LOUP GAROU

August 6 – 8, Fri – Sun at 6:30 p.m.
Note time, which coordinates with the sun!

Created by ArtSpot Productions & Mondo Bizarro
Written by Raymond “Moose” Jackson
Directed by Kathy Randels
Performed by Nick Slie
Live Cajun Music by Whit & Barbara Connah
Set Design by Jeff Becker
Costumes by Susan Gisleson

From New Orleans, and far more timely than we could ever have guessed — a howl to the world about the precarious state of Louisiana’s wetlands & the interconnectedness of land, family legacy & culture.

Every half hour, Louisiana loses nearly a football field’s worth of coastal marshes to the Gulf of Mexico. Land loss is ubiquitous, occurring even in interior areas. Six major hurricanes in the last four years have exacerbated an already dire situation. In Louisiana, so many of our cultural traditions and industries derive directly from our relationship with the rich waters and swamps that surround us. What will become of those traditions as the land that nurtures them disappears?

Designed to be performed outside in a natural setting, LOUP GAROU is part performance, part ritual, part howl to the world about southeast Louisiana’s plight. We invite you to join us as we sing a song of love and hope for our precarious homeland.

Performed on the Amherst College Observatory Lawn off of Snell Street in Amherst. Bring blankets, lawn chairs (we will have some additional folding chairs available) and insect repellent, but leave the dogs at home! There is plenty of free parking nearby and handicapped people may drive up the hill to the site.

Tickets are $20 for Adults and $16 for Students & Seniors.  We also save a VERY limited number of $8 tickets which cannot be reserved. They are given to the first 10 people in line who request them at EXACTLY 5:30 p.m, one hour before the performance. Cash or check only.  NO CREDIT CARDS.

“This is a great creative work of anger, caution and imagination.”
— David Cuthbert, Steppin’ Out

NICK SLIE

lives and works on the disappearing wetlands of coastal Louisiana. He is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the New Orleans based performance collective Mondo Bizarro. He is an actor, director, writer, educator and community activist. Nick’s performance work ranges from physical theater to multi-disciplinary solo work, from digital storytelling to collaborative ensemble productions. He creates original works of performance that are rooted in a particular sense-of-place reflecting the needs, desires, memories and possibilities of the community from which it is born. In the last two years, he has collaborated on a vast array of local and national performance projects that include: co-creator/performer for Mondo Bizarro’s FLIGHT and Catching Him In Pieces; co-creator/performer for the national tour of UPROOTED: The Katrina Project; dramaturge for olive Dance Theater’s Brotherly Love; co-producer of The State of the National Art and Performance Festival and co-creative director of Mondo Bizarro’s post-Katrina story project The I-10 Witness Project (www.i10witness.org). He serves on the Executive Committee for Alternate ROOTS and is the Board Chair for the Network of Ensemble Theaters.

KATHY RANDELS

is ArtSpot’s founding artistic director. She has written, performed in, and directed numerous original solo and ensemble works for professional, prison and student ensembles throughout the world. She has received OBIE, Big Easy and Storer Boone awards, as well as Louisiana and NEA/TCG Theatre Fellowships. She was last seen at the Ko Festival in 2005 in NITA & ZITA, and before that in 2002 she performed RAGE WITHIN/WITHOUT – a solo theater piece about women who refused to turn the other cheek. She has alos taught two workshops at Ko – “THEATRE AND SOCIAL CHANGE: Theatre in Community” and BIOGRAPHICAL THEATER”

JEFF BECKER

is a sculptor and set designer and a 2009 recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Theatre Designers. He was a founding member of the performance group Crisus, which specialized in site-specific performances that utilized innovative kinetic sets, sculpture, film, machines, and live performance. He is a member of ArtSpot Productions. ArtSpot Productions is an ensemble of artists dedicated to creating meticulously LIVE theater in New Orleans. Our productions are a sincere blend of disciplines developed through ensemble authorship, physically rigorous training, original music, interactive sculptural environments, and extended research and rehearsal. We practice social justice and shared power in our creative and organizational processes, and we strive to incite positive change in our community with visually stunning performances and empowering educational programs.

