Next Friday, on Parallel Exit’s Artistic Director Mark Lonergan’s birthday, Parallel Exit celebrates 25 years.
On Friday, February 26th, at 7:00 pm, we celebrate a quarter-century of work, with laughter, performances, and interviews with some of your favorite Parallel Exit artists
I have photographed many of this company’s wonderful shows and I can say that they are ‘brilliant’. Both the director and the company bring so much joy and laughter to the audience. You will not be disappointed if you attend this Celebration!
We are all in ‘shut-in’ lifestyles these days and so my interviews are taking the form of ‘internet’ screen videos from remote locations. Here is my first one with author Trav SD.
Today I met with Singaporean native Sim Yan Ying (YY). I had visited her country in 1989 and we talked about the city and its unique place in the world of cities.
Her semi-autobiographical show is all about her growing up in Singapore and the self-destructive obsession she had with white men and the postcolonial baggage, white worship and ‘politically correct‘ culture she experienced.
Watch her interview here!
Written & Performed by Sim Yan Ying “YY”
Developed with & Directed by Renee Yeong Developed with & Dramaturgy by Nicholas Chan
Line Producer Miranda Gohh
Multimedia Designer Cashton Tate Rehklau
Associate Multimedia Designer Nicholas Sanchez
Assistant Director Ava Novak
Stage Manager & Producing Assistant Siena Yusi
Graphic Designer & Social Media Manager Alex M. Lee
Taking over two years to develop and perfect, PACKRAT is a new multi-media puppetry play that contemplates humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Inspired by the classic survival and adventure novel, “Watership Down,” PACKRAT follows one peculiar rodent on his vivacious journey to discover the interconnectedness of life.
Wednesday, March 6 | Friday March 8 | Monday March 11
FREE + Open to public. First come, first served.
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
The fifth annual Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP). The program includes a roster of more than 25 features, shorts, and documentaries by artists from Argentina, Russia, Haiti, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Japan, Romania, Australia, Chile, Poland, Belgium, France, the United States, and more. The festival takes place on Wednesday, March 6; Friday, March 8; and Monday, March 11 at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, located at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, NYC, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street.
An annual event that showcases films drawn from the world of theatre and performance, the Segal Film Festival presents an international array of work from experimental, emerging, and established theatre artists and filmmakers. This festival is curated from a list nominations by theatre-makers, filmmakers, scholars, and arts professionals. Please visit the Segal Center at www.segalcenter.org for more.
There has been an enormous revival of interest in Commedia dell’arte. And it remains a central part of many drama school courses. In Commedia dell’arte in the Twentieth Century John Rublin first examines the origins of this vital theatrical form and charts its recent revival through the work of companies like Tag, Theatre de Complicite and the influential methods of Jacques Lecoq. The second part of the book provides a unique practical guide for would-be practitioners: demonstrating how to approach the roles of Zanni, Arlecchion, Brighella, Pantalone, Dottore, and the Lovers in terms of movement, mask-work and voice. As well as offering a range of lazzi or comic business, improvisation exercises, sample monologues,and dialogues. No other book so clearly outlines the specific culture of Commedia or provides such a practical guide to its techniques. This immensely timely and useful handbook will be an essential purchase for all actors, students, and teachers.
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“This new book by John Rudlin is much more than a re-examination of a theatrical style long past – in Rudlin’s hands, the whole subject becomes not only vital to today’s creators of theatre, but to the future as well.”– Theatre Scotland
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“John Rudlin describes in great detail every aspect of commedia dell’arte. Having personally studied with John Rudlin, he is today’s master of the masked world. Indepth character analysis, sample plots, illustrations, pictures of masks, detailed background information, and an overall ‘everything you need to know’ by the man who knows better than anyone.”
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Rudlin compacts a ton of useful information, in the history of the art, Mask/character analyzation, and current day Commedia practitioners. I’ve found it a very reliable source for the subject and recommend it to anyone interested in Commedia dell’Arte, either practically or academically.
New York City based mask maker and commedia dell’arte specialist, Stanley Allen Sherman, discusses the history of the slapstick as a stage implement turned musical instrument, his creative process, and the importance of developing a performer’s slapstick.
“I find ‘Apostles of Silence‘ indispensable when I am trying to describe (which surprisingly is pretty often) the different schools of movement (mime) that influence my own work and that of many of the great directors and actors of our time. Clearly written and a brilliant tool for comparison of these distinct approaches.”
