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Monday, September 8, 2014
CIRCUS AMOK!!!!
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Background info for Encuentro workshop participants
WELCOME TO GREAT SMALL WORKS' WORKSHOP AT ENCUENTRO 2014!!
We will create together a processional performance titled "Hemispheric Casserole."
We want to reflect on the popular anti-austerity push-backs we are seeing throughout the hemisphere.
In our retelling of the story, the audience is led through a hemispheric transmigration of a melody, the melody in our case being the music of the “casserole,” the public sonic performance of banging on pots and pans.
The narrative of the piece was adapted from a story by I.L. Peretz, called The Transmigration of a Melody. The full text of this story, in Yiddish and English, can be found here:
http://ia700306.us.archive.
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As a musical thread, we will use an Uruguayan murga by Araca la Cana, called "Mientras Escriba y Cante." A recording of this song can be found here:
--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2YEPzC6mAY
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We will create together a processional performance titled "Hemispheric Casserole."
We want to reflect on the popular anti-austerity push-backs we are seeing throughout the hemisphere.
In our retelling of the story, the audience is led through a hemispheric transmigration of a melody, the melody in our case being the music of the “casserole,” the public sonic performance of banging on pots and pans.
The narrative of the piece was adapted from a story by I.L. Peretz, called The Transmigration of a Melody. The full text of this story, in Yiddish and English, can be found here:
http://ia700306.us.archive.
***********************
As a musical thread, we will use an Uruguayan murga by Araca la Cana, called "Mientras Escriba y Cante." A recording of this song can be found here:
--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2YEPzC6mAY
Here is some background information about murgas, compiled by Jenny Romaine:
Murga is a form of popular musical theater performed in
Uruguay and Argentina during the carnival season. Murga groups operate in the
Montevideo and Buenos Aires carnival. Though to a lesser extent
than in Montevideo, the Argentine murga is more centered on dancing and less on
vocals than the Uruguayan one. Uruguayan murga has a counterpart in
Cadiz, Spain, from which it is derived: the chirigota. Over time,
the two have diverged into distinct forms.
The murga is performed by a
group of maximum of 17 people, usually men, in the months prior to Carnival,
which takes place from late January to early March in Uruguay. Each group will
prepare a musical play consisting of a suite of songs and recitative lasting around
45 minutes. This suite will be performed
on popular stages in the various neighborhoods known as toblados
throughout the carnival period. Groups also vie against each other in an
official competition.
Lyrical content is based on a
particular theme chosen by the group which serves to provide commentary on
events in Uruguay and elsewhere over the proceeding year. Consequently,
murga lends itself well to being used as a form of popular resistance.
For example, during the dictatorship in Uruguay during the 1970s, groups like Araca
la Cana became known for their left-wing
tendencies, subversive commentary and oppositional stance.
A traditional murga group is
composed of a chorus and three percussionists. This is the type of murga
performed on stages; the singers perform in polyphony, using up to 5 vocal
parts. Vocal production tends to be nasal and loud with little variation
in volume. The percussion instruments derived from European military bands
are bombo, redolante, and platillos. Two most
important pieces of the performance are the opening song (the saludo) and
the exit song.
These get played on the radio
during the carnival period; some of them, such as the Saludo Araca la Cana 1937 are cherished by Uruguyans as cultural icons…
Murgistas dress in elaborate
colorful jester-like costumes. Staging is sparce, with minimal use of
props. Singers tend to be foregrounded, with percussionists at the back
or off to the side of the stage. Musical styles and rhythmic
structures have been incorporated into Uruguayan popular music.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Great Small Works at the Hemispheric Encuentro, Montreal June 21-28
Great Small Works will be conducting a workshop as part of the Hemispheric Encuentro happening at Concordia University in Montreal at the end of June. We are looking for people who would like to participate in our June 27th procession. Here's the info. If you are in Montreal, please join us!
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The Hemispheric EncUentro is
coming to town
June 20-27(Montreal)
Want to join in some
radical beautiful
processional theater
to celebrate?
HELLO! Great
Small Works, a visual theater collective (with branches in New York City,
Montreal and Cambridge), calling:
GSW: Can we join forces at the 2014 Encuentro in Montreal?
YOU
(Marvelous Montreal): What is this
all about?
GSW: Great Small Works and Alejandro Benítez from Facto
Teatro in Mexico City will be hosting a processional theater workshop daily
from 9-11 am at the Encuentro June 22-27.
We are thrilled to be part of the amazing brain trust gathering for this
convocation.
Marvelous
Montreal: Where do we fit in?
GSW: The processional theater workshop will build
towards a spectacular performance in public space with the accompaniment of a
brass band. In
5 sessions -- we’ll learn about parade history, politics and aesthetics, read
through a performance script and amend it with your stories, add translations,
choose performance locations, learn songs, work with puppets, make scenic
elements, dress up, and rehearse in a calm ecstatic fashion. On day 6 (June 27)
we will perform our show in public space with accompaniment by Montreal’s
Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble and friends.