ARTSPOT PRODUCTIONS

Founded in New Orleans in 1995 by Kathy Randels to produce her solo performance work, ArtSpot was incorporated in December 2000 and received its 501(c)3 status in October 2002. ArtSpot fosters the work of two primary projects: the ensemble — a physically-based performance company that trains together regularly — and The LCIW Drama Club, a theatre company comprised of inmates at The Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, that was founded by Kathy Randels in 1996 and is co-directed by Ausettua Amor Amenkum. In addition to creating performances in New Orleans that tour nationally and internationally, ArtSpot is dedicated to bringing nationally and internationally acclaimed performance work to New Orleans and the U.S., and to fostering opportunities for collaboration with those artists. They believe that all stories and voices within a community need to be expressed, and that performance is an essential element of collective healing for all communities, especially those whose voices are not often heard. ArtSpot is trying to revive and foster this belief through an emphasis on the process of creation, and through the celebration of the moment of performance when artists and audience come together to witness and share their collective dreams, sorrows, joys and lives.

MONDO BIZARRO

has been creating original, multidisciplinary art and fostering partnerships in local, national and international communities for the last six years. Based in New Orleans, we are a group of artists that have committed to labor as an ensemble over several years with the goal of establishing a body of work inspired by a particular set of commonly shared aesthetic and civic values. We are a collective of individuals that create, present and produce a wide array of imaginative projects aimed at utilizing art as a tool for understanding what makes us commonly human and individually unique. Our work is intentionally multidisciplinary, ranging from physical theater to large-scale community festivals; from social media to site-specific productions. Everything we do is fueled by the desire to develop brave new works of art that illuminate the beauty and travails of the human condition.

“A powerful statement that anyone who loves New Orleans and south Louisiana should see.” — Molly Reid, The Times-Picayune

“A perfect storm of vivid writing [and] spirited acting.” — Will Coviello, Gambit

ALICE

July 16-18, FRI, SAT & at 8 p.m., SUN at 4 p.m.

QUEST PRODUCTIONS (Washington DC/MD)
Created by Nick Olcott and Tim McCarty
Directed by Fred Beam and Tim McCarty
Original Score by Joseph McIntire
Lighting Design by Sabrina Hamilton

A high- flying, fanciful interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland, performed in “Visual Theatre” style. No talk — all movement!

A high flying, fanciful interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland. Created by Nick Olcott and TimMcCarty, Alice explores a young girl’s journey as she tries to find her way – through a forest filled with remarkable and strange creatures and through her equally confusing life at home.

The Baltimore Sun describes Quest’s work as “avant garde theatre for the whole family.” Alice enchants and entertains audiences of all ages. First premiered at QuestFest in Baltimore in 2008, the production features a talented ensemble of deaf and hard-of-hearing performers, working in a style called Visual Theatre that allows understanding by all people—regardless of their language, background, or ability Alice, is a pinnacle of Quest’s thirteen year history of creating work that has been performed from coast to coast in the US and at many international festivals.

In a year when we’ve been forced to think a lot about how young girls, in particular, do and don’t fit into our community, and about cultural difference, isolation and bullying, I think this particular take on The Alice in Wonderland story can a key part in our ongoing dialogue on the subject. BE SURE TO STAY FOR THE POSTSHOW DIALOGUE! —Artistic Director, Sabrina Hamilton

ABOUT VISUAL THEATER

Much of the work of Quest is created and performed in the style of Visual Theatre. Visual Theatre is an approach to performance where the central principles are that of movement and image. In visual theatre, performers communicate information, relationships, and emotion through movement styles, which may include traditional mime, dance, sign language, gesture, or circus arts. Other visual choices within a production might include puppetry, masks, or multimedia elements. Despite the focus on visual choices, a visual theatre presentation is not necessarily silent. Spoken word, music, and sound may be woven into the tapestry of the production. However, the essential meaning of any visual theatre piece is communicated through its visual vernacular. In this way, visual theatre is often seen as a universal art form that is highly accessible to audiences since it transcends the traditional barriers of language, culture, and ability.

