Embodied Poetics...

just wanted to give some props to the MFA in Contemporary Performance students...

MFA IN CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE IN COLLABORATION WITH MFA IN WRITING AND POETICS
Embodied Poetics Project Naropa University Wedesday April 19th 7:30 pm

Clouds
Written by Erin Sharp
Performed by Ashley Hughes, Meredith Crosley, Hadley Mays, Lizi Watt

Discourse
Written by Kristen Cirda & Rebehah West
Performed by Johanna Walker, Janna Meiring, Krista DeNiro

Weekend At The Lake
Written by Julie Dunbar
Performed by Colleen Mylott

Wearing Water
Written by Gia Opris
Performed by Mary Bevington

They Will Never Cease Falling
Written by Jack Collom
Performed by Kwesi Kwarteng Justice

Poetry (arhythmic)
Written by Jack Collom
Performed by Gleason Bauer, Shana Cordon, Krista DeNio, Angela Delichatsios, Christa Ray

"Said The Moth"
Written by John Sakkis
Performed by Perry Morgan-Hall, Johanna Walker

Jose-Phine
Written by Gia Opris
Performed by Shana Cordon

Therapy
Written by Robert Roley
Performed by Jenn Hicks

Luminous
Lyrics by Junior Burke
Music by Gary Grundei
Performed by Wendell Beavers, Ethelyn Friend, Gary Gurndei

it's hard to express how amazing this performance was (and not just because i had a piece in it)...these actors/ dancers had two weeks to create 10-12 minute pieces out of the work selected for them/ they selected...that entailed memorization, choreography, space concerns, music, lighting, staging, rehersals, execution...every piece was (as far as i could discern) flawless, beautiful, elegant, professional, engaging...hands down the best event i've atended at Naropa in my two year tenure...

my piece "Said The Moth," beautifully interpreted by Perry Morgan-Hall and Johanna Walker as a dance/ audience interactive poem, was executed using placards, ballet, experimental dance and call and response..a piece that takes at most 45 seconds to read from the page was realized into an amazing 12 minute phantasmagoria...using the audience to disect/ remove the lines from the "voices" speaking said lines, Perry and Johanna utilized a tape recorder to involve the audience's voice...they held placards up, the audience read the lines, they recorded the audience reading the lines (all flawless, all part of the performance, all directions given as part of the performance, never speaking a word that wasn't in my poem), then the cresendo...the tape was played back over the PA while the actors continued their performace of dance and voice...a strange experience being the author...a cacophony of strangers recorded reading your poem to the choreography of trained actors...i loved it and was infinitly impressed...

after the performace the chair of the MFA In Contemporary Performance, Wendell Beavers, invited the poets and actors up for a Q & A...a warm 30 minute conversation insued between audience/ poets/ actors/ directors...this was a true collaborative experience...we all concluded that these two MFA programs need to work together in the future...and the chairs of the programs concurred that they will...


read:

Live Action Arcade 04.06- ed. by Jon Leon and Allyssa Wolf/ featuring Jon Leon and Allyssa Wolf (Live Action Arcade) (thanks for sending along Jon/ Tenderloin What?!)
House Of Raging Women- Los Bros Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books)
Nova- Standard Schaefer (Sun & Moon Press) (thanks for sending along Standard)
ACTS 7- ed. by David Levi Strauss and Benjamin Hollander (ACTS)

...currently listening to Living Legends Crappy Old Sh*t...

oh and thanks to Krista DeNiro (a stranger before the performance) for the ride home...