Michael Jackson Was Innocent and I Didn’t Kill Jonbenet Ramsey... But I Was There the Night She Died
Company:
Michael Cross Burke
About this Show
In Michael Jackson Was Innocent and I Didn’t Kill Jonbenet Ramsey… But I Was There the Night She Died, award-winning queer performance artist Michael Cross Burke, known for his ‘unflinching honesty’ uses found & original text to tell the story of corruption, wealth and tabloids told from the eyes of a 12-year old boy. Juxtapozed with Burke’s obsessive research on the Jonbenet Ramsey case and his escape from porn and prostitution, this oddly humorous and eccentric journey digs its teeth deep into the U.S. Court System and celebrity culture by fully exposing the intricacies of greed and deceit (and the front of his own body.)
About the Artists
Michael Cross Burke is a NYC-based queer performance artist & dancer whose acclaimed solo works have been presented nationally, internationally and throughout NYC at places like Dixon Place, La MaMa, HERE Arts Center, The National Gay & Lesbian Theater Festival,BAAD, Highways Performance Space (LA) Festival, SEEN+ HEARD Festival (Atlanta, GA), Buddies in Bad Times Theater (Toronto), Austin Arts Center, among many others as well as extensive colleges/university tours. He is the director of the Trinity/La MaMa Performing Arts Program and Professor in the Theater & Dance Dept. at Trinity College. Some performance credits include: Penny Arcades’ BITCH! DYKE! FAGHAG! WHORE!!! Holly Hughes’ 1998 NYC premiere of Preaching to the Perverted, as well as collaborations with Tim Miller. Traditional theater credits include multiple productions with the “Obie” award-winning Peculiar Works Project,The Ordinary Theatre Company, andtwo seasons with CT Shakespeare Festival.
Gian Franco Morini was born on October 23, 1984, in Bologna, Italy. He is a music video and film director, editor and writer. He attended Collegio San Luigi in Bologna, where he obtained a scientific high school degree.
He later graduated in Communication & Marketing in June 2006 at L.UN.A. (Libera Universita’ delle Arti), after a 3 year course. At that point he was asked by his mentor Barbara Nerozzi to join the university’s research team: C.R.L. (Centro Ricerche Luna). He started working on all the projects they were involved in, as the “Portale Moda Italiano”, in collaboration with Comune di Milano and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (in English: “The National Chamber for Italian Fashion”), an association which co-ordinates and promotes the development of Italian fashion and is responsible for hosting the fashion events and shows of Milan Fashion Week (in Italian: “Settimana della Moda”).
The Portale Moda Italiano (“Portal for Italian Fashion”) is a project that aims to recover the cultural heritage of Italian fashion. Built on digital databases, digitized magazines and collections coming from both private and public museums, the Portal has already made 10 million documents, 1500 sources and 5000 archives available. The Portal is divided into three different sections: the “Historical Network” (with sources and documents), a “Real Time Network” (containing all the lists of contemporary fashion professionals) and a “Trend Network” (that makes possible the analysis of the international trends found on the web).
In September 2007, in order to focus on his directing career, he decided to move to New York City.
He obtained a 2 Year Filmmaking degree at New York Film Academy. During this period of time he shot more than a dozen music videos and three short movies, winning several awards. He collaborated with fashion photographer Diana Scheunemann on her first feature film.
Since August 2012 works for 50 Cent’s G-Unit Records. He did video project for the New York Times, ASPCA and PVH.
Gian Marco Lo Forte (director) is originally from Italy and a NYC-based director and writer of multimedia live music and video works. Gian Marco is an artist-in-residence at La MaMa where he founded in association with Abby Felder, PIONEERS GO EAST COLLECTIVE. Since 2010 PGEC works have been presented at LA MAMA (S 16; I Fioretti in Musica); at ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE and GOVERNORS ISLAND (Hildegard Vision), INCUBATOR ARTS PROJECT (7AM; Maria Celeste Galileo), CHASHAMA and GOETHE INSTITUT (The Birds and The Wolf). Upcoming works in 2015: American Mill # 2 at LA MAMA and a new work written by queer performance artist Michael Burke (DIXON PLACE). Selected directing and/or design work presented in NYC: LA MAMA; GALAPAGOS; HERE; WET; NYTW; ART ON AIR and he designed for Pan Asian Rep; Magis Co; Watson Arts; Operating Theatre; Slant; May Adrales; Edward Einhorn; Ernest Abuba; Kevin Augustine; Ellen Stewart. Gian Marco is in residence with GREAT JONES REP and has designed at BIENNALE OF VENICE and toured in Europe. Awards: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (’11-‘14); The Puffin Foundation (’12 & ‘14); LMCC’s Process Space Residency (’14); Nancy Quinn Fund – A.R.T./ New York (’14); Chashama Residency (’12); Opera America – Alfred L. Tobin Director and Production Design (’10).
