Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College 2014-15 Season

REATIVE ONNECTIONS

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Fall 2014 ///////////////// Spring 2015

FEBRUARY

04WED / 7:30 p.m.

Voice: If Music Be the Food of Love

11WED / 7:30 p.m.

Dogs of Rwanda by Sean Christopher Lewis

18WED / 7 p.m.

The Grand Parade (of the 20th Century)Double Edge Theatre

28SAT / 11 a.m.

Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys

MARCH

25WED / 7:30 pm.

Nevabawarldapece by Robert Moses’ Kin

APRIL

08WED / 7:30 pm.

This World Made Itself by Miwa Matreyek

SEPTEMBER

10WED / 4:30 p.m.Season Kick-Off Party

26FRI / 7:30 p.m.Spanish Harlem Orchestra

OCTOBER

08WED / 7:30 p.m.Einstein’s Happiest ThoughtAdele Myers and Dancers

29WED / 7 p.m.City Council Meeting

31FRI / 7:30 p.m.Phantom of the Opera with Alloy Orchestra

NOVEMBER

05WED / 7:30 p.m.The Basement Tapes Project:Bob Dylan and the American Songbook

Creative Connections

Another year is beginning. The campus of Keene State College is waking up and buzzing with activity. Students are searching for their class locations, rekindling relationships and forming new ones. Faculty are back in action. Before you know it the semester will be over in a blink of an eye. This time of year is both sentimental and exciting, as we move from summer into fall. The air feels fresh and filled with possibility.

It is also exciting for us at the Redfern Arts Center to envision what our efforts will yield in the year ahead. We have spent our summer months assembling the pieces for a new year of performances and activities, shaping interactions and settings that will bring together a variety of audiences and programming throughout the year. The 2014-15 Redfern Season presents a spectrum of performance, artistic practice and thematic exploration. It offers space for convergence across various points of entry- moments of inquiry, reflection, and entertainment- which we hope will stir and nourish the imaginations of our audiences, whatever the source of impact may be.

This season we will consider the creative process, dramaturgy, risk, civic participation and spectacle. We will experiment with formats for discussion and participation such as The Long Table: a Public Dinner Party and Forum on Presentation of Self. We are asking artists how they shape their ideas, and they in turn are eager to share their work with us in Keene. Artists like Adele Myers explore what it means to climb, lose balance or fall; Aaron Landsman and Mallory Catlett confront the inherent contradictions in our democratic system, asking us to reflect on our choices and positioning with civic engagement; Double Edge Theatre marches us through the 20th century through the eyes of painter Marc Chagall, wondering why on the ground there has been so much destruction when in the air we have the ability to fly; and Robert Moses’ Kin explores the movement of protest. How are these artistic pursuits relevant to the education and the lives of our students, faculty, and community members? We ask you to share your questions and considerations with us throughout the year.

Creative Connections is an evolving resource, an invitation to our campus and local community partners to engage and collaborate on a range of meaningful exchanges and immersive experiences with artists, live performance, and each other throughout the year. Through workshops, class visits, pre-and post-show discussions, film screenings, in-depth artist residencies and project development, these connections open a window into inquiry, problem-solving, expression, and empathic understanding. Many engagement activities are currently in the works and need your ideas and participation to be fully realized. This guide provides additional context into our season programming, including artist’s inspirations and creative practices, for people to locate potential intersections between these offerings and their own interests. Use Creative Connections as a conversation starter. Let me know if you see something here that resonates with you, if you would like us to hold a block of tickets for a class, or brainstorm a future project together.

When I think of this season’s visiting artists and of all of the collaborations and connections in play throughout the year, I am struck by the abundant generosity and enthusiasm shared by everyone. In this spirit, we wish you an exciting year ahead and look forward to connecting with you soon.

Sharon Fantl Assistant Directorsfantl@keene.edu 603.358.2167

Ready. Set. Engage.

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Table of Contents

Conversations/ Interactions History of Salsa and Latin Jazz pg. 7 Dramaturgy and Choreographic Process pg. 8Post-show Discussion w/ Adele Myers pg. 8Artist Talk: Creativity and Civic Engagement pg. 12 The Long Table: A Public Dinner Party & Forum pg. 12 Moved and Seconded: Town Meeting in New Hampshire pg. 12 Forum: The Role of Students as Local Citizens pg. 12 Artist Talk: Paul Shambrom w/ Aaron Landsman pg. 13Debriefing of City Council Meeting pg. 13Women in Music pg. 20 Artist Talk: The Grand Parade and theWork of Marc Chagall pg. 22 Artist Talk: Protest Movements & Creative Agency w/ Robert Moses pg. 26Artist Talk: Miwa Matreyek pg. 27

Workshops/ Masterclasses/ Class Visits Movers and Shakers Workshop w/ Adele Myers pg. 8 Class Visit w/ Ain Gordon pg. 8Composing for Silent Film w/ Alloy Orchestra pg. 17 Improvisation & Songwriting Workshop w/ Howard Fishman pg. 18“Rounds Through the Ages” w/ Voice pg. 20Dancemaking w/ Candice Salyers pg. 20Playwriting & Solo Performance w/ Sean Christopher Lewis pg. 21Community/Family Training w/ Double Edge Theatre pg. 22 Class Visits & Open Training w/ Double Edge Theatre pg. 22 Workshop at the Child Development Center w/ Vanessa Trien pg. 25Dance Masterclass & Class Visits w/ Robert Moses pg. 26 Shadowplay & Projection Workshop w/ Miwa Matreyek pg. 27

Receptions Post-show w/ Spanish Harlem Orchestra pg. 7 Post-show w/ Adele Myers and Dancers pg. 8Post-show w/ Alloy Orchestra pg. 17Post-show w/ Howard Fishman pg. 18Post-show w/ Voice pg. 20 Post-show w/ Sean Christopher Lewis pg. 21 post-show w/ Double Edge Theatre pg. 22Post-show w/ Robert Moses’ Kin pg. 26Post-show w/ Miwa Matreyek pg. 27

Happenings Season Kickoff Party pg. 8 Pre-show Warm Up w/ Adele Myers pg. 8 Open Dress Rehearsal of City Council Meeing pg. 13 Costume Party pg. 17Dylan Listening Party pg. 18 Living Room Performance w/ Sean Christopher Lewis pg. 21 Cookies, Lemonade & Egg Shaker Activity w/ Vanessa Trien pg. 25

Exhibits / Film Screenings Exhibit: Engage! Picturing America through Civic Engagement pg. 12Exhibit: The Architecture of City Council Meeting pg. 13Silent Film “College” with Buster Keaton, live music by Jeff Rapsis pg. 17Exhibit: Horror Film Posters from the KSC Film Archives pg. 17 Dylan Films: Don’t Look Back & I’m Not There pg. 18Exhibit: Rwanda Then and Now pg. 21 Exhibit: The Making of Grand Parade pg. 22

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Season Kickoff Party

WED / SEP 10 / 4:30 p.m. Alumni Recital HallFree It’s a feast. It’s a party. It’s a performance.

Join us as we celebrate the start of the Redfern’s 33rd season! Enjoy free food, check out a pop-up art installation in our lobby and get a sneak peek of all the shows this season, including live performances by Adele Myers and Dancers, a special live feed of Aaron Landsman and members of KSC’s Departments of Music, and Theatre and Dance. Free tickets raffle and prizes!

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Spanish Harlem Orchestra

FRI / SEP 26 / 6:45 p.m. Preshow talk: History of Salsa and Latin Jazz with Dr. Jose Lezcano and Julian Gerstin, Professors of MusicHarry Davis Room, Redfern Arts Center Professors Gerstin and Lezcano will offer a brief pre-show talk on Salsa music, addressing topics such as the effect of various waves of immigration and migration on the music, its spread throughout the Spanish-speaking Americas, and its takeover by pop versions in the 80s and 90s. This talk will present samples of the various instruments and their rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic roles, in the exciting and vibrant musical genres that make up Salsa, which continues to be significant to millions of fans and to attract new followers.

Post-show Reception with the Spanish Harlem OrchestraMain Lobby, Redfern Arts Center Immediately following the performance, mingle with fellow audience members and some of the musicians of Spanish Harlem Orchestra. Refreshments and sweets are on the house!

FRI / SEP 26 / 7:30 p.m.Main TheatreTickets: $50-$30, $5 KSC students Grammy Award-winning Spanish Harlem Orchestra sizzles into Keene with the classic sounds of Latin Jazz and New York City Salsa that is beloved by music lovers worldwide. This thirteen-member all-star ensemble has established itself as a standard bearer of contemporary Latin music. Get ready to salsa! This performance is sponsored by Cambridge Trust Company of New Hampshire and Markem-Imaje, a Dover Company, and co-presented with the KSC Department of Music

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Einstein’s Happiest Thought Adele Myers and Dancers

TUES / OCT 7 / 12 p.m.Dramaturgy and Choreographic Process with Ain Gordon and Adele Myers Mabel Brown Room, Young Student CenterIn a interactive lecture/demonstration format, Choreographer, Adele Myers and Writer/ Dramaturg, Ain Gordon enact how they worked together during the creation of “Einstein’s Happiest Thought”. In addition, they will exhibit a real-time analysis and experimentation of an excerpt from a new work Adele Myers and Dancers is currently developing. Ain Gordon’s campus visit will include a further class visit and an informal dialogue with Adele Myers (TBD). WED / OCT 8 / 10 a.m. Movers and Shakers Workshop with Adele Myers Adele Myers leads a “movers and shakers” class for dancers of all levels. Mabel Brown Room, Young Student Center WED / OCT 8 / 6:30 p.m.Pre-show Warm Up Main Lobby, Redfern Arts CenterOne hour before each performance, audiences are invited to explore the company’s style and gestures in a 30-minute “warm-up” with Adele Myers. No dance experience or special attire is required.

Post-show Discussion, moderated by Ain GordonJoin us in the lobby after the performance for a reception and intimate talk-back with the artists.

WED / OCT 8 / 7:30 p.m. Main TheatreTICKETS: $25-$15, $5 KSC students

With Einstein’s “happiest thought” as inspiration, acclaimed choreographer Adele Myers’ newest work folds dance, film, music and scripted performance into a seamless expression of the charged state of imbalance and anticipation of risk. In Einstein’s Happiest Thought the dancers push and pull, run and pause, moving to music by Josh Quillen of contemporary music ensemble So Percussion.

This performance of Einstein’s Happiest Thought is sponsored by The Kingsbury Fund and was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Interview with 2014-15 Redfern Choreographer in Residence Adele Myers

How did you come up with the idea for Einstein’s Happiest Thought?In Einstein’s Happiest Thought anticipation and risk are two central ideas, as are the different ways we experience the same amount of time, space and gravity. Initially we were exploring falling or flying. I asked a colleague of mine who teaches in the English department at Connecticut College whether she had written anything on the subject matter. She sent me several quotes from her novel, Terminal Velocity. One quote was from a chapter about sky-diving. In this quote, the author references what is commonly referred to as “Einstein’s happiest thought.” The quote from the novel is as follows: “There came to me the happiest thought of my life when I considered an observer in free fall. There existed for him no gravitational field.” I was interested in the idea of an ‘observer in free fall’ and how that could be translated in live performance. Is this observer in free fall an audience member watching someone fall or is it the performer falling and observing herself as she falls? We decided to focus on the former- the audience member having the sensation of falling- or anticipating a potential fall/risk without leaving their seats. They were the observers in free fall. How do you shape an idea?The collaborators and I resisted shaping an idea for this work. Rather, we were interested in evoking a sensation of anticipation within the audience. How could we get the audience personally invested in the work without leaving their seats? Every performer in this work has at least one task that is difficult for her to accomplish. When the performers truly commit to completing the challenging task the viewer recognizes what is at stake— potential failure. Generally speaking, the audience becomes invested in the success of the performer, the person, as they take each physical risk. As with spectators at a sporting event, viewers tend to embody their personal investment with varying degrees of intensity aimed at a particular athlete. In Einstein’s Happiest Thought the performers are athletes of the heart and the audience plays the role of participant observers. While developing movement vocabulary for this work, we explored the concepts of falling or flying. I asked the four dancers to develop one action of flying and one of falling and to put those simple actions together and repeat them as they cross the stage. These actions became meaning in motion. It is one repetitive action that connotes being in control of being out of control. Is she falling or flying or both? This action will mean something different to every person who observes it. But it will mean something because we are always looking for meaning in art- whether that is the artist’s intention or not.

