Summer 2020:
That day we spent on Zoom
except when we wore masks and took to the streets

A quick note - because there's a lot going on - to alert anyone interested that I've spent the last couple of weeks working on an online experience for Beth Morrison Projects. It is in the mode of a sort of virtual club. I'm humbled by the artists who will be performing these four shows (two tonight, two tomorrow). And by the collaborators who have rejoined to make more of these online experiments - all of whom are mad geniuses. So if you have 60 minutes tonight or tomorrow night, come check out The Boot - the bar at the final exit before the last toll at the edge of the meta-verse. Info on that and a few other upcoming projects, as well as some recent articles and a trove of work by other artists making right now, below.

Wishing you all health and strength. Keep making. Keep up the fight.

In Love and Solidarity.

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The Boot is a quick and dirty experiment in interactive online theater that we've been engaging in the last couple of weeks. I'm thrilled that Beth Morrison Projects has joined the likes of Fisher Center and TFANA in putting energy towards virtual works of theater (see NYTimes article on the theme below).

We're excited to invite you to this space, share the possibilities we've been creating as well as some great tunes and performances by a stellar list of musical artists. The list below includes links to works by the artists who have agreed to jump into the cyberwaters with us. Do check them out. They're incredible. Follow them, donate to them, become super fans. Listen and dance to them. Tip your musicians.

THE BOOT
07.09.20 + 07.10.20
@ 20.00h + 22.00h eastern
runtime 60min
TICKETS

Written and Directed by Ashley Tata

Featuring performances by:
Isaiah Robinson
Lauren Worsham (Sky-Pony)
Joseph Keckler
Sol and the Tribu
The Hogstad Brothers (feat. remixes of The Institute of Flyer Learning)

Design by Afsoon Pajoufar
Additional Sound + Music by Paul Pinto
3D Animation by Bryce Cutler
Stage Management by Vanessa C. Hart
Technical Direction by Chris Swetcky
Assistant Stage Manager Moe Shahrooz

COME OUT AND PLAY

Next week begins a residency at 153 Coffey. Will start to develop a Virtual Reality opera. If you feel comfortable socially distancing, put on a mask and come on over to Red Hook, BK. We can work on stuff. Or take a break and look at the water. Or plan a next course of action.

UPCOMING IN REAL LIFE PERFORMANCE ALERT:

In August I'll be working with Alan Pierson and Alarm Will Sound on an environmental adaptation of John Luther Adams's Ten-Thousand Birds for the opening weekend of PS21's summer season in Chatham, NY. Can't even begin to articulate how thrilled I am at the prospect of making something in the physical world again (outside, with masks on). If you're able to come up for any of these performances, please do. PS21 is fashioning itself to be a refuge for performance makers in a non-artist-bailout country. Check out more about them HERE. And a video that Alan made of a section of 10K Birds in isolation HERE. #keepyourmaskson #nosecondwave

RECENT PRESS AND STUFF

Recent article from the NYTimes This is Theater in 2020. Mad, Mad Forest shout outs throughout. Pull quote of pride: "embodied with aching intensity by its young cast in their separate frames"
The Making of Mad Forest Webinar with the team of Mad Forest from a few weeks back
NYTimes Review of Mad Forest
Segal Talk with Frank Hentschker post-Mad Forest

FRIENDS ENABLE FRIENDS TO MAKE

A couple things I've seen or that are coming up from the circle of makers I am privileged to find myself holding virtual hands with.

ThingNY continues to make live cyber operas for the internet. And they're fantastic. Next one is this weekend 7/10 + 7/11 brought to us by HERE. And, yes, Paul Pinto is performing and creating there as well as having made incredible music for Isaiah Robinson to sing in The Boot. Paul is as connected as the internet. Tickets based on a sliding scale HERE.

For more Isaiah, and Sol - both of whom you'll meet at The Boot - check out Ted Hearne's isolation-borne video of his opera Place. And then go and get the album so you can listen when you're out and about. WNYC'S Green Space premiere of the video HERE

And DJ and filmmaker Hans Augustave (aka DJ Hanzi) has just released a short film/visual poem he made called "Before I Knew" It's a powerful and vulnerable work featuring some amazing artists of all media. Their handles are in the credits. I suggest following. Link to video HERE

Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter.

Ally fatigue is not acceptable.
After we've fought for 401 years to end systemic racism and white supremacy in all our institutions, relationships and interactions
we can talk fatigue.

Here is a link to the PDF of BIPOC demands for White American Theater
and the We See You W.A.T. website
#weseeyou #dobetter