SPAGHETTI DINNER November 16th

GREAT SMALL WORKS SPAGHETTI DINNER

presents

The Expanding, De-Colonial Inevitable:

Puppets, Pasta and Performance

in Honor of Grace Lee Boggs**

MONDAY, November 16, 2015, 7:30 PM
MayDay Space - 176 St. Nicholas Avenue, Brooklyn (directions below)
Tickets: sliding scale $5-15 (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Info: 917-319-8104

featuring

+  Azure D. Osborne-Lee
Theatre Maker/Interdisciplinary Artist/Creative Writer Azure will read from new work [http://azureosbornelee.com]

+  Gregory Corbino
Cantastoria: Condimal for Presiden
Condimal to formally kick off presidential campaign (authorized by the Condimal for President Campaign Theme Song Committee)
With Cassandra Burrows, Joshua Lerner, and more!

+  Megan Hanley    
Forget. Repeat, a play about intergenerational memory and being chased by the Pope, based on writing by the artist’s parents. [wearethesyndicate.com]

+  Great Small Works

Three Graces, a cantastoria in which three mythical graces—Harmony, Strategy and Splendor—float down to earth for an op-art romp inspired by Grace Paley, Grace Kelly, Grace Jones and Grace Lee Boggs. Performers:  John Bell, Cassandra Burrows, Trudi Cohen, Gregory Corbino, Jenny      Romaine.

+ Music by Adam Matlock, accordionist, composer and vocalist
An Historic, the songwriting project of Adam Matlock, featuring songs formed around a core of accordion and voice and drawing influence from folk music, soul and punk.

** http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/grace-lee-boggs-dead_5612ae96e4b0af3706e17b3c

   [Great Small Works, The Three Graces]

DIRECTIONS: Take the L train to the Dekalb stop exiting at the intersection of Wyckoff Ave and Stanhope St. Walk against traffic on Stanhope and take a left one block up at St. Nicholas Ave. 

 

Funding made possible in part by the Puppet Slam Network [www.puppetslam.com] and by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. Thank you!

AN EVENING OF PAPER THEATER ON THE ROAD

Three countries meet on one small stage!

Great Small Works members Trudi Cohen and John Bell are teaming up with Facto Teatro from Mexico City and Barbara Steinitz from Berlin to share a program of Paper Theater for venues across New England.

Facto Teatro's "Don Chico con alas" is based on a story by the Mexican writer Eraclio Zepeda. To go from one village to another Don Chico must come down the mountain, cross the jungle, then the river and up the opposite hill. He decides he needs to build himself a pair of wings and fly, to reach the sky before national holidays.

"Living Newspaper, Episode Two: Sidewalk Ballet" contemplates the life of the city, featuring Jane Jacobs, Robert Moses, a burning bush, and the sidewalk.

Where noted, "Living Newspaper" will be replaced by Great Small Works' "Lyzer the Miser." Based on a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, clever Todie teaches greedy Lyzer a lesson about generosity.

In Facto Teatro and Steinitz's collaboration "Duraznos Azules," Pedro asks his grandmother why the peaches in her garden are blue.

In Paper Theater, also known as Toy Theater, flat paper figures evoke grand worlds, as they did centuries ago in the living rooms of European homes. Through international Toy Theater Festivals in New York and Mexico City, performances around the world, and workshops for people of all ages and persuasions, Great Small Works and Facto Teatro have been responsible for a resurgence of interest in this accessible, inexpensive form. The grandest of tales with the simplest of means! And—you can do it yourself!

TOUR ITINERARY:

Sunday, August 30, 5PM: Bread and Puppet Theater, Glover, VT. FREE.

Wednesday, Sept. 2, 7:30PM: AS220, 95 Empire Street, Providence, RI. $15 https://www.as220.org/event/paper-theatre-by-great-small-works-and-facto-teatro/

Thursday, Sept. 3, 7:30PM: Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, University of Connecticut, 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT. http://bimp.uconn.edu/

Saturday, Sept. 5, 7:30PM: Mayo Street Arts, 10 Mayo Street, Portland, ME. $12/advance, $15/door. http://mayostreetarts.org/event/trudi-cohen-john-bell-with-members-of-great-small-works/

Sunday, Sept. 6, 7 PM: Temple Stream Theater, Temple, ME. $10/general; $5/students and seniors; pay what you can

Tuesday, Sept. 8, 7PM: Pontine Theater, 959 Islington Street, Portsmouth, NH. $18. http://www.pontine.org/

Sunday, Sept. 13, 11AM and 3PM: Puppets in the Green Mountains Festival, Latchis Theater Ballroom, 50 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT. $10/general, $8/seniors and students. Bell and Cohen will present "Lyzer the Miser." http://puppetsinthegreenmountains.com/great-small-works-toy-theater-workshop-and-performance/

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 6:30 PM: Russell Library, 123 Broad Street, Middletown, CT. FREE. "Lyzer the Miser" will replace "Living Newspaper."