Where did you begin? We launched this project in trapeze school. All of the performers and collaborators went to NY trapeze school to experience the sensation of falling or flying. After each person took a turn on the trapeze, I asked them to immediately write down their experience. The written responses varied from physical to emotional and psychological reflections. The written reflections and the muscle memory from the experience became our point of departure for all of the collaborators. For example, Josh Quillen mimicked the sound of his rapid heartbeat in the score.

How do you get to know the question you are thinking? I get to know the question I am thinking by constantly asking myself what is my question? I also ask: Who are they? Where are they? What are they doing? Why? What happens? I know I am getting closer to completion when I answer these questions in as few words as possible. I also share my ideas with people who know nothing about dance. I pay attention to when I lose their attention. That is usually when I am not clear about what I am saying or doing.

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How did you share this work with other people?I am a huge fan of work-in-progress showings during the creative process. While I enjoy and benefit from receiving feedback from colleagues in our field, I prefer feedback from people who know little to nothing about dance. They are test pilots for how the work will likely be perceived and received. I prefer the untrained eye for a fresh perspective. I always ask the same questions: “What did you see?” “What did you crave?”“What adjective would you use to describe your experience of what you just observed?” Those questions typically elicit useful feedback. How important was it to have witnesses to your process, collaborators, instigators, a dramaturg? Collaboration has always been at the heart of dance making for me. With collaborators, I experiment with different ways of creating and thinking and never make the same dance twice, which keeps the creative process invigorating and new every time. Working with a dramaturg was paramount. This was the first time I was a director and choreographer and it was an overwhelming task. The dramaturg could keep an outside eye on the trajectory of the work while I focused on the details. Working with a dramaturg added rigor to the process. He could identify when we were falling into traps of familiarity versus intuitive decision-making. How would you describe the collaborative process in making this piece? Collaborators must have the right chemistry for the process to flow. Initially there was a writer, filmmaker, composer, visual artist and a dramaturg in addition to five performers. In retrospect that was way too many people for me to manage. As the director of the project, I was a curator of chemistry. I needed to be sensitive to the different ways people collaborate. It is a delicate process and does not always work. That was a struggle for me at first. I began by communicating with people individually and bringing us together in the same room once the individual ideas or threads

were developed. From there we collectively explored how to weave our ideas/ threads together. When we were all together was when I valued working with the dramaturg the most. Directing that many people is

overwhelming and requires a heightened sensitivity on multiple levels simultaneously. Collaborating is a rigorous process. I love it. What nagged you while making this piece?The need to edit to necessity nagged at me. It is very difficult for me to edit. I like a busy stage. It keeps me interested. I get bored easily with stillness and slow motion. I forced myself to work with less in this work. What were your breakthrough moments while making this piece?My eureka moment in developing this work was when I realized “The Walker” was central. After risk, then...?I don’t know what comes after the risk. With this work the collaborators and I wanted to sit in anticipation of the risk and within the risk itself.

I anticipate the next project we work on will address what happens after risk. My sense is that it has to do with freedom and flow. What value can an interruption in space or a break in ritual/ routine offer? Interruptions are ubiquitous in everyday life. There is no such thing as a fluid cross fade from one moment in time and space to the next, so I do not believe in them during a live performance. Interruptions stop me personally from getting bored with what I am watching. For some people interruptions are frustrating because they interrupt flow. I think they bring more attention to the flow by stopping it. We take flow for granted. Interruptions also allow for alternate realities- in the case of the three ‘Einsteins’ in the film and live performance. Interruptions keep the work unpredictable leaving the viewer with the feeling that anything could happen. Interruption is the antidote for becoming lulled.

City Council Meeting:

WED / OCT 29 / 7 p.m. Heberton Hall, Keene Public LibraryFREE: Tickets required / Seating is Limited

City Council Meeting is a piece about empathy, democracy and power. Culled from actual government meetings across the country, and recreated in a yearlong residency in Keene with New York artists Aaron Landsman, Mallory Catlett and Jim Findlay in collaboration with the Keene Public Library, City Council Meeting is performed participatory democracy- part town meeting, part experiment in civic engagement, and created with and performed by the audience. For one night, you can be the Mayor, a council member or simply an observer. City Council Meeting inhabits formal procedure to consider its innate theatricality and to question participation in public and civic life. It asks participants to consider the poetry in bureaucracy, the architecture of power and the comedy of procedure. This performance of City Council Meeting is a collaboration with the Keene Public Library and was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The public programming for this project was made possible with support from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the New Hampshire Humanities Council, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Performed Participatory Democracy

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City Council Meeting

Oct 6 – 27 (except Monday, October 13) / 3-4:40 p.m.Public Exhibit: Engage! Picturing America through Civic EngagementKay Fox Meeting Room, Keene Public LibraryEngage! Picturing America through Civic Engagement is a pilot program for young adult audiences fostering dynamic discussions that utilize the visual arts as springboards to civic engagement. Sun/ Oct 12 / 2 p.m.Public talk: Aaron Landsman and Mallory Catlett, The Connection between Creativity and Civic EngagementHeberton Hall, Keene Public LibraryAn exploration of the civic self, the performed self, and the dramaturgy of local government meetings, this talk will include slides and video from City Council Meeting performances in four US cities, as well as stories from the creative process in each. Our goal with the project is to put a performative frame around bureaucracy, and put adversaries into the same artistic space.