ABOUT QUEST

Founded in 1997 and based in Lanham, MD, Quest is a group of artists, educators, and dedicated volunteers representing a diverse ethnic, cultural, and artistic panorama. All Quest members are committed to using the arts to oster understanding among all peoples, promote excellence and to enable individuals who have been marginalized to realize their full potential. Quest has performed throughout the United States as well as in China, India, South Africa and other countries. More than 40 percent of its performers are deaf or hard of hearing, and the company seeks performers from all backgrounds.

NICK OLCOTT

Nick Olcott directs frequently for the Kennedy Center. Other credits inclue Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the People’s Light and Theatre Company in Phildelphia and Jules Feiffer’s A Bad Friend for Theatre J in Washington, D.C. Additional credits include The Miracle Worker (Arena Stage), The Impresario/Viva la Mamma (Wolf Trap Opera Company), Heartbreak House (Round House Theatre), The Daughter of the Regiment (Boston Lyric Opera), and The Mad Dancers (co-directed with Liz Lerman at Theatre J). For the Voice of America, he has directed numerous plays for radio broadcast, including All My Sons (starring Julie Harris), Seven Days in May (starring Ed Asner), The Heiress (starring Amy Irving and Chris Noth), and The Best Man (starring Marsha Mason).

LOGISTICS

Holden Theatre, Amherst College. Tickets: $20 Adults / $16 Students/Seniors.
Box Office opens July 5. (413) 542-3750
Prior to that call (413) 427-6147 or email info@ko-6-5.mystagingwebsite.com
A very limited number of $8 SPECIAL RUSH TICKETS will be available at exactly 1 hour prior to curtain. Driving Instructions to Amherst College Amherst College campus map.

THE WOMAN WHO FELL FROM THE SKY

July 18, at 8 p.m. ONE SHOW ONLY!

performed by: The Mettawee River Theatre Company under the direction of Ralph Lee on the Amherst College Observatory Lawn off of Snell Street in Amherst.Bring blankets, lawn chairs and insect repellent, but leave the dogs at home!
Rain Space: Holden Theatre on the Amherst College campus.
Tickets: $8 Adults / $5 Children (12 & under).
Cash or check only, no credit cards.
No reservations necessary!

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WHEN WE DANCED

July 9-11, FRI & SAT at 8 p.m., SUN at 4 p.m.

written and performed by Gregory Ramos
directed by Joseph Megel
lighting by Sabrina Hamilton

True stories of LGBT/queer people from the Stonewall era – a celebrations of lives that once seemed impossible, and new struggles for self-definition and self determination as they confront age and aging

In the fall of 2007, Gregory Ramos’s partner shared an article in the The New York Times that explored the challenges facing aging gay and lesbian people. The article was accompanied by a photo of two men in a nursing home. One man in the photo is feeding his partner. Ramos wondered “Would this be me and my partner one day?”

Ramos started thinking about all the gay, lesbian and transgender people in this country and in other places around the world who have seen the enormous changes of attitudes and representations of queerness over the last 50, 60, 70 years. He began a quest to document the vital stories of LGBT/queer people who lived through much of the 20th and into the 21st Century. He began a series of interviews throughout the country asking his elders “What changes have they seen as queer people? How is being gay and lesbian now different than it was when they were coming of age, or coming out, or learning about their “otherness?”

We have lost and are close to losing the very people who fought, rallied, and resisted the social structures that once made queerness a crime, a mental disease, and caused us to lie about who we are to ourselves and to the world. WHEN WE DANCED is a theatrical tour de force, where Ramos transmutes into over a dozen characters — male, female, young and old, in order to share the perspectives and stories of those who laid the foundation and created the changes that have lead to domestic partnerships, civil unions, and (at least in some states) gay marriage.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? Visit www.gregoryramos.com

“You I just picked a wonderful time to be born — all these great strides are being made for gay people — even though I was born a few decades too early. But, I have a replaced hip that’s made all the difference . . . And Viagra! That’s new, and it’s just wonderful ” — Dave, in WHEN WE DANCED

Gregory Ramos

is perhaps most noted for his play Border Stories, another piece based on interviews he conducted with people on the U.S.—Mexico border. It premiered as an ensemble piece in Austin, Texas, before Ramos developed a solo version of the play that has been performed in in Boulder, Colorado; Burlington, VT and in New York City. The piece is an intimate theatrical montage about sex, fear, and love on the US-México Border. “I literally went into bars with fliers asking people to talk to me,” Ramos said of his work collecting 50 first-person interviews, later trimmed down to the 20 monologues of Border Voices. The result is a show that evokes the complex symbolism of the border, not in academic language, but via the embodiment of the personal stories of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Chicanos living in El Paso, Texas; Juarez, Mexico; and Las Cruces, N.M.