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 6:30 PM: Fair Haven School, 164 Grand Avenue, Fair Haven, CT. Sliding scale $5-$10, pay what you can.

Thursday, Sept. 17, 8PM: Jalopy, 313 Columbia Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY.  $12/adults, $5/kids (Facto Teatro only with guest performance by Joseph Therrien and Sam Wilson). Tickets at the door.

Saturday, Sept. 19th, 3PM: Teatro SEA, 107 Suffolk Street, New York, NY.  $20/adults, FREE/kids. (Facto Teatro only -- en espanol!) https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/10023487

Tour Info: 917-319-8104

World Premiere of Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls

Tuesday, June 16, 2015, 7 PM
YIVO Institute, 15 West 16th Street, NYC
Tickets: $15  Box Office: smarttix.com | 212-868-4444 

Great Small Works' brand-new production inspired by the lives and work of Yosl Cutler and Zuni Maud, whose Modicut Puppet Theater was the first Yiddish puppet theater in the U.S.  

The show will be introduced by Dr. Edward Portnoy, whose research in the YIVO Archives was the impetus for this project.

 

Memorial Day SPAGHETTI DINNER

GREAT SMALL WORKS presents a Memorial Day Spaghetti Dinner
Monday, May 25^th at Teatro SEA in lower Manhattan.

Join us with

PUPPETS, AND REJOICING IN SYSTEMIC CRITIQUE

GREAT SMALL WORKS presents new scenes in their developing work, Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls, based on the life and work of Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler and their 1930s Yiddish-language company, Modicut Puppet Theater.

Created and performed by John Bell, Trudi Cohen, Stephen Kaplin, Jenny Romaine and Roberto Rossi.

Written by Jenny Romaine

Music performed by Hannah Temple and Jessica Lurie

Guest performer Sam Wilson

Thanks to YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Dr. Edward Portnoy and the Jim Henson Foundation.

The Vagabond Puppeteers: Puppetry and Politics in 1939, a film by anthropologist and Rhode Island School of Design professor Winnie Lambrecht.

         The film shows political puppet theater performed one summer among dairy farmers in upstate New York by Pete Seeger, Jerry Oberwager, Mary Wallace and Harriet Holtzman, all in their early 20’s at the time.

Port Quincy’s Semi-Upright Puppet Co.

         New cantastoria for our time by Jason Hicks and friends.

Music by Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky (singing), Yonah Adelman (guitar & singing) and Maggie Schreiner (drums).

         We are a punk band that plays Yiddish anarchist and bundist songs (and some other Yiddish radical tunes) - the soundtrack to strikes, uprisings, assassinations, and revolutionary movements from Odessa and Vilna to New York and Galveston to Buenos Aires and Havana.  We sing these songs because they're bad-ass, because we believe in them and in the movements that made them possible, because we are part of those movements.

Monday, May 25, 7:30 PM

Teatro SEA, at El Clemente

107 Suffolk Street, New York, NY

Info:  718-840-2823

Tickets:  $15 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Great Small Works gratefully acknowledges support for Spaghetti Dinners from: NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NY State Council on the Arts, the Doctorow Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, and the Puppet Slam Network.  Thank you!

PURIMSHPIEL 2015! Three events in three days!

The Aftselokhes Spectacle Committee, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice & The Workmen's Circle present:

Your Roots Are Showing: An Underground Purim Botanical
Purim 2015! Three events, three days!

Join us for a long weekend of carnival and community celebration as we unveil the results of months of collaboration, organizing, rehearsing, and endlessly inventive spectacle engineering.

Thursday, March 5 - SHOW
Doors 8pm, Show 8:15
East Midwood Jewish Center
1625 Ocean Avenue between Avenue K & L, Brooklyn
Q to Avenue J

The dazzling premiere of our magnificent Purim show! A cozy performance of our folk pageant remixing the Book of Esther with the politics of the moment to bring you the visual and musical spectacular of the season! Featuring live music in many Jewish languages, giant puppets, intricate hand-made masquerade, an intergenerational cross-cultural cast, audience participation, homentashen, and more!