Mon / Oct 13 / 6 p.m.The Long Table: a Public Dinner Party and Forum on Presentation of Self, led by Dr. Brian KanouseMain Theatre, Redfern Arts CenterConceived by performance artist Lois Weaver, The Long Table is an open-ended improvisatory conversation set in a public space through which participants can select and alter their participation in a formal conversation. Taking on a dinner table atmosphere - participatory, theatrical and a unique, the event will invite college students and community members from the Keene area to engage in discussion surrounding how we come to construct and perform our social and self-identities within the public sphere.

Wed / Oct 15 / 7 p.m.Public talk: Rebecca Rule: Moved and Seconded: Town Meeting in New HampshireHeberton Hall, Keene Public LibraryDrawing on research from her book, Moved and Seconded: Town Meeting in New Hampshire, the Present, the Past, and the Future, Rebecca Rule regales audiences with stories of the rituals, traditions and history of town meeting, including the perennial characters, the literature, the humor, and the wisdom of this uniquely New England institution.

Wed / Oct 22 / 6 p.m.Keene State College Debate Club: The Role of Students as Local CitizensRhodes Hall, Room S203, Keene State CollegeThis Keene State Debate Club-led event will focus on the questions of engaged citizenry, and the role of students in the processes of civic engagement. A conversation about the roles temporary citizens can play in the life of their adopted city. The debate students will first discuss their experiences within the American Democracy Project as well as on campus at Keene State College. This will be followed by an open forum in which other students and community members will be invited to share their own experiences and insights. What are strategies for giving students a greater sense of agency, responsibility and collaboration in the life of Keene? Should students think beyond their time at college? How can the life of the college and the life of the city intersect more seamlessly?

Public ActivitiesThurs / Oct 23 / 7 p.m.Book Discussion of Live Free or Die by Ernest Hebert, led by Gail ZachariahKeene Public Library, Trustees Room

Mon / Oct 27 / 4 p.m.Book Discussion of Home Town by Tracy Kidder, led by Gail ZachariahKeene Public Library, Green Room

Tues / Oct 28 / 7 p.m.Open Dress Rehearsal of City Council MeetingHeberton Hall, Keene Public LibraryThis is a chance for community members, students and the artists to take part in City Council Meeting prior to the performance, and be a part of the final evolution of our local ending in Keene. The artists will also be on hand to talk about the process and answer questions.

Wed / Oct 29 / 7 p.m.City Council Meeting: Performed Participatory DemocracyHeberton Hall, Keene Public Library

Thurs / Oct 30 / 12 p.m.Public Talk: Artist/ Photographer Paul Shambrom with Aaron Landsman Conference Room, Thorne-Sagendorph Art GalleryPaul Shambrom, whose extensive work explores American power and culture, and Landsman discuss their collaboration on City Council Meeting and the process of documenting this project at its various sites of performance. Paul Shambrom’s campus visit will include an additional artist talk and class visits (times/ locations TBD). Contact Jonathan Gitelson in the Art Department or Sharon Fantl for more information. Thurs / Oct 30 / 6 p.m. Public discussion: A Debriefing of City Council Meeting and the Democratic Experience, facilitated by Dr. Brian KanouseKeene Public Library, Trustees RoomThis event will focus on the direct experiences that performers underwent during the preparation, rehearsal and performance of City Council Meeting. As a debriefing, this conversational-style engagement will look to pull insights, critiques and humorous recollections out of each individual present.

Ongoing Public Exhibit: Frame and Function: The Architecture of City Council MeetingMason Library, Keene State College

City Council Meeting Public Activities

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City Council Meeting, both in its intellectual goals and the experience of its participants, attempts to engage the community through a performa-tive act of democracy. Through its design, which includes the individual performance of another individual’s words, key aspects of how individu-als come to engage in politics, represent others in their social world, and express themselves within the public sphere are laid bare. Democracy is explored in the piece in a way that highlights how individuals approach civic engagement. Participants are given the choice between a variety of roles, ranging from bystander to public official, which they will perform throughout the event. This simple yet important choice reveals that within a participatory democracy, there are no power positions given to any one person due to his/her social position. Each participant chooses the inten-sity and nature of his/her approach to the event. This choice highlights for participants the ideas behind democracy, which has both an immediate material value, in that it shows the participants weaknesses in our current democratic practices, as well as a mental value. Through the simplicity of equality and choice, the piece allows participants to appreciate the politi-cal structure of our nation and the founding principles that helped bring such ideas into practice. In short, participants will be enriched through their involvement and encouraged to think about how they go about the everyday business of politics in their city.

What follows the choosing of one’s own involvement in the performance is, in my mind, its most powerful aspect. Though participants are allowed the choice of role for the event, the speaking roles have an interesting effect on the speakers. Speakers will be speaking the words of others who have delivered these addresses at prior, actual city council meetings, and it is common that those who actually delivered these addresses will differ from the speakers in many different social categories. The effect of this is intriguing, in that in speaking, the speaker experiences a type of echo effect, working through the address while also attempting to profile whom it is he/she may be speaking for. This representation, or concrete thought of the other, which is performed verbally and nonverbally by the speak-ers (and in varying degrees of subtlety), as well as within the speaker’s own mind (through imagining what the other may look like), reveals to audience and individual alike the way stereotyping works. These ideas of the “other”, which occur so quickly and effortlessly by those involved, are the social and personal items for analysis needed if we are to understand the problems that come with civic engagement. We, as human beings, stereotype, and in so doing, have the capacity to discriminate against others accordingly. Questions arise for the speakers during the event, such as: “Why do I think the person who said this would have a specific

Introduction to City Council Meeting

Dr. Brian C. Kanouse teaches in Keene State College’s Department of Commu-nication and Philosophy, is advisor to the Student Debate Club and is the Humani-ties Scholar for City Council Meeting. Dr. Kanouse will facilitate and/ or lead several events throughout October- The Long Table, the Student Debate Club-led forum, and the public debriefing following the presentation of City Council Meeting.

