“The thing I ask the artist is: What’s urgent to you? And then also: What can you do with groups that you might not be able to do by yourself? There is a politic there. Some people address it head on in a very overt way, and others are more nuanced.”
Micharne Cloughley reflects on the Civilians’ season as the first-ever theater company-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for which she wrote the play “The Way They Live.”
In May of 2015, Jennie Hahn of Maine’s Open Waters performance collaborative launched a multi-year investigation into the Penobscot River. She invited writer Cory Tamler to help launch the project, which will inform a performance event in 2017.
“The breaking of gentrification, the breaking of cultural ties — it’s a lot of what is happening in Harlem for us right now. That’s what so many people talked about — just losing the thread of the community, of a kind of cultural identity.”
Writer/performers Ilana Becker and Emilyn Kowaleski are bringing two very different investigative theater works to Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, a series that highlights emerging artists throughout the month of June.
“The whole thing about a tech is that the designers are all trapped at tables… So, in a way, the degree to which an audience member is trapped in a seat is very much the way the designers are trapped at their stations.”
“We never felt like ‘professional’ professional artists.” German theater collective Turbo Pascal aggressively creates free and public art in a country where the state-run theater monopolizes professional opportunities.
Performance art duo PearlDamour investigates the corners of America in their latest community engagement experiment and site-specific performance “Milton.”
In his nearly 50-year career, investigative theater pioneer Ping Chong has explored some of the more controversial topics of our time and inspired others to emulate his methodology.
This episode of Let Me Ascertain You features performances from inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art based on past interviews surrounding the themes of beauty, love, and the body.
Playwright James Nokise — a former gang member — is making his U.S. debut with “So So Gangsta,” a blend of theatrical lecture and stand-up comedy, as part of the New Zealand Performance Festival at La MaMa in NYC.
“I don’t want to make a piece that bums people out. You can start to sound precious saying stuff like this, but in my mind, human connection and empathy are some of the highest aims of art.”
This episode of Let Me Ascertain You takes you to the heart of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, featuring performances based on interviews with curators about falling in love with works of art.
In 2009, the Civilians interviewed Kelly Shibari as part of the research for the new musical “Pretty Filthy.” Extended Play recently caught up with Shibari to see how the industry has changed since. Post contains NSFW images.
“I grew up in New York, I love gray. But then I moved to California and fell in love with blue.”
Copyright © Extended Play 2014
