What We've Been Up To!!!

Great Small Works Activities 2011- June 2012

PERFORMANCES AND TOURING

March 18-19
Toy Theater After Dark, Open Eye Theater, Minneapolis
Performance and panel discussion
 http://www.walkerart.org/calendar/2011/toy-theatre-after-dark-open-eye-figure-theatr

April 6
International Puppetry Conference, University of Connecticut
Perform at puppet cabaret   http://puppetconference.uconn.edu/home.html

June 19-24
Banners and Cranks Festival
Premiere performances of Three Graces at Brooklyn Bridge Park and HERE Art Center
http://s1209.photobucket.com/albums/cc385/BannersAndCranks/Opening Ceremony - Brooklyn Bridge Park - June 19/?action=view&current=_DSC2454.jpg

http://www.greatsmallworks.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

http://bannersandcranks.wordpress.com/about/

July 28
Puppets on the Sound festival, Huntington, Long Island
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1482&bih=1043&tbm=isch&tbnid=8Cwp4DliU5ayOM:&imgrefurl=http://greatsmallworks.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html&docid=Rm2N87RPoFHegM&imgurl=http:ht

September 17
Perform at Puppet Slam, University of Connecticut
puppetslam.com

October 31-November 4
Suspense Festival, London, U.K.
Toy Theater performances, workshop, panel discussions
http://www.suspensefestival.com/content/home

November 18-19
Velaslavasy Panorama, Los Angeles, hosted by Automata
Premiere performances of Soil Desire People Dance
http://www.experiencela.com/calendar/event/42592
http://www.panoramaonview.org/
http://www.manualarchives.org/automata.htm

February 3-4
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Performance program, with talk-backs
http://middletown-ct.patch.com/blog_posts/interview-with-mark-sussman-85-co-founder-of-great-small-works
http://scribblers.us/nhtj/?p=2496

March 8-10
Castelliers Festival, Montreal
Performance and workshop
http://finearts.concordia.ca/newsandevents/events/fofa-gallery-feb-13-to-mar-11.php
http://greatsmallworks.blogspot.com/2012/02/toy-theater-of-terror-as-usual-in.html

March 29
Columbia University, NYC
Premiere of new Toy Theater of Terror As Usual episode

June 21-24
Toy Theater festival in Mexico City  Festival Internacional de Teatro de Papel, http://forodeltejedor.com/boletos/index.php?cPath=1_12&nombreEvento=Festival+Internacional+de+Teatro+de+Papel

WORKSHOPS, ARTS IN EDUCATION, COMMUNITY PRODUCTIONS

January-May 2011

P.S. 84, Astoria, Queens
Cantastoria  workshops with 5th and 6th graders on “Respect in Queens”
Sponsored by Queens Museum of Art and NYC’s CASA program

March 19
You Better Work, a Very Precarious Purim, a Pageant of Laborers and Lovers
Collaboration with intergenerational team of individual designers, organizers, builders and performers, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and Domestic Workers United.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/violentgrind/5544815869/in/photostream/
http://www.greatsmallworks.blogspot.com/2011/03/purim-march-19th.html

July 24, Ice Cream Sunday is Coming!  Old fashioned homo-sexual Ice Cream Social with full gender spectrum Dairy Royalty Pageant, Dixon Place, NYC
Co-sponsored with Milk Not Jails and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.   milknotjails.wordpress.com, http://www.greatsmallworks.blogspot.com/2011/07/ice-cream-sunday-is-coming_17.html

July-August
Production sessions with Sara Peattie to build chickens for indoor and outdoor performances directed by Jenny Romaine
https://picasaweb.google.com/lpaulina/ChickenWorkshop?feat=email

September 15-24
Truth in Gay Clothes: Your Goose Is Cooked.  Sukkos Mob takes to the streets of NYC, reinventing the traditional harvest holiday with live music, Yiddish/Spanish/English languages, and giant chickens.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2496355056885.2143597.1493108224&type=3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/workmenscircle/4034217659/in/photostream/

January-March 2012
Return to P.S. 84 in Queens with workshops sponsored by CASA and Queens Museum.