by Dr. Brian C. Kanouse

accent?”, “Why am I speaking with more emphasis than I normally do?” “Why, in my head, do I picture them wearing this type of clothing?” The answers to these questions are revealing. The speaker is laid bare to him or herself, in that they have actively participated in stereotyping. Through being revealed in the reading of the words of others, to audience and oneself, the space of reflection is opened up for the speaker. This particu-lar feature is very effective. How, why and when we stereotype tells us how open, or closed, we are to civic engagement. Thus, City Council Meeting has the capacity to help redefine communities; that is, if the participants do the work of self-reflection. If participants are given the opportunity to appreciate the ideals of democracy in the beginning of the piece, it is here that they recognize how messy it can get when the work of participation is accomplished.

City Council Meeting opens up the space to see how we change ourselves when we are around other people. It is not uncommon for people to put on different personas in public spaces. What matters to individuals, in terms of their values and how they articulate them, can change through the simple act of speaking in public. This effect is important to recog-nize as participants in a democracy, as our values and beliefs may not be properly represented if we do not see how the public sphere changes us. Participating in this event allows individuals a chance to see this altera-tion, and to take account of it. With that being the case, performance-as-politics is both the form of this piece, as well as its revelation upon the practice of democracy.

City Council Meeting requires that we engage more than one discipline within the humanities. History and philosophy, through the concept and practice of democracy; communication, through the social and personal aspects of the piece; cultural studies, through the unveiling of attitudinal and behavioral assumptions expressed by those involved; law, legal his-tory or theory, through the actual bureaucratic structure of a city council meeting, and finally, and most importantly: Ethics. The ethical aspects of this piece, which implore us into societal and self-examination, are what give City Council Meeting its value. Issues of power and recognition, theory and practice, self and other, lie at the core of this performance. This event helps us become better individuals and, thusly, better practitioners of democracy.

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The Long Table Etiquette

Conceived by the artist Lois Weaver, The Long Table is inspired by Marleen Gorris’ film Antonia’s Line. The central image of the film is a dinner table that grown longer and longer as Antonia’s family welcomes more outsiders and accommodates more eccentricity. Eventually, the table becomes so long it has to be brought outside into the yard. The Long Table experiments with participation and public engagement by reappropriating a dinner table atmo-sphere as a public forum and encouraging informal conversation on serious topics. It is literally a very long table set up with chairs, microphones and refreshments where anyone and everyone is welcome to come to the table, ask questions, make statements, leave comments on the paper tablecloth, or simply sit, watch, and listen.

There is no beginning

It is a performance of breakfast, lunch or dinner

Those seated at the table are performers

The menu is up to youTalk is the only course

There is no hostessIt is a democracy

To participate, take a seat at the table

If the table is full, you can request a seatOnce you leave the table you can come back again

There can be silence You can break the silence with a questionYou can write your questions or comments on the tablecloth

There might be awkwardnessThere could can be laughter

There is an end but no conclusion

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The Phantom of the Opera with Alloy Orchestra

FRI / OCT 31 / 7:30 p.m.Main TheatreTICKETS: $25-$15, $5 KSC students

Alloy Orchestra returns to Keene on Halloween with one of the scariest and most influential horror films of all time, the 1925 Lon Chaney classic The Phantom Of The Opera. Thrashing and grinding soulful music from unlikely sources, the three-man musical ensemble Alloy Orchestra works with an outrageous assemblage of peculiar objects to achieve a unique style of silent film accompaniment. Come in costume and be prepared to be thrilled and spooked!

This performance is a collaboration with the Keene State College Film Society.

THURS / SEP 25 / 7 p.m.Silent film “College” with Buster Keaton, live music by Jeff Rapsis Putnam Arts Lecture Hall, Keene State College WED / OCT 31 / 2 p.m.Public Talk: The Restoration of The Phantom of the Opera and Composing for Silent FilmMain Theatre, Redfern Arts Center Costume Party and Post-show reception with Alloy OrchestraMain Lobby, Redfern Arts CenterA costume party, reception and meet-and-greet with the artists all rolled into one. OCT 27- 31 Exhibit: Horror Film Posters from the KSC Film Archives Organized by the Keene State College Film SocietyMain Lobby, Redfern Arts Center

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The Basement Tapes Project:

WED / NOV 5 / 2 p.m.Improvisation and Songwriting Workshop with Howard Fishman Main Theatre, Redfern Arts Center

NOV 3 - 7 Dylan Listening/ Resource Station Main Lobby, Redfern Arts Center Thumb through a crate of recordings and writings, and sample music at your convenience. Have your own record to share? Add it to the collection for the week. WED / NOV 5 / 6 p.m. Pre-show Listening Party Harry Davis Room, Redfern Arts CenterHow well do you know Bob Dylan? Join us in an informal setting as we explore some of Dylan and The Band’s music as well as its inspirations and evolution. Feel free to submit song ideas ahead of time, bring a record from your own collection or assemble a playlist to DJ with the room.

Post-show Reception and Meet and GreetJoin us in the lobby after the performance for a reception and conversation with the artists.

NOV 1- 12 Dylan Film Screenings / Presented by the KSC Film SocietyPutnam Arts Lecture Hall NOV 1-4 & 6 Don’t Look BackFRI- SAT / 7:00 & 9:00 p.m.SAT- SUN matinee / 2:00 p.m.SUN- TUES / 7:00 p.m. onlyTHURS / 7:00 p.m. only*No screening on WED NOV 5 NOV 7 – 12 I’m Not ThereFRI- SAT / 7:00 & 9:30 p.m.SAT- SUN matinee /2:00 p.m. SUN- WED / 7:00 p.m. only

WED / NOV 5 / 7:30 p.m.Alumni Recital HallTICKETS: $25-$20, $5 KSC students

Conceived by critically-acclaimed musician Howard Fishman, The Basement Tapes Project explores the mysterious under-ground recordings made by Bob Dylan and The Band in 1967. Considered one of the most agile interpreters of the American songbook, Fishman’s performance is more than a tribute—it’s a trip back through “old, weird America” to get to the very source of Dylan’s material. Called “haunting and affecting” by the New Yorker, Fishman uses these songs to provide insight into the life of one of America’s most influential artists.

