Today, July 12, is the opening night of Art of Memory, a dance piece with some Brontë connections in New York:Categories: DanceOntological Hysterical Theater
at St. Mark's Church
131 East 10th St & 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10003July 12-21
8p.m.Conceived by Tanya Calamoneri
Four librarians trapped in a fantastical library search for an exit and create elaborate physical games that explore memory and illusion in Company SoGoNo’s stark atmospheric performance, Art of Memory.
Performed by Heather Harpham, Lisa Ramirez, Cassie Terman, Tanya Calamoneri
Dramaturgy/Text assembled by Lisa Ramirez
Directorial consultant: Kenn Watt
Sound Design by Allen Willner
Set Design by Sean Breault
Video Design by Ning Li
Lighting Design by Bruce Steinberg
Costume Design by Mioko Mochizuki
Weaving together text, Butoh dance, and original music, with elements of improvisation, Art of Memory is an examination of the mind and how it stores knowledge in the body. As the shifting nature of time threatens the librarian’s fragile sense of logic, they seamlessly inhabit the roles of handless maidens, the Brontë sisters, an ill wind, and minor deities. Comedic and dark by turns, the piece employs books, children’s games, alchemy and questions of being as it traverses internal landscapes of memory. Inspired by Frances Yeats’ Art of Memory, the text is both original, and collaged from Luis Borges The Library of Babel, Grimm’s Fairytales, and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
One librarian orchestrates a tower of Babel, the other three interpret the signs. All four characters invent and repeat game structures as an aid to memory, specifically “how to remember who you are” as they move from early childish games to more complex games of language, to curses, and adult games with cruel natures. Throughout, they physically articulate the simple desire of wanting to create order in chaos, and are constantly thwarted. Towers of books topple, the best laid curse goes awry, knowledge confuses rather than instructs, pencils are sharpened and hearts are twisted. In the final scene, an escape / disappearance / emergence into another world reveals all previous events to be a miniature history of the imagination's triumph.
Created and performed by Calamoneri, Cassie Terman, Heather Harpham, Lisa Ramirez, and a host of talented designers (see right column!), Art of Memory began in 2003 as a solo for a madwoman entitled Bottomless Pit, and has since evolved into a quartet for “researchers” of the mind’s body of knowledge. Core to the evolution of the piece is Calamoneri’s long-time study of Butoh and Action Theater™, and her wish to merge these forms in service of surreal and visual theater-making.
An intricate sculptural set design conjures the dark and magical tomes and includes slide projection, while Miguel Frasconi’s innovative sound design further transforms the sonic space with fading footsteps, ticking clocks and the eerie strains of glass music.
The Art of Memory was a remarkable, surreal experience that lingered long after the characters returned to the void. The Bronte connection mesmerized with eerie chords of remembrance and madness. Congratulations to the creators of memory.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience with us. Can you explain a little bit more how the Brontës were used in the piece ?
ReplyDeleteThe Bronte connection was a web of mindgames literally blown in on the wind from the moors. Each segment of the play had tenuous relations to each other always hovering on the edges of illusion and dreams. The Bronte element was powerful (no surprise there) and served as a link both literary and emotional to books and the essence of creation. The sisters whispered in furtive tones as if pursued by the Furies. Although separate entities, they combined to assume both an Emily persona and, subsequently, one of the inhabitants of the Heights. The Bronte connection was what drew me to the production and the densely textured flights of fantasy and creation were what kept me there. The site of the perfomance added to the hypnotic allure... St. Mark's Church in the East Village of New York City. Flanked by a churchyard with markers dating back to the 1700s, the church provided the perfect setting for such an unusual gem.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for your your very evocative description. We have included it on our latest post.
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