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Saturday, March 7 - PARTY AND PERFORMANCE
Doors 8pm, Show 8:30pm
East Midwood Jewish Center
1625 Ocean Ave between Avenue K & L, Brooklyn
Q to Avenue J

The party of the year! Join us for the luscious performance of our folk pageant, including bands, DJs, dancing, and revelry at our ecstatic all-night extravaganza.

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Sunday, March 8 - CARNIVAL FOR ALL AGES
1-4 PM
Union Temple
17 Eastern Parkway at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
2/3 to Brooklyn Museum, Q to 7th Ave, S to Botanic Gardens

A sumptuous, topsy turvy, social justice-themed Purim carnival featuring hand-made carnival games designed and built by kids and youth. Featuring an excerpt from the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committee's Purimshpiel! Fun for all ages! Wear a costume of your own, or dress up from our costume chest and strike a pose in our photo booth.

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To learn more about Purim programming and how to get involved follow us on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SpectacleCommittee

Each year (tfu tfu tfu) the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committee (TASC) produces a radical Purimshpil in cahoots with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ). The process of planning and realizing the Purimshpil is led by TASC in collaboration with JFREJ members, Youth Brigade leaders and staff, as well as a broad range of cultural workers, volunteers and social justice organizations and their members.

Co-sponsored by:
East Midwood Jewish Center
Great Small Works
Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives
Ma'yan
Union Temple

Spaghetti Dinner December 30th

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GREAT SMALL WORKS SPAGHETTI DINNERS

together with

GOH Productions and

THE ADRIENNE COOPER

DREAMING IN YIDDISH AWARD

present

Year-End Concert and Spaghetti Dinner                                    General Admission:  $25

Tuesday, December 30, 2014, 7:30PM                                         Tickets: tinyurl.com/acdiy-tix

Judson Memorial Church                                                                                          or 800-838-3006                 

55 Washington Square South, NYC

Advance ticket purchase will guarantee a seat.

Limited tickets available at the door.  No one turned away for lack of funds.

Witness the Adrienne Cooper Dreaming In Yiddish Award Ceremony honoring author, playwright and linguist Michael Wex.

Hear the rock stars of New Yiddish music.*

Experience the second work-in-progress showing of Great Small Works' new show:

                  Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls.

See projections created by Tine Kindermann, Stephen Kaplin and Jenny Romaine.

Remember Forgetting Finding, stilt dance by Alicia Gerstein and Michaela Lind.

Musical slide lecture by Eric Drooker about how the changing urban landscape has shaped his

                  political vision.

Bring your appetites and dancing shoes!

 *Featured Singers                                                                                        

Sarah Gordon                                     

Eleanor Reissa                                   

Daniel Kahn                                    

Judith Berkson                                  

Psoy Korolenko                                    

Jackie Mendelson                                           

Fredda Mendelson                   

Peter Sokolow                                    

 

*Band Members 

Frank London

Michael Winograd

Pam Fleming

Matt Darriau

Jessie Lurie

Patrick Farrell

Kenneth Bentley

Aaron Alexander

Lauren Brody

Marilyn Lerner                 

Great Small Works thanks the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Jim Henson Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, the Scherman Foundation, Mental Insight Foundation, Doctorow Foundation, and the Puppet Slam Network for their generous support.

Work-in-Progress Performance of New Great Small Works Show

MUNTERGANG and OTHER CHEERFUL DOWNFALLS
A work-in-progress performance of Great Small Works' newest project!

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11th, 7:00PM
YIVO Institute
15 West 16th Street, NYC

Admission:  General $15/YIVO Members $12
https://tix.smarttix.com/Modules/Sales/SalesMainTabsPage.aspx?ControlState=1&DiscountCode=&SalesEventId=3170&DC=

Box Office:  (212) 868-4444  









An Artist and Scholar Collaboration
Deep in the YIVO archives are the original puppets used by Modicut, Yosl Cutler and Zuni Maud's Yiddish puppet theater troupe.  The first of its kind in the United States, Modicut was known for satirical with that spanned the breadth of Jewish life.  GREAT SMALL WORKS, together with DR. EDWARD PORTNOY, bring the pair to life--and to a new audience--by portraying the rich Yiddish cultural context from which Modicut sprung, and re-staging original Modicut scripts. 

The program will consist of scenes from Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls, talks by Dr. Portnoy and Great Small Works company members John Bell and Jenny Romaine, a newly-unearthed song written by Yosl Cutler, and a Toy Theater adaptation of a Yiddish story for the edification of 1930's youth titled "Santa Klos Hot Gekhalisht" ("The Day Santa Klaus Fainted").