Bob Dylan and the American Songbook

“To me, the sessions with The Band now known as “The Basement Tapes” are the first time Bob Dylan reveals his true self: not as a visionary proph-et, not as a generational spokesman, not as a hallucinatory poet, but just as guy who loves to make music with friends; a guy who cracks himself up (and so cracks us all up), a guy who knows that his own true self is deeper, more mysterious, and more com-pelling than any role he could ever choose to play.” - Howard Fishman

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“...with a certain kind of blues music, you can sit down and play it...you may have to lean forward a little.” -- Bob Dylan, 1966

“The Basement Tapes,” more than any other music that has been heard from Bob Dylan and The Band, sound like the music of a partnership. As Dylan and The Band trade vocals across these discs, as they trade nuances and phrases within the songs, you can feel the warmth and the comradeship that must have been liberating for all six men. Language, for one thing, is completely unfettered. A good number of the songs seem as cryptic, or as nonsensical, as a misnumbered crossword puzzle-that is, if you listen only for words, and not for what the singing and the music say -- but the open spirit of the songs is as straightforward as their unmatched vitality and spunk.

More than a little crazy, at times flatly bizarre (take “Million Dollar Bash,” “Yazoo Street Scandal,” “Don’t Ya Tell Henry,” “Lo And Behold!”), moving easily from the confessional to the bawdy house, roaring with humor and good times, this music sounds to me at once like a testing and a discovery -- of musical affinity, of nerve, of some very pointed themes; put up or shut up, obligation, escape, homecoming, owning up, the settling of accounts past due.

- Greil Marcus, an excerpt from The Basement Tapes Liner Notes, 1975

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Voice

Week of JAN 26 / Date & Time TBDDancemaking workshop with Candice Salyers

WED / FEB 4 / 2 p.m.Music workshop: “Rounds Through the Ages”Alumni Recital Hall, Redfern Arts Center This is an interactive vocal workshop for singers of all abilities. Voice will explore the development of the round and provide an opportunity to hone listening and communication skills and share musical repertoire. Voice will give a brief history of the musical form rondellus with sung examples; from the earliest known through to contemporary usage and more complex forms. A Q&A with the ensemble will be held at the conclusion of the workshop.

WED / FEB 4 / 6:30 p.m.Pre-show talk: Women in MusicHarry Davis Room, Redfern Arts Center Post-show Reception/ Meet and Greet with VoiceMain Lobby, Redfern Arts Center Join us in the lobby after the performance for a reception and intimate meet-and-greet with the artists.

If Music Be the Food of Love

WED / FEB 4 / 7:30 p.m. Main TheatreTICKETS: $25-$15, $5 KSC students

Celebrate Valentine’s Day early with ballads, sonnets and catches as the wonderful British ensemble Voice returns to the U.S. to share songs of beauty, heartache and the humor of love The acclaimed trio will be joined by the Keene State College Concert Choir and choreographer Candice Salyers in a first time collaboration celebrating the soaring music of German abbess and visionary mystic Saint Hildegarde von Bingen. Join these gifted singers as they celebrate the time honored notion that Love, in all its forms, has inspired human beings for centuries.

This performance is sponsored by The Kingsbury Fund and is a collaboration with the Keene State College Departments of Music and Theatre and

Dance.

Spring 2015

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Sean Christopher Lewis

WED / FEB 11 / 7:30 p.m. Alumni Recital HallTICKETS: $20-$15, $5 KSC students

1994. At 16 years of age David found himself in Uganda as a church missionary. When he follows the girl of his dreams into the woods to help a Rwandan boy they’ve stumbled upon he enters a world from which he will never fully be able to escape. On the 20th anniversary of the genocide he witnessed firsthand a book David wrote regarding his experiences that Spring arrives with a note from the Rwandan boy he once tried to save. “You didn’t tell them everything,” it says. “You didn’t tell them everything.” This is a dinner party story for the ages.

Based on interviews Iowa City playwright and actor Sean Christopher Lewis gathered in Rwanda, Dogs of Rwanda is a performance built for living rooms, lobbies, parks, backyards, theaters and more. Influenced by the stories of the Federal Theatre Project, Lewis set out to create a stripped down performance that could bring theatre to people in various settings. “My political and social activism was inspired around dinner tables with my uncles and relatives, it was conversations in pathways with close friends- it was always heightened by the intimacy and immediacy of the conversation.” - Sean Christopher Lewis

This performance is sponsored by C&S Wholesale Grocers and is a collaboration with the Keene State College Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the KSC Diversity and Multiculturalism Office.

Dogs of Rwanda

FEB 6- 12Exhibit: Rwanda Then and NowMain Lobby, Redfern Arts Center MON -TUES / FEB 9-10 / Time & Locations TBD Workshop: Playwriting and Solo Performance with Sean Christopher LewisClass visits with the artist Living Room performance of Dogs of Rwanda WED / FEB 11 Post-show Discussion with Sean Christopher Lewis Join us in the lobby after the performance for a reception and moderated talk-back with the artist.

Spring 2015

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Double Edge Theatre

WED / FEB 18 / 7 p.m. Main TheatreTICKETS: $35-$15, $5 KSC students The Grand Parade depicts a mythology of the 20th century in a theatrical style inspired by visual artist Marc Chagall’s kaleidoscopic vision of humanity at play, at war, and at rest. Trapeze, circus, dance, projections, and popular culture fill the height and breadth of the stage in a spectacle of history populated by people and animals in acts of grace and destruction. The Grand Parade is about individual and collective experience of a period of history in which people developed knowledge that produced both great development and massive destruction.

The Grand Parade (of the 20th Century)

MON / OCT 13Community/Family Training: Movement and Improvisation with Double Edge Theatre A fun, flexible and physical training with objects and guided improvisation by ensemble members of Double Edge Theatre. Open to families or anyone who wants to get their creative juices flowing. Maximum of 20 participants, appropriate for ages 5 and up. The Colonial Theatre, Keene FEB 13- 20 Exhibit: The Making of The Grand Parade Masks, photos and archival material by Maria Baranova Main Lobby, Redfern Arts Center Conversation: Technical Design and Rigging with Adam Bright (Date & Time TBD) MON- TUES / FEB 16- 17 /Times & Locations TBDArtist Talk: The Grand Parade and theWork of Marc ChagallArtist Panel: Art and Genocide in the 20th CenturyOpen Training with Double Edge TheatreClass visit Post-show moderated disucssion with Double Edge Theatre

This performance of The Grand Parade is a collaboration with the Colonial Theatre and was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Spring 2015

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Imagination, Memory, and Mythology of the 20th Century

By Stacy Klein, Founder, Double Edge Theatre

It all started with a question. How would we write a mythology for our time? We began with the recent past — the 20th century — and the paintings of Marc Chagall.

We encountered a brutal and chaotic century, one in which cataclysm and destruction branded the times. This is how we chose to walk alongside Chagall. For the better part of the 20th century, he chose the flight of the imagination, folk tradition and the juxtaposition of dreams as his portal of memory, as a means of passage through the war and revolution and exile that he painted.

In Chagall, the bride flies over the ravaged village, the rooster and cow play their cellos and masses of people flee or dance. As we confronted the extreme conflicts of the century, we also understood that vivid imagination must be at the crux of building a mythology for our time. How do we dream, how do we dance, how do we invent and how do we love? For Chagall, “color is love”—what is it for us?

As we worked, we identified particular events and figures that were important to us. The actors donned and shed different personas and we found ourselves rooted in the midst of the “American Century.” That American lens of history informed our choices about what to include, and gave focus to the multiplicity of perspectives in our group. We soon realized that reflecting history through our own eyes was the only way to speak to our desires for the future.

Memory, as an essential component of our lives, seems to have faded. We cling to a limited sense of reality (whether “reality TV” or mundane materialism) and have exiled memory and imagination. Dreams are things of the past, beauty is seen from the media’s vantage point, quiet is drowned out by insistent sound and the seduction of belongings. We lose ourselves amid accumulating piles of bodies and trash.

How, then, will we write the future? We offer intimacy and the sounds and dances and inventions of history, the beauty of flight, the choice of a forgotten world of dreams. Together we enter a simple yet profound dialogue with the future — destruction or creation?

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A Sampling of DET’s Research Compilation for The Grand Parade Grand Parade

Archetypes: Bella- bride, village, motherJung- “archetypes of the collective unconscious”Archetypical events- creation, apocalypse, flood, fire, displacementA myth is not something that can be proved wrong by science. What would your archetype be in each decade?

1900s – Melodrama (uncovered by Magician) • Magician can open Russian village in one box and Evelyn/USA in another• Connect the village to Magician- is it held captive by him?• Melodrama needs to transform into its own thing

RESEARCH - The 13th Card (nameless) & The Lovers- profound seismic shift- Evelyn Nesbit, people falling from sky, trials, airplane, car, train, Einstein, Freud, SOS invented- Bella in Russia - Russian court dance

FROM TRAINING - melodrama: taking away everyone’s alcohol, showing violin baby to carlos- VILLAGE: emerging form under Bella’s dress or veil- Flying with books

1920s – Dance, Charleston RESEARCH:- The Wheel of Fortune Card/ Charleston - Prohibition, jazz, mobsters, people falling, stock market crash, Great Gatsby, trial= Fatty Arbuckle, Stalin, Hoover, Houdini’s death, 1st radio - Prohibition as rural phenomenon mostly

FROM TRAINING - Women marching/ dancing together - Doing the Charleston - Work with books and wine bottle

* How do we transform into the depression?

1950s – Television

• World moving from black & white to color

RESEARCH- Hanged Man Card / Fox Trot & the Stroll/ Letkiss/ Russian Ballroom- Television, duck & cover, nuclear family, nuclear threat, trials: McCarthy, Civil Rights movement, black listings, red scare, family dinner, space dog, Lucille ball, Honeymooners, Alfred H. movies (psycho), mass murder, suicide, genocide, beginning of Vietnam War, TV as news media, Ethel Rosenberg,

FROM TRAINING- Ethel Rosenberg in cube (jail/ electrocution)- Typing sky notes- Hanging in bungees with books

Vanessa Trien and the

FRI / FEB 27 / Time TBD Music Workshop w/ Vanessa Trien Child Development Center, Keene State College SAT / FEB 28 Post- Show Reception Enjoy some post-show cookies and lemonade and make your own musical egg shaker with the artists.

Jumping MonkeysSAT / FEB 28 / 11 a.m.

Alumni Recital HallALL TICKETS: $5 Our family show is back by popular demand! Boston-based singer-songwriter and children’s performer, Vanessa Trien and her lively band, the Jumping Monkeys, have become local rock stars among the young and young at heart. The under 10 crowd and their families sing and dance in the aisles at these packed shows and can’t get enough of Trien’s award-winning children’s CDs including her latest Bubble Ride.

This performance is a collaboration with the Keene State College Child Development Center.

Spring 2015

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Robert Moses’ KinNevabawarldapece

WED / MAR 25 / 7:30 p.m.Main TheatreTICKETS: $25-$15, $5 KSC students

A New England premiere, Nevabawarldapece is a major collaborative project among Artistic Director Robert Moses, Obie and Bessie award-winning writer and performer Carl Hancock Rux, and Afro-Celtic, Folk-Funk, Hip-Appalachian vocalist Laura Love. This stirring piece explores critical moments of change in America’s liberation movements, protests, insurrections, and revolts, from John Brown to today’s populist Occupy movement.