Ramos studied and taught dance in Los Angeles, California before beginning his professional career there as a dancer. He danced in Television and Film as well as stage shows in Las Vegas and Tokyo. He went on to study acting at Playwrights Horizons in New York City, and privately with Ellen Burstyn. He subsequently appeared in several TV commercials and sitcoms. As a performer, he has toured the U.S and Europe appearing in West Side Story and The King and I with Yul Brynner (his first job as a member of Actor’s Equity Association). He also appeared in numerous plays along the way. He transitioned from performing to writing and directing after completing his MFA in playwriting at UCLA. His play Border Stories, based on interviews he conducted with people on the U.S.—Mexico border has been performed in Austin, Texas, and Ramos has performed a solo version of the play in Boulder, Colorado and in New York City. When he was on Faculty at The University of Texas El Paso, he created the Latino Guest Artist program and served as artistic director of The Border Public Theatre.

His one-act play Reaching Mercy was performed in New York City as part of the New York Summer One-Act Play Festival and his short play Breasts was performed by The Working Group Theatre Company. Shows he has directed (and/or choreographed) include: Once on this Island, Evita, Cabaret, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Santos & Santos, Real Women Have Curves, Confessions of Women from East L.A., and Our Town. He has served on The Texas Commission on the Arts Performing Arts Panel, and is currently on the faculty at the University of Vermont where he has taught Chicano Theatre, Playwriting, Acting, and Theatre Diversity courses.

JOSEPH MEGEL

is artist-in-residence in Performance Studies at The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Department of Communication Studies where he runs the Process Series: New Plays in Development. He has spent the last 25 years focusing on the direction and development of new works for theatre, film and video. He is Co-Artistic Director of StreeetSigns Center for Literature and Performance in Chapel Hill, NC. He served for six years as Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre in New Jersey, and continues to serve as Co-Executive Director of Harland’s Creek Productions; producer of New York premiers of new plays, developmental producer of screen plays, readings and films. A few of his directorial credits include Guillermo Reyes’s Men on the Verge of Hispanic Breakdown in its Off-Broadway production (Outer Critics Circle Award) and in Los Angeles (Best Director Ovation Award nomination, Best Production Award winner). Elsewhere; the direction of Jennifer Maisel’s The Last Seder at EST West in Los Angeles, Theatre J in Washington D.C., The Organic Theatre in Chicago (winner of the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays and other awards); Derek Goldman’s adaptation of Studs Terkel’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken in Chapel Hill and Washington D.C. (starring David Strathairn, Theordore Bikel, and Kathleen Chaulfant). He recently devised The Virtual Performance Factory for the CHAT Festival at UNC Chapel Hill commissioning works by playwrights Christine Evans, Jim Grimsley, Keith Haris Orkin, and Jennifer Maisel, with created digital media by Icarus Studios.

“You don’t have to be gay like me to be concerned about growing old. And I don’t just mean the fading beauty aspect of it but I will tell you, that hit me hard, really hard, being a female impersonator, right? I don’t care how good you are with a makeup brush, Marilyn Monroe lived to be 36, see what I’m saying? No one wants to see her look 46 or 56!”
— Geneva, in WHEN WE DANCED

“I didn’t come out ‘til I was in my late 60s. You try getting a date with a hot good looking guy when you’re 68!  And the abuse you get from younger people in the bars or on the internet . . .”
— Dave, in WHEN WE DANCED

POETIC LICENSE

July 23-25 FRI & SAT at 8 p.m., SUN at 4 p.m.

written & performed by ERIKA BATDORF (Toronto)
directed by Todd Hammond
music by Edgardo Moreno

Have you wanted to walk out on your life? Marti has . . .

