gypsy street kids, but there is also America, constantly surfacing in their conversation as the dreamland of fast food, glamorous stardom and thriving pop culture. But they know that they will need wings-- those of vampires� if they are ever to fly to America.
  
• Drinking The Kool - Aid - Mon 25 & Tue 26 Jul
  Created & performed by Fernando Maneca/Manoiseca
  Set in a world of round-the-clock news, search engines and instant communication, Drinking the Kool-Aid follows Fernando�s split personalities as they navigate the many flavors of information offered up by witches, wizards, and a little doll too.
  
• Yit, Ngay (One, Two) - Wed 27 Jul
  Written & directed by Michael Lew
  Tracing the lives of four Chinese sisters�two born and raised in Toi San, China and two born and raised in Fresno, CA. One actress plays all four sisters, encompassing 60 years of family history spread across two continents and three generations
  
• Querelle Quartet and Coming Forth By Day - Thu 28 & Fri 29 Jul
  Directed by Yvan Greenber, performed by Laboratory Theater
  A television documentary about orchid hunting guides the performers through sexually charged dialogue, violent gun struggles and physically exhaustive movement sequences. Coming Forth By Day is a performance-ritual imagining the ancient Egyptian concept of the souls journey after death. Two mediums channel movement and navigate spirit possession.
  
• Is This a Gentleman? - Sat 30 & Sun 31 Jul
  Written & directed by Kara Freely, performed by Ross Beschler & Avi Glickstein
  This show is a collection of lectures, exercises, conversations and interrogations that contemplates gentlemanly behavior and the understanding of the English language. What is the connection between the English gentleman and the American international businessman? Developed from an English language textbook, the play investigates corporate language/custom and its evolution over the last several decades.
  
• Wound Up - Sat 30 & Sun 31 Jul
  Choreographed & performed by Cheryl Conkling, directed by Maureen Towey with music by Bell Orchestra
  Through dance-clown-circus-theater techniques, Wound Up explores the ballerina in the music box and what happens when she gets out. Wound Up also looks at limitations placed on women and young people using music boxes as a metaphor.
  
• Solo/Together - Mon 1 Aug
  Created by viBe Theater Experience, co-directed by Dana Edell & Chandra Thomas
  Through original songs, dances, poetry, monologues, scenes and spoken word, viBe Theater Experience Presents reflects and responds to the positive and negative situations in the lives of eight young women from New York City. Through individual writing and collaboration these young women speak from collective and unique voices about issues such as racism, body image, peer pressure, sex, culture and family.
  
• Organized Color Intoxication - Tue 2 Aug
  Directed by Jonathan Zalben, video mixing by Marshall Jones & film by Taylor Krauss
  This poetic exploration of the Internet and interactivity features live instrumentalists and audience participation. Digital videos of the Lower East Side are processed through the computer to create an antiquing effect. Live music is filtered in real time by the audience and performers and video monitors adjust to the music.
  
• My Words Turn To Song In Your Fists - Thu 4 & Fri 5 Aug
  Composed & conducted by John Altieri with choreography by Daman Harun
  My Words Turn to Song in Your Fists is a modern ballet exploring America�s ongoing renewal of self-identity. Music ranging from funk-influenced minimalism to graceful sensual melody propels the choreography and expresses intentions about the simultaneity of various emotions and the sharp juxtaposition of extremes.
  
• The Secret Face - Thu 4 & Fri 5 Aug
  Written by Elisabet Jokulsdottir & directed by Steinunn Knutsdottir. Performed by Palina Jonsdottir
  An adventurous solo art house piece performed by Icelandic actress Palina Jonsdottir and cunning satire about a woman in love and her extraordinary "funeral game." This multimedia performance about the secret world of the mind is experienced through physical theatre, written poetry, visual imagery and musical fantasy.
  
• K. - Sat 6 & Sun 7 Aug
  Conceived & directed by Kenn Watt & choreographed by Tanya Calamneri. Created by ensemble Sean Simon, Deke Weaver, Raquel Cion, Gillian Chadsey & Sam Zuckerman
  K. is a timely interdisciplinary piece examining issues of medical ethics in 20th century American history with a particular focus on the towering figure Jack Kevorkian. This surreal meditation focuses on some of the most profound ideas in contemporary cultural circulation: end of life issues, the future of the genome and the intersection of law, health and medicine.
  