This performance of Nevabawardapece is sponsored by The Kingsbury Fund and was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Founda-tion, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Spring 2015

MON- FRI / MAR 23- 25 / Times & Locations TBD Class visitsDance master class with Robert MosesPre-show talk: Protest Movements and Creative Agency with Robert MosesPost-show reception and moderated discussion

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Miwa Matreyek

TUES / APR 7 / Times & Locations TBD Workshop: Shadowplay with Projection with Miwa MatreyekArtist Talk: Miwa Matreyek

WED / APR 8 / 6:30 p.m. Pre-show TalkHarry Davis Room, Redfern Arts Center Post-show reception and conversation with the Miwa Matreyek Talk back moderated by Jo Dery, Assistant Professor of Film Studies Main Lobby, Redfern Arts Center

WED / APR 8 / 7:30 p.m.Alumni Recital Hall

TICKETS: $20-$15, $5 KSC students

Miwa Matreyek is an internationally recognized animator, designer, and multimedia artist based in Los Angeles. She creates animated short films as well as live works that integrate animation, performance, and video installation. In her projection based performances, animation takes on a more physical and present quality, while body and space take on a more fantastical quality, creating an experience that is both cinematic and theatrical. She is interested in the slippery meeting point of cinema and theater/performance, the moments of convergence where fantastical illusions are created, and the moments of divergence where the two struggle against each other.

This World Made Itself combines projected animation and the artist’s own shadow silhouette as she interacts with the fantastical world of the video. This World Made Itself is a visually and musically-rich journey through the history of the earth, from the universe’s epic beginnings to the complex world of humans.

This World Made Itself

This performance is funded in part by the Expeditions program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies.

Spring 2015

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Interview with Miwa Matreyek

How do you shape an idea? Where did you begin when you conceived of This World Made Itself? I think I had the general idea of the theme… but didn’t know how it would come together. I tend to work in pieces, where I start with visual images or an intuitive gesture, and build things out scene by scene… then start to fill in the gaps, complete the narrative tapestry of the whole.With this piece there was a bit more guidance, since I was trying to stick to a geological timeline, albeit in a short hand, dreamlike and surreal way.

The original inspiration for this piece came from flying a lot for touring my previous piece. I was reading “A Brief History of Everything” by Bill Bryson. At the same time, since I was flying so much, I became obsessed with observing and photographing the earth from above… seeing the patterns natural systems create on the earth’s surfaces, the ways that humans scratch and carve into the earth… and feeling like I wanted to create a visceral ways that I can make that connection to an audience through music, image and my body.

Given how multidimensional your work is, how important is experimentation for you?Experimentation is very important. A lot of my work is like solving a puzzle. Since I have been working with media and performance for a while, there are some things I’ve grown accustomed to perceiving in my head… but throughout the process, I am physically testing out ideas.

I have my animation desk in my living room, and have the screen and projectors set up off and on throughout the whole process of making the piece - so I can start with a simple design or a mock up of an idea in animation or a still frame, turn around and project it on the screen, then physically place my body in the image to find ways the media and body can work together to create an image or an idea. I document the process throughout (in photo or video) so I have something to look at from an external perspective to see what I’m creating. Some parts of the creation feels like a science experiment, between properties of light and perception of image.

How did you move from a background in collage to live performance?I originally came to collage in undergrad while I was taking classes in many mediums - photography, painting, sculpture, drawing… and collage became a way I can combine these together. I had always put myself into my work. Even with collage, I would take elements of self portraits (just my face, just my hands…) and build out a world of imagery around it. Once I started making collages in the computer, it became very easy to move them (originally in Flash… now in After Effects) - and I still consider my animations to be like moving collages.I started compositing video versions of myself into animated worlds… sometimes as a full body, sometimes as abstracted elements of me, such as eyes, hands, mouths… I always enjoyed the mix of visual, collaged environments next to the performative, expressive modes of the video/body. Gesture was always important to me, and served as original inspirations for creating the worlds of my animations. So it seems like a logical next step to actually physically be in these worlds… flattened between layers of imagery as a shadow.

How do you work best? What kind of space or situation?I think I work best alone… like I do for my solo work.I tend to tinker a lot, in sort of a inspired space while I’m alone, playing with images and ideas, or picking up something around the house (an apple? a cup?) and think about gestures I can build around these objects (you can see a lot of that in Myth and Infrastructure) Music is an important part of the work… as well as the process, just keeping me in a dream-like space while I work.

I DO also like working collaboratively, with my group Cloud Eye Control. Working with Chi-wang and Anna does bring in elements to my work that opens me up to new things, and ideas I wouldn’t have tried on my own…

Points of View/ Field Notes

This season the Redfern Arts Center considers the concept and practice of democracy with the piece City Council Meeting. Attend this performance and the numerous public activities planned during October and share your observations and responses with us. Use this page for notes, to raise your own questions or to consider these: Why and how do I choose participate in my community? How do I alter my identity when participating in the public sphere? Where in my community do people gather, celebrate, express ideas, discuss concerns? What is art’s role in civic life? You can mail this sheet in to the Redfern, take a picture and email it to us, or post to our Facebook or Instagram feeds.

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REDFERN ARTS CENTERRedfern Arts CenterKeene State College229 Main Street, Keene, NH 03435-2401

Box Office: 603-358-2168Online: www.keene.edu/racbpBox Office Hours: Mon- Fri, noon- 5 p.m. Stay Connected! Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube pages for more info on programming, engagement updates and other happenings.

Redfern Staff:

DirectorShannon Mayers

Assistant Director Sharon Fantl Marketing ManagerJackie Hooper

Production Manager Cheryl Perry Technical Director Jeremy Robarge

House ManagerLara Shields Box Office Manager Hannah Scheck

Cover Image David A. Brown

Thank you to the sponsors of the 2014-15 Redfern Season!!

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