Bi-lingual, Inter-disciplinary Soundpainted MACBETH

Premiering October 1-3, 2009 at the Irondale Center, NYC

MACBETH VARIATIONS II: A Shakespeare Soundpainting

“The Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble merges music, theater, improvisation, and structured composition into a total multi-media experience – a ‘happening’ in which art leaps off the wall and into the seat next to us.” -Asbury Park Press

“An event that brings together musicians, puppeteers, dancers, and  actors in an audacious version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  Shakespeare would have been proud of this modern take of his classic.”     -Daniel Brown, Radio France

NEW YORK, OCTOBER 1-3, 2009 -  MACBETH VARIATIONS II is the second stage of an international collaboration between NYC-based Strike Anywhere and Paris-based ANITYA. Using physical theater, modern dance, improvised new music and a live composing sign language called Soundpainting, the piece explores excerpts from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” to create a highly-charged interdisciplinary performance event that is different every night.  Performed in French and English.  The event is scheduled at the Irondale Center October 1-3, 2009 at 8PM.  The Irondale Center is located at 85 South Oxford Street, (between Lafayette and Fulton) Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NYC. By subway; take the C train to Lafayette Avenue , the B, D, M, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4, or 5 train to Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street or the G train to Fulton Street.  Tickets range from $20-$40 and can be purchased at:  www.strikeanywhere.info.

Established in 1997 by Artistic Director, Leese Walker, STRIKE ANYWHERE is a permanent ensemble of world-class jazz musicians, modern dancers, and actors.  Performers collaborate through an improvisational process to create politically-charged, original works that address socially-relevant issues. Strike Anywhere has toured extensively.  The company has been featured on Radio France, NPR, WBAI and German Public Radio and has appeared at: B.A.M., American Airlines Theater, The Zipper Factory, P.S. 122, St. Clements, Theatre for the New City, Galapagos, and HERE Arts Center.  ANITYA was created in January 2006 by French composer Christophe Cagnolari to explore multi-disciplinary performance and to acquire a fluid mastery of Soundpainting.  The group is comprised of 20 artists—classical and jazz instrumentalists, actors, dancers, and lighting designers.  For more information, please visit: www.strikeanywhere.info and www.anitya.fr.

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For further information, photos or press reservations, please contact:

Leese Walker (646) 298-4116 / office@strikeanywhere.info / www.strikeanywhere.info

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

MACBETH VARIATIONS II is a set of improvised inter-disciplinary compositions exploring Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Just as jazz musicians improvise on jazz standards finding infinite variety within classic tunes, improvisers use Shakespeare’s text as the melody from which they depart.  The performance features on-stage conductors who sculpt the improvisation through a complex sign language called Soundpainting.  Soundpainting is the live composing sign language created by New York composer Walter Thompson for musicians, dancers, and actors. Both companies are the foremost practitioners of Soundpainting in their respective countries.  These performances are the result of a multi-year international collaboration between NYC-based Strike Anywhere and Paris-based ANITYA. Using shadow puppets, modern dance, improvised new music, physical theater and Soundpainting, the piece explores excerpts from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” to create a highly-charged interdisciplinary performance event that is different every night.  Performed in French and English.

STRIKE ANYWHERE Established in 1997 by founder and Artistic Director, Leese Walker, Strike Anywhere is a permanent ensemble of world class jazz musicians, modern dancers, and actors.  Its work is guided by the words of Bertolt Brecht, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”  Performers collaborate through an improvisational process to create politically-charged, original works that address socially-relevant issues. Strike Anywhere has toured extensively.  Its critically acclaimed show, 10 BRECHT POEMS, toured nationally to over 40 venues and aired in full on local NYC television.  Strike Anywhere has been featured on Radio France, NPR, WBAI and German Public Radio. The company has appeared at: B.A.M., American Airlines Theater, The Zipper Factory, P.S. 122, St. Clements, Theatre for the New City, Galapagos, and HERE Arts Center.  For more information, please visit: www.strikeanywhere.info