• Destruction - Wed 10 & Thu 11 Aug
  Adapted from Richard Foreman�s notebooks & directed by Caleb Hammond
  The War Continues: Bodies crash together in battle and embrace. A group of vampires caught in an existential crisis try to escape the endless cycle of murder and revenge. Societal conflict and personal intrigues collide in this exhilarating theatrical work told by an intensely physical ensemble of actors.
  
• All The Faithfully Departed - Wed 10 & Thu 11 Aug
  Choreographed by Jeremy Laverdure & performed by besto perfeckto
  All the Faithfully Departed is a dance �about� alien abductions, the rapture, neurological disorders, spiritual ecstasy and man�s search for meaning. All of the collaborators work from the same textual sources to generate a common pool of images from which to create movement.
  
• In The Belly Of The Beast With Two Backs - Fri 12 & Sat 13 Aug
  Conceived & directed by Lisa Jackson, with physical consulting by Matthew Morgan
  This adaptation of Othello fuses comedy and tragedy, dance and text, movement and voice. It is erotica tainted with high culture, hymn mixed with mambo, melding forms, styles and genres.
  
• Flint, Michigan: - Sun 14 & Mon 15 Aug
  Directed & co-conceived by Elizabeth Bourgeois, produced & co-conceived by Hays Hitzing
  This multimedia performance re-appropriates the stereotypes and imagery perpetrated on Flint by Michael Moore and the mass media. Collaboratively created by Flint residents, students and musicians, this extravaganza presents Buick City in all its glory and ponders the question: is Flint really The Worst City in America?
  
• State Of The Union - Tue 16 & Wed 17 Aug
  Co-directed & created by Greg Felden, Alice Moore & Jonathan C. Green
  This performance examines the multi-national buyout of a small chemical and water treatment plant in Louisiana. Using video footage and over fifteen hours of interviews, State of the Union investigates declining pensions, globalization and the export of jobs. It is the unique story of one group of people struggling against the system for dignity and respect.
  
• Fresh Kills: A Waste Is a Terrible Thing to Mind - Tue 16 & Wed 17 Aug
  Directed & composed by Lanny Meyers with videos by Christine Schiavo
  This multimedia performance explores issues surrounding garbage in New York City. Focusing specifically on a Staten Island landfill before and after September 11th, Fresh Kills details the effort to sift through the million-plus tons of rubble looking for possessions, photographs, fragments of lives of those who perished. In effect the landfill transforms into a crime scene and ultimately a hallowed burial ground.
  
• Stay - Thu 18 Aug
  Choreographed by Shannon Hummel in collaboration with dancers Vanessa Adato & Donna Costello of Cora Dance Company
  From the clear and painful vantage point of hindsight, Stay takes a powerful look at the pleasures we squander to maintain control in relationships. Hummel�s works are vivid and detailed explorations of the human condition. Richly theatrical and uniquely physical, she marries the abstract power of compelling dancing with narrative�s concrete force of emotion.
  
• Eat Shit And Die With The Joneses! - Fri 19 & Sat 20 Aug
  Written & performed by Boomie Aglietti and Max Dana of The Society for Creative Dissent
  A fallen French chef and an overzealous food critic-- each the others only hope for gaining the esteem so they so desperately crave. A mix of physical theater and uncivilized farce, Eat Shit and Die with the Joneses! traverses the absurd depths of humankind�s lust for status.
  
• The Ballad Of Junk And Malfunction - Fri 19 & Sat 20 Aug
  Written, composed and performed by Melaena Cadiz & Joseph Keckler
  In this frantic musical odyssey, a pair of world-weary New York nightclub chanteurs chase imagined glory days, trekking across a chaotic future America attempting to carve a "comeback� into the face of American history.
  
• Box Of Fools - Sun 21 Aug
  Written by Joshua Putnam Peskay, directed by Matthew Peskay with compositions by Stephen Jacobs (Dirty Sock Funtime Band)
  Feeling boxed in? Overworked? This workplace comedy features Buster Bins, the harried owner of a box factory. Help him try to cope with fools of all sorts: boxes, hogs, meatloaf, antique porcelain chickens, overzealous police inspectors, international criminal masterminds and most trying of all, his mother.