This Title Will Not Change
Company:
Triskelion Arts
This Title Will Not Change
A one-woman show
Performed by Abby Bender
Directed by Charles Gushue
with contributed material from 32 artists
at Triskelion Arts’ Aldous Theater
118 North 11th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249
L train to Bedford Avenue
May 3-6, 2012, 8pm
Brooklyn, NY. Instead of Abby Bender Schmantze Theatre’s annual evening-length premiere on a cast of 15-20 performers, 32 artists of various mediums have contributed to the seasoned choreographer’s first-ever solo show. The evening-length work is assembled from material donated by a wealth of talented dancers, composers, costumers, filmmakers, writers and clowns. Driven to experiment with a creative process that contrasted her usual approach to dance-making, Bender and Gushue asked participating artists to meet individually with Bender to explore and/or set their short material. No themes were set. No restrictions were placed. The pair have catalogued the ostensibly incongruous dances, text, improvisational content and comedic sketches, resulting in an extraordinary mélange that is part memoir, part metaphor, part myth. This Title Will Not Change is, in fact, rife with change and its own inner logic, a surreal and surprisingly navigable journey into the cluttered landscape of the performer’s ID. The work shares the history and the humility of Bender’s psyche, and helps audiences understand why friendship and home always trump the minutia. A visual bacchanal, the show subdivides the theater into 3 worlds that are slowly revealed and absorbed into the next. An office is swallowed up by a junkyard. Finally, with the help of full audience participation, order prevails, exposing a magical scenery that has actually been there all along.
Tickets for performances are:
5 general admission/2 students/seniors
To reserve tickets, email info@triskelionarts.org
With choreography by Peter Kyle, Stefanie Nelson, Katie Federowicz, Jessica Gaynor, Jonathan Ciccarelli, Zoe Schieber, Karesia Batan, Leanne Schmidt, Nadia Tykulsker, Alex Springer, Xan Burley, Charmian Wells, Amy Larimer, Cristina Jesurun, Laura Sargent Hall, and Charles Gushue. Music by Don Dilego, Roberta Kirn, and Brent Alberghini Clowning by Andrew Dickerson, Jeff Seal, Billy Schultz, and Richard Harrington Text by Rebecca M. Sproul, Alex Springer, Xan Burley, and Abby Bender Costumes by Sydney Maresca and Stephanie Sleeper Sets by Marisa Gruneberg, Alexis Iammarino, Charles Gushue and Abby Bender Video by Lyz Merida and Will Carlough Improvisation and Puppetry by Cassie Tunick and Jackie Moynahan Additional Direction by Dave Gochfeld
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About the Performer
Abby Bender is the Artistic/Excutive Director of Triskelion Arts. Her own dance company, Schmantze Theatre, a playful spin on the over-used, catch-all “dance theatre,” is dedicated to developing and presenting shameless (and oftentimes meaningful) work. Bender attempts to redefine what constitutes a dance, and who can be a dancer, while welcoming viewers and participants into the strange depths of her imagination. Building community is a priority in her process and she has brought over a hundred wonderful performers onto stages with her over the years. She has developed nine evening-length shows and more than fifty shorter works. Abby is also the Director of the Built on Stilts Dance Festival on Martha’s Vineyard which she co-founded in 1997. She has choreographed dance numbers for Harrington and Kauffman, The Hazzards, Beautiful Small Machines, and has presented her own work at the Yard, DTW, WAX, Context, The University of Western Ontario. She performed with the wacky and wonderful Cirque This for six years, and has danced for several choreographers here in NYC and on MV.
About the Director
Charles Gushue is a choreographer and dancer living in Bushwick, Brooklyn. His work has previously been presented in the San Francisco Bay Area at ODC Theater's Pilot program, 975 Howard/The Garage, TwinSpace, Walters Art Museum, LOBOT gallery and SanJose Choreoprojects where his work 'Use Me' received the Producer's Choice Award. His work has been seen on the East Coast at the Walters Art Museum, Built on Stilts, and Summer Stages Dance where he was a 2007 Choreographic Fellow.