ANITYA was created in January 2006 by French composer Christophe Cagnolari.  The group is comprised of 20 artists—classical and jazz instrumentalists, actors, dancers, and lighting designers.  The orchestra rehearses weekly to acquire a fluid mastery of Soundpainting.  Christophe Cagnolari—soundpainter, composer, saxophone—graduated in musicology at Paris IV Sorbonne and in ethnomusicology at Paris X.  He  also earned a masters degree in gamelan in Bali and won first prize in harmony/counterpoint, awarded by the city of Paris.  In addition to Cagnolari, three artists from the ANITYA company will participate in the Phase II collaboration on Macbeth Variations: Maxime Nourissat (actor/toured internationally with Marcel Marceau and worked with him until his death), Maud Ivanoff (actor), and Thierry Jozé (actor).  For more information, please visit: www.anitya.fr

For further information, photos or press reservations, please contact:

Leese Walker (646) 298-4116 / office@strikeanywhere.info / www.strikeanywhere.info

New York City, New York, March 9, 2009 – Anthony Braxton, one of music’s most original composers and instrumentalists, has composed a new work in collaboration with Soundpainter Walter Thompson and the Walter Thompson Orchestra. Mr. Thompson will combine Mr. Braxton’s Language Music System with Soundpainting – the multidisciplinary live – composing sign language created by Mr. Thompson. The concerts will feature performances by Anthony Braxton, a woodwind virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist and the fifteen musicians and actors of the Walter Thompson Orchestra. Performances will run from April 16, 17, and 18, 2009 at 7:30 pm at The Irondale Center in the historic Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY, between Lafayette and Fulton Streets. Tickets are $20/$15 (for students and working artists) and can be purchased by going to www.irondale.org or by calling 212.352.3101.

Mr. Thompson will Soundpaint Mr. Braxton’s notation, text, and drawings (called Palettes in the Soundpainting language) and then transform them in the canvas of the work. They become the colors and textures used by Mr. Thompson to shape and guide the overall direction of the piece. The resulting composition will be created entirely in the moment. Each of the three performances will assume a unique shape dependent on the recombination of the Palettes, the Soundpainter’s gestures, and the response of the performers. In this unique form of artistic collaboration, the components of the Soundpainting coalesce to saturate the performance in a dynamic interplay.

“There is no end to the variations and combinations possible in Walter Thompson’s Soundpainting. Elating!” – Sonloco, Sweden

“Imagine a great erector set where every component can be refashioned based on the dictates of the moment.” – Ted Panken, on Anthony Braxton, Downbeat Magazine

The Walter Thompson Orchestra commissioned this project by Anthony Braxton with the support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. The Walter Thompson Orchestra is supported by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. For further information about Anthony Braxton visit www.akamu.net, and for Walter Thompson, www.soundpainting.com.

The Irondale Project, established in 1983, is a theater company that creates and presents original work, through the research and exploration of emerging themes in our society. Irondale has produced 42 major Off-Broadway shows including the American premier of Brecht’s Conversations In Exile and 16 original pieces. Irondale is a constituent member of TCG Art New York and founding member of the Network of Ensemble Theaters and is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

RESERVE YOUR TICKETS NOW

for the
ENSEMBLE THEATER SHOWCASE

January 11, 2009 6PM or 9PM at the Interart Theatre

Puppet Victims, 60 Second Plays, Soundpainted Shakespeare & Visceral Physical Theater!
For one special night, ensemble theaters from across the United States
converge in New York City, offering an exclusive glimpse of work
representing the forefront of American theater.

Ensemble Theater is where boundaries are being pushed,
where innovation is happening,
where risk-taking is the base-line of creation.
In conjunction with the 2009 Arts Presenters Conference

Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble presents

THE R & D WING
An Ensemble Theater Showcase

ONE NIGHT ONLY
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Interart Theatre, NYC

Join us for this exciting evening of inspired performances
from members of the Network of Ensemble Theaters (N.E.T.)