We
are dearly hoping to collaborate in interesting ways.
The “Hemispheric Casserole”
procession
is centered on a giant scroll map of the American continent.
We want to reflect on
the popular anti-austerity push-backs we are seeing in NYC, Mexico and
Montreal. The narrative of the piece was adapted from a story by I.L. Peretz,
called
The
Transmigration of a Melody.
In our retelling of the
story, the audience is led through a hemispheric transmigration of a melody,
the melody in our case being the music of the “casserole,” the public sonic
performance of banging on pots and pans.
Learn an Uruguayan murga by Araca La Cana, remix Quebec favorite Libérez-nous des libéraux and more.
PLEASE JOIN US!!!!!
Location: Concordia University, Grey Nuns building
(GN-M101), street address 1185 St. Mathieu
Performance Date: 27 June. Morning
rehearsal/setup. Performance
4-6PM, beginning at Hotel Gouverneur, ending at Square Viger
Contact/Questions: Trudi Cohen, trudico@gmail.com,
for Great Small Works
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
World Puppetry Day Spaghetti Dinner
GREAT SMALL WORKS SPAGHETTI
DINNERS
with
TEATRO SEA and
THE PUPPETRY GUILD OF
GREATER NEW YORK
Celebrate
World Puppetry Day
Friday, March 21, 2014
7:00pm Celebrity
Puppet Red Carpet
7:30pm Reception
with Spaghetti
8:00pm Puppet
Cabaret
9:30pm Fiesta
Teatro SEA @The Clemente
107 Suffolk Street (Between
Delancey and Rivington), NYC
$15, to benefit UNIMA-USA
7:00pm Outdoors on Suffolk Street to welcome puppets of all shapes and sizes. Music by street band Not Ray's Famous Pizza Brass Band with Max Fass, Greg Squared and surprise guests!
7:00pm Outdoors on Suffolk Street to welcome puppets of all shapes and sizes. Music by street band Not Ray's Famous Pizza Brass Band with Max Fass, Greg Squared and surprise guests!
8:00pm Indoor cabaret with
MC Jenny Romaine, and performances
by puppeteers from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Moscow, the USA:
Teatro SEA
Excerpt
from The Legends of the Enchanted
Treasure
Four
children discover riches that last longer than material goods: they’re the
stories that make up a cultural patrimony. With animation and shadow, hand and rod puppets. Performed in
an easy-to-understand mixture of English and Spanish, it illuminates tales from
the Aztecs of Mexico, the Mayas of Guatemala, the Incas of Peru and the Taínos
of Puerto Rico.
Written
& Directed by Manuel Antonio Morán for Teatro SEA, a company which specializes
in Latino theater for children.
Great Small Works, the Aftselokhes Spectacle Committee and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Highlights
and traces of the sci-fi puppet Purim thriller
The Spawn of Estheralu: in
the Book of Parthenogenesis, the Next Generation
Chris Green
American Weather (work-in-progress title)
Deploying
ready-mades, live animation, human-actors, songs, and puppets to re-frame the
American condition as a fugue of surrealist micro-plays. Based on actual
conversations and inspired by the mythic power of American cliches,
Developed
in ensemble: Yoko Myoi, Erin K. Orr, Kirstin Kammermeyer, Chris Green,
and Quince Marcum
Music
by: C. Green
Chinese Theatre Works
The Ma Ma, Hu Hu Report
Skyped live from
Boston!
A panel
discussion on the state of the Zodiac, moderated by Horse and Tiger.
Stephen Kaplin,
Kuang-Yu Fong and Marta-Mozelle MacRostie
Laurencio Ruiz
ARMY
Is
a lovely mother with prosthetic arms; she’s breast-feeding her hungry baby
until the child falls asleep; out of the blue, the baby manages to get more
breast-feeding in a very unexpected way.
Miron Gusso
The Flea Circus
Charlie Kanev
The Little Match Girl
Kate Grow
Wayang Golek figures
Vicky Cosgrove
Finger puppets
Charlie Kanev
The Little Match Girl
Kate Grow
Wayang Golek figures
Vicky Cosgrove
Finger puppets
Guest appearance
by centenarian puppeteer Bernice Silver
Thursday, February 20, 2014
SPAGHETTI DINNER March 21, 2014
Great Small Works will collaborate with Teatro SEA and
Puppetry Guild of Greater New York to celebrate International Day of Puppetry. Outdoor puppet red carpet with live
music at 6:30. Indoor Spaghetti Dinner with pasta and puppet acts galore at
7:30. All proceeds will benefit UNIMA-USA. Stay tuned for details.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Teatro SEA, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
107 Suffolk Street, NYC
Monday, December 16, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
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