VAUDE_VISUALS

Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee are

MORRO AND JASP

A HILARIOUS LOOK BACK AT THE BEST PERIOD OF YOUR LIFE!

The show is about two sisters going thru the day to day turmoil of a girl’s life in puberty together.

Here are a selection of photographs from the evenings performance.

It was a delightful romp thru these sister’s lives. Funny with very poignant moments.

A charming amount of audience interaction was on hand!

What is a sister without phone issues?

A secret life is revealed!

“This device must have been invented by a man”.

This audience member found out it has many uses.

A novel use of the sticky surface.

An innocent audience member gets subjected to the ‘makeover’.

The puberty age does have it’s consequences.

An audience member (Billy Dee Bedlam) becomes her Don Juan.

After a very trying experience discovering ‘puberty’. Whew!

The curtain call involved a friend who was involved in the production. It was his birthday!

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Many people helped make this show what it is but the main person responsible was Co-Artistic Director

Byron Laviolette

Byron Laviolette is a Canadian playwright, director, dramaturge and critic who has been involved in theatre making and production for the last 20 years. Highlights include the world première of Waiting for Gilgamesh: Scenes from Iraq; Theatre du Refuse’s five star run of The Hunt For Treasure in the Toronto Fringe and its remount in N.Y.C in 2007 with English Rose Productions; Morro and Jasp do Puberty with U.N.I.T. Productions as well as the Canadian Premiere of Reefer Madness at the Hart House Theatre in 2006.

Byron is currently completing a PhD degree in Theatre Studies at York University, working on a dissertation on Canadian Theatre History and his criticism can be read frequently in EYE WEEKLY.

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This show has been the recipient of many awards including:

Canadian Comedy Awards Nominee 2010

Best of Toronto Fringe Festival 2010

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Here is an interview I did with the Co-Directors at Goods Restaurant across the street from The Brick Theatre

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Morro and Jasp Interview by Jim Moore from Jim Moore on Vimeo.

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I was told by my wife that she was taking fiddle lessons with a really well known New Orleans based fiddle player.His name was David Greely. I did some research and found out that he plays with an amazing group ‘Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys’. They have been around for 20 years and have won numerous Grammy nominations. According to the Mamou Playboys site “David Greely is one of Cajun music’s most eloquent voices on the fiddle, and has been a human search engine and musical bloodhound for the Mamou Playboys since the day that he and Steve Riley formed the group. Consumed with a hunger for knowledge and harmony, he revels in archival research, rare melodies, linguistic arcana and historical prose and poetry with which he can create songs that marry the distant past to the future, and then sing them in a rich, full baritone. His fiddling is inventive and witty, searching out and flowing into each opening and angle in a song that needs a splash of color or a blues inflection.”

Last week David and fellow New Orleans fiddle legend Joel Savoy had a performance scheduled in Brooklyn. My wife insisted I go and see David play. I haven’t been a fan of cajun music or bluegrass until recently. The location for this performance was a studio located in an industrial building in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The studio belonged to percussionist Scott Kettner. He has an amazing resume of work as well. Thats another blog entry later. Scott performed a few songs with the duo as well. Amazing musician!

A friend once introduced me to DelMcCoury Band at BB Kings. This was an experience to see that group play. It could have been jazz. It could have been Bluegrass. It was amazing Bluegrass! All the players were virtuoso musicians. That brings me back to David and Joel. Virtuoso fiddle!

David and Joel sang songs from his new album SUD DU SUD and other original cajun classics. It was an great evening of incredible musicianship and talent. I was fortunate enough to get a few songs on video that night. I look forward to seeing David perform again in the near future.

The performing artists of NYC would not be who there are today without the help of one very brave and unstoppable woman. Ellie Covan. Starting as a salon in her Paris apartment in 1985 she found a way to have performers show their new work without the worries of critics and the press. A laboratory for performing and literary artists. Since 1985 she has had a Dixon Place on East 1st . and on the Bowery and became the resident company at the Vineyard Theatre‘s 26th St. Space. The overwhelming support and success of this venue convinced Ellie and her board to secure a permanent home in New York City. Tonight (12/2/09) she along with hundreds of supporters and performers celebrated the OPENING of the new permanent home of DIXON PLACE. A custom built facility with 2 stages and a community space for neighbor events. Located at 161A Christie Street in New York Lower East Side. The sponsors, foundations and Corporations that have made this new space possible goes on for several pages. The evenings festivities included performances by Regina Nejman & Company, Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, Vivian Stoll, R. Sikorykak, David Michael Friend and Nicky Paraiso. The audience joined in for a song with Nicky Paraiso and the Hot Keys.

I was delighted to be able to video tape Jango Edwards’ clown workshop at The Brick Theatre in Williamsburg. It was held Nov. 9th thru the 11th 2009 in association with Jef Johnson’s CLOWN LAB.  I have edited a short excerpt of the workshop and posted it here.  Jango hasn’t been in the US for over 27 years. He was delighted to teach both in New York and Baltimore. He has started the Nouveau Clown Institute in Barcelona and will be having month long workshops there starting in March 2010. Many professional clowns and movement teachers will be doing workshops and performances. Jango started the FESTIVAL OF FOOLS in Amsterdam in 1975. Now Jango’s focus is on the NCI and teaching, performing worldwide. I will be working on the Jango Interview and post it here later next week.

In this interview Michael Bongar explains his views on clown, theatre and his creation of the BongarBiz.com empire.

Christopher Lueck of the New York Downtown Clown Revue interviews Michael in the dressing room of the Kraine Theatre.

This monthly show is on the third Monday of every month and presents a wide variety of eccentric and comedic acts that all are derivative from clown. Michael has had years of performing experience and speaks of the art with knowledge and passion.

Michael Bongar is well known amongst the clown community because he gets a lot of performers work. His agency aptly called BONGARBIZ has a great reputation for booking some of the most talented and eccentric acts available. Michael shed his suit on Monday night to perform and excerpt from his one-man show MAGIC MIKE. A hysterical sendup of magic gone wrong. The mediocre magician and his delightful lack of awareness is perfectly portrayed by MAGIC MIKE. Check out the New York Downtown Clown Revue web site for next month’s featured performers.

In the early 50′s a performer coming up the ranks playing with jazz greats and creating his own style of story telling. Lord Buckley. He had appeared on Groucho’s TV show YOU BET YOUR LIFE and created a sensation amongst night club and cabaret attendees. Here is a version of Lord Buckley’s THE NAZZ performed by Rod Harrison from New Mexico at The Lord Buckley Birthday Bash held annually at The Bowery Poetry Club.

The event is produced by the writer of the definitive Lord Buckley bio DIG INFINITY, Oliver Trager.

Video © 2009 by Jim Moore

Here is Otto and Lewis cutting into some ivories with humor and a bit of clowning.

Otto and Lewis are played by Brian Foley and Matthew Duncan.

They perform as a duet  BAMBOUK. Performing different shows and in many different countries as well as teach residencies. I found their performance to be hilarious and heart felt but at the same time it had the dark edge of the Weimar lurking about. Magic, music, singing and lots of audience involvement was present.