Meet Marti, a creative writing professor, trying to balance writing, motherhood and academia. She opens the show with a hilarious university lecture challenging her students to think about what is truly radical – and then sets them an unforgettable example . . .

Meet Kathryn, Marti’s sister. Paralyzed with multiple sclerosis, she dares you to imagine desire in the context of eternity, the craving for things you will never have — like chocolate . . .

And meet their mother, a spunky, ruffian of a guardian angel who has no idea how to guide her daughters. She will ask you, the audience, to help — by offering you cookies. Each cookie represents a different option: if you choose the the full moon, you would stay in your current life, as it is. If you choose crescent moon you are undecided. And if you choose the dark moon – the chocolate cookie – you would walk out of your life. Which will you choose . . . ?

The piece raises questions such as: is education biased? What is bias? What is radical? What is inappropriate in the context of an academic environment? Including poetry by Yeats, Blake, Kerouac, Tahirih (an Iranian poetess who was killed in the 1840’s), Oliver, Ginsberg, Baudelaire, Pound, Wilde, Plath, Eliot and Artaud, POETIC LICENSE invites you to enter a funny, magical world where poetry is edible, ruffian angels describe paradise and family ties bind.

75 minutes. For ages 12 and up.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? Visit www.batdorf.org

Recipient of 3 DORA AWARD nominations for “Outstanding New Play or Musical,”
“Outstanding Performance by a Female” and “Outstanding Direction”

ERIKA BATDORF

has created, directed, performed and choreographed original theatrical work since 1983 and her work has appeared in such places as the Smithsonian Institute, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Landegg Academy for International Development in Switzerland, Nine Dragon Heads International Arts Symposium in Korea, Harvard University, National and International Movement Theatre Festivals in New York City, Philadelphia and New Hampshire, the Women’s Theater Festival in Philadelphia, the Boston Center for the Arts and in NYC for PS122, Dixon Place, Moonworks and the NY International Fringe Festival. Erika Batdorf has also performed for United Nations conferences in Switzerland and Denmark and the International Women’s Playwrights Conference in Indonesia. Her works have appeared in Toronto at Theatre Passé Muraille, The Theatre Centre, Factory and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in the Hysteria and Rhubarb! festivals. She has had four Dora nominations; one for performance, two for new plays and one for directing. She is currently directing two new productions for 2010; Peer Gynt for the Thistle Project opened in January and an interdisciplinary piece inspired by Tahirih, a notorious Persian poetess from the 1800’s to open June 2010 in Toronto’s International Luminato Festival. Batdorf has taught at the Boston Conservatory, Brandeis University, Emerson College and the University of Alaska at Anchorage. She founded the Batdorf School for Movement Theatre in 1998 in Boston and has been a guest artist in universities and theatres internationally. She currently is the Graduate Program Director of the Theatre Department at York University in Toronto, and will teach acting in the opera workshop offered by Queen of Puddings this summer in Toronto. She recently returned from a work exchange with The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards.

***** “Moving effortlessly from dry comedy to a gorgeous movement piece, Poetic License is a warm-hearted, well-crafted theatrical essay on desire… a stunning and absorbing performance in its entirety… ” — EYE WEEKLY

“License to Thrill…hilarious and thoughtful…emotionally compelling, visually elegant…the very best thing about Poetic License is Batdorf’s humour…watching Batdorf was the highlight of my week, possibly my month.” — NOW MAGAZINE

“Daring but moving theatre…a transporting event. Erika Batdorf is a phenomenon.…transporting and incredibly affecting ….this could be a play that brings the masses into more daring theatre.…Poetic Licence — and Erika Batdorf in whatever she next does— is an experience no one should miss.” — TOWN CRIER

“A brilliant play is performed by its multitalented writer. Poetic License played brilliantly by Erika Batdorf,…captivating the audience’s attention.…This interactive process somehow binds the actor and the spectators together.…It is women’s experience on stage that can ignite a change in you.” — BANGKOK POST

“She’s poetry in motion. Batdorf is one of a kind…an electric presence even offstage…she is also unforgettable.” — TORONTO STAR