March 3, 2012
My Hamentashn Are Killing Me: A Purim Ball for the Body, this year’s installment of the annual Purim bash, with dozens of artistic and activist collaborators in collaboration with  JFREJ and the Caring Across Generations campaign. 
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151389500960301.820049.687650300&type=3

http://www.facebook.com/search/results.php?q=chickens jenny romaine&init=quick&tas=0.8459655395708978 - !/photo.php?fbid=782289763014&set=a.782289353834.2197260.13303042&type=1&theater

http://caringacrossgenerations.org

SPAGHETTI DINNERS AND SOIREES

Spaghetti Dinners:

September 24, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150293353742109.333275.718702108&type=3

December 30, Judson Memorial Church, NYC

January 31, 2012, One Arm Red, Brooklyn

Soirees (new event in GSW studio for sharing of developing work):

April 10
May 22
June 12
October 23
February 19

STUDIO
Moved from 45 Main St. to 20 Jay St. in May-June, the 5th move in 11 years, and second move in 12 months.  Now stable with a 5-year lease and reduced monthly rent.  Studio has been very lively with use by other artists who contribute to rent, including:  Chinese Theatre Works, Foundry Theater, Hungry March Band, Rob Ebeltoft, and Occupy Wall Street Puppet Guild.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKNQU_nJGj4&feature=relmfu

OTHER

Exhibition of Great Small Works: Terror As Usual, Episodes 1-12 installed at FOFA Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal.  Retrospective of the series, originally built with the Queens Museum of Art in 2010.

JUNE GREETINGS

June Greetings!

It occurs to us, as we live on the planet, that sometimes the most interesting cultural performances going on are not taking place in theaters!

Here, for your inspiration, is a list of activities GSW folk are possessed by this month.  Enjoy. ..
1. Milk Not Jails (Dairy Distribution business) is now open for business in New York City with Music and Performance! 
Milk Not Jails is a new brand of dairy products made by New York dairy farmers who are committed to preserving agriculture in rural New York and to dismantling our state’s dysfunctional prison system.  Sign up and shop to transform NY state with milk, ice cream, cheese, ice cream, butter and yogurt! 
http://milknotjails.wordpress.com                              

GSW and affiliated artists will be rocking the opening week ceremonies. Schedule below .

Saturday June 2 Rude Mechanical Orchestra 12:30-1:15
Location: M'Finda Kalunga Community Garden, Rivington between Forsyth and Christie, New York, NY  Stanton Street “Meet the Farmer” Event 12-2pm

Sunday June 3 Bond Street Theater Stilt Band 4-5 
Location: Joseph Daniel Wilson Memorial Garden, 216 West 122nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, New York, NY. Harlem “Meet the Farmer” 4-6pm

Tuesday June 5  Kenny Wolleson vibraphone duets 6-8
Brooklyn Beet CSA 5:00-8:00pm Location: YWCA, 70 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Wednesday June 6
Brooklyn Bridge CSA 6:00-8:00pm
Rima Fand and Sarah Alden fiddles 6:30-8
Location: Congregation Mt. Sinai, 250 Cadman Plaza West, Brooklyn, NY

Wednesday June 13

Flatbush Farm Share   5:00-8:00pm
Location: Flatbush Reformed Church, 890 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Mariel Berger, accordian 6:30-8

2. LGBTQ month special gift: groundbreaking grassroots kids series SEZ ME premiers. www.sezme.me created by long time GSW collaborating artists Mor mornography Erlich and Lee Frisari.  Kids both interview and are interviewed by members of the community who represent non-traditional gender expressions  The interviews are unscripted and the resulting topics effortlessly flow from hobbies to haircuts, fashion to fantasy, the genderization of color to the basics of identity and human rights.

3. Roberto Rossi performs in Margaret Leng Tan's SATIEfaction
Satie and Satie-inspired music from John Cage, Toby Twining, Federico Mompou and Milos Raickovich, performed on piano and toy piano
with Roberto Rossi, narrator, Ranjit Bhatnagar, sound artist
at Roulette
Wednesday, June 6, 8:00 pm
509 Atlantic Ave (On the corner of Atlantic & 3rd Aves), Downtown Brooklyn

http://roulette.org/events/margaret-leng-tan-6/

4. And more:

June 19-24, Great Small Works will travel to Mexico City to participate in Mexico's first Toy Theater Festival, hosted by our friends from Facto Teatro.  

July 20-21, Great Small Works will participate in the third incarnation of Banners and Cranks, presented by cantastoria genius Clare Dolan and graphic artist Dave Buchen, at Jalopyin Red Hook, Brooklyn (more info coming soon!) 

 

Stephen Kaplin and John Bell are right this moment in Chengdu, China.

John is representing U.S. puppeteers at the quadrennial congress of the international puppet organization, UNIMA. Stephen is performing at an affiliated international puppet festival with Chinese Theatre Works and Bread and Puppet Theater in a new shadow-puppet collaboration.

  Hamidreza Ardalan, Poupak Azimpour and their kids Neekbanoo, Neekjan (from Iran), Basil Twist, and John Bell in a Chengdu theater before a performance of Three Tales of China by Shaanxi Folk Art Theatre Co., Ltd. (for which Stephen Kaplin constructed giant talking lion statues in 2005.)

And Mark Sussman is banging on his casserole in Montreal, in support of massive student demonstrations against province-wide tuition hikes and anti-free speech legislation designed to silence protests.

See you in the streets this summer! 

John, Trudi, Jenny, Mark, Stephen, & Roberto