Post-show cocktails in theater lobby.

Featuring: Watts Village Theater Company, Strike Anywhere,
Sandglass Theater, The NY Neo-Futurists,
foolsFURY & Blessed Unrest
performing 15 minute excerpts of recent work

Show times: 6 P.M. AND 9 P.M.
Limited seating available.
Reservations required: 212.875.7476
The Interart Theatre
500 W. 52nd Street, NYC (Just West of 10th Ave.)

Visit N.E.T. at Arts Presenters in New York,
Rhinelander Gallery – Booth 115

THE R & D WING – PARTICIPATING ENSEMBLES

Watts Village
Watts Village Theater Company is dedicated to the development and production of new plays by L.A. based-playwrights addressing the issues and interests of LA’s underserved community of Watts. Weights is Lynn Manning’s award winning, autobiographical solo tour de force. Through gut-wrenching poetry and storytelling, Manning revisits the night he was shot and blinded in a Hollywood bar, and reveals how growing up, impoverished, in South-central Los Angeles prepared him to confront the challenges to come. For more info: Click Here!

The Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble
The Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble is a collective of world-class jazz musicians, modern dancers and actors. They improvise collaboratively to create politically-charged, original works. Meditations on Macbeth is a set of inter-disciplinary compositions using Shakespeare’s play Macbeth as the source material. Improvisers slice, dice and Soundpaint the text to create a 3-D collage that up-ends expectation and is different every night. For more info: Click Here!

Sandglass Theater
Sandglass Theater is an internationally known theater company specializing in the use of the puppet and visual imagery. Since 1982, the company’s productions have toured to 24 countries and won several international prizes. Richard 3.5: Light Ruminations on Murder is a collaboration with award-winning physical comedian Bob Berky. This ragtime cabaret version of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy features 11 murders, 7 songs and a bevy of puppet victims created right before your eyes! For more info: Click Here!

The New York Neo-Futurists
The New York Neo-Futurists is a wildly prolific group of writer-performer-directors, who, on a weekly basis, create Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, an NYIT Award winning, energetic, ever-changing attempt to perform 30 original plays in 60 minutes. The show is a collage of the comic and tragic, the political and personal, the visceral and experimental, embracing chance, change and chaos. For more info: Click Here!

foolsFURY
foolsFURY was recently named San Francisco’s “Best Theater Company” (SF Weekly). The company focuses on inspired uses of the body, and offering visceral experiences for audiences that cannot be replicated on film or television. In Monster in the Dark, a collaboration with acclaimed novelist Doug Dorst, a flood wipes away an eerily familiar society where an invasive government, powerful commercial interests, and an overzealous religion are often indistinguishable.

Blessed Unrest
Blessed Unrest has been producing dynamic, disciplined, and exuberant original plays since 1999. Winner of the 2008 N.Y.I.T. Award for Outstanding Production of a Play, Burn, Crave, Hold journeys from a café in Paris, through the Congo rainforest, to a rice paddy in Vietnam with reporter James Wilde. For more info: Click Here!

N.E.T. is a national coalition of over 100 distinct ensemble theatre companies representing over 1800 individual members. N.E.T. links a diverse array of ensembles and practitioners to one another and the performing arts field, encouraging collaborations and disseminating knowledge and discoveries. N.E.T. supports bold artistic and civic experiments and aims to heighten the impact and excellence of Ensemble Theater.

N.E.T. is the place where the national conversation about ensemble theatre is happening.
All of the companies featured in THE R & D WING are N.E.T. Members.
Strike Anywhere is the curator and producer of this showcase.

STRIKE ANYWHERE PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLE
P.O. Box 2396 Times Square Station
New York, NY 10108
212-875-7476