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2008-2009 Season
Illustrated manuscript of Homer's Iliad
The Iliad Project: Dogsbody
World Premiere
Dogsbody is commissioned by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to premiere:
October 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 2009
8pm at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Dogsbody is a modern day adaptation of Homer’s The Iliad told from the point of view of child soldiers, addressing war, the nature of force, and the perpetration of genocide.
Dogsbody is generously funded in part by Multi-Arts Production Fund (a program of Creative Capital, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation), Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant Program (a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Theatre Initiative), National Endowment for the Arts, Flintridge Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund/Grants for the Arts.
Yerba Buena Presents: Artist InSight
Open Rehearsal with Theatre of Yugen
Friday Oct 2nd, 2009 6:30-7:30pm
Free
Experience theatre making in its process, bridging the gap between the artists and the audience in this open rehearsal of Dogsbody, a new theater piece exploring the phenomenon of child soldiers making its World Premiere at YBCA Oct 22nd-24th. Q & A Session from 7:00-7:30 with director Dijana Milosevic. Come in at any time between 6:30-7:30.
Dogsbody concurrent events at NOHspace (click here for more info)
Free
September 16th, 2009
Panel Discussion: Youth Advisory ages 13 - 18 years
Youth perspective on child soldiery, war and genocide
September 23rd, 2009 6-9pm
Round Table Discussion with Dogsbody Director Dijana Milosevic
Appetizers and drinks provided - Invite Only
October 7th, 2009
Political Discussion with Dramaturge Dubravka Knezevic
The role of artists in war torn countries, international exchange and collaboration.
October 14th, 2009
Public Discussion on Child Soldiers
Panelists Include:
Banker White, Filmmaker, Refugee All Stars
website: www.weowntv.org
Ahaji Jeffery Kamara, Former Child Soldier, Sierra Leone
Ko Ko Lay, Public Speaker on War in Burma
Orena James, Consultant for UNICEF child trafficking
Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
Untitled #4, by Megan Wilson
April 30th, 8 pm - Gala opening
$30 each includes post performance reception
May 17th - A Moving Production
doors open at 5:30 pm, show at 6:30pm
$75
Come join us as we travel the perimeter of our neighborhood with a special performance while eating a four-course dinner (with paired wines) at local eateries Coffee Bar and the Slow Club.
May 23rd, 8 pm - 30th Anniversary Celebration
$60 each includes gala reception after the final performance
Candide, or Optimism
April 30th - May 23rd, 2009
Thursday - Saturday at 8pm
Returning to its theatrical roots while branching out to reach new heights, Theatre of Yugen celebrates its 30th Anniversary with a modern Kyogen-style adaptation of Voltaire's Candide, or Optimism (which is celebrating its 250th anniversary). Stylized gesture, social critique, and an endearing archness are trademarks of Kyogen. Classic Japanese comic tradition sheds a "kinder, gentler" light on Voltaire's classic European satire.
In Candide, a bright young man grows up in a castle under the tutelage of the ever-optimistic Dr. Pangloss, but soon circumstances drive the hero out into a hostile, frightening world. Can his innocent faith survive? In a world in which the aristocracy is beyond reproach and religious zealotry rampant, is a reasonable life beyond reach? Jubilith Moore's inventive adaptation poses these questions, fluctuating between humor and pathos, drawing its audience into a space where love and laughter, suffering and death are all equally mysteries to be lived.
Symposia . . .
Join us as we dig beneath the surface of one of Western literature’s most scathing and delightful satires. Theatre of Yugen hosts four concurrent events to our presentation of Candide, or Optimism.
All events are $10 - $15 sliding scale and at NOHspace. Space is limited. Call to reserve: (415) 621-7978
April 18th 11 - 1pm
Lecture - presentation on Voltaire’s Europe, the intellectual and cultural climate, and Voltaire’s place. (Participants are invited to observe a rehearsal afterwards, starting at 1:30pm.)
April 25th 11 - 1pm
Shared Inquiry™ discussion of Voltaire’s “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster,” considered an introduction to Candide. (Participants are invited to observe a rehearsal afterwards, starting at 1:30pm.)
May 2nd 3 - 5pm
Shared Inquiry™ discussion of Voltaire’s Candide, or Optimism. Receive a 2-for-1 ticket to this evening’s performance.
May 9th 11 - 1pm
A Shared Inquiry™ discussion of our production, for people who have already seen it.
Shared Inquiry™ is collaborative and question-driven. Some basic guidelines for discussion are:
•Read the selection carefully before participating.
•Support your ideas with evidence from the text.
•Look to the leader for questions, not answers.
Shared Inquiry is a trademark of the Great Books Foundation.
For more information, visit: www.greatbooks.org
Text utilized for discussions:
Penguin Classics Candide, or Optimism
Translated and edited by Theo Cuffe
with an introduction by Michael Woode
Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
credit: A.Whitman
credit: M. McBeth
Worklights
Fresh schemes, artistic dreams: the R&D lab of our experimental troupe, where the Theatre of Yugen ensemble tries out new ideas for projects, working with members of the Yugen Orchestra, an affiliation of Bay Area musicians and composers.
Sundays 3 - 5pm - FREE
Feb 22nd, 2009 - Jubilith Moore and composer / musician Dylan Bolles explore the intersection of Frosts’ Design, cats cradle and the Book of Job. The Yugen Orchestra continues its musical explorations, as Luciano Chessa will perform on the Dan Bau (Vietnamese single string instrument).
March 29th, 2009 - Musicians Wendy Gilmore, Dan Plonsey, Ava Mendoza, Jake Rodriguez http://soundcrack.net, and the Liz Albee are featured in this fundraising concert.
NOHspace Presents and CoPresents
Julie Brown
Theatre of Yugen’s ART Bursts Program
Helen Keller
September 4th - 6th, 2009
Friday, Saturday & Sunday at 8pm
Helen Keller is the story of Helen Keller’s journey from sensory isolation to communication with the outside world she inhabits. Annie Sullivan speaking only in Japanese throughout the play leads Helen to discover her abilities to communicate reach beyond her immediate surroundings. Helen Keller explores the challenges of her isolation through the use of language in hope to illuminate our need for personal interaction in a technological non-personal world.
Helen Keller directed by renowned Japanese director Gogh Nakajima, coming to the U.S. specifically for this production. Japanese actor Ryousuke Kitaoka, traveling from Japan will play Anne Sullivan, and Julie Brown (Theatre of Yugen) will play Helen Keller.
TICKETS: $10-15 sliding scale
Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
Kathy Foley
NOHspace Presents
Fox Hunts and Freedom Fighters: Korean and Western Women in Seoul 1894-1920
by Chan Park and Kathy Foley
September 14th & 15th, 2009
Monday & Tuesday at 8pm
Created and performed by Kathy Foley (Indonesian wayang, Japanese bunraku, and Korean drumming and dance) and Chan Park (an internationally acclaimed pansori narrative singer).
Korean pansori story singing, porcelain dolls and powerful acting bring to life tales of remarkable women: martyred Queens and Victorian women who defied gender to help change their world, and a straight-laced missionary trying to curb her radical student as she called for national independence at the first Korean school for girls. Cross-cultural encounters fuse Korean and American arts in this new work from the renowned pansori singer Chan Park and puppeteer-director Kathy Foley.
Noted Englishwoman geographer Isabella Bird came to Seoul as Korean Queen Min struggled with Japanese and Western colonialism as the "hermit kingdom" was forced to open to Western trade and missions. The women's friendship grew even as a plot for the assassination of the queen,“Operation Foxhunt,” was being hatched. The history of early Korean-Western exchange is seen in the lives of two women who redefined what it meant to be female.
Exploratory encounters deepened in the early twentieth century. American missionary Jean Walters taught the fiery Yu Kwan Sun, a female revolutionary who lived to oust the Japanese. While the mission lady saw her school, Ehwa, as a site to "uplift Korean womenhood, Yu Kwan Sun saw it as the site to organize and agitate for change. Korea's “new woman” sparked the flame that was the 1919 Independence Movement. Christian hymns and the noted pansori of Yu Kwan Sun, intertwine to tell of a young girl whose self-liberation far outstripped her teacher's.
Chan Park performs extensively in the US and around the world. Her unique blending of Korean singing-storytelling (pansori) and her western training in theatre have made her renown. She frequently performs all over the the country and has collaborated with companies in Hawaii, Alaska, California, and Central Asia to create new works. She teaches at Ohio State University. Kathy Foley regularly performs puppetry, mask, and dance work in the Sundanese style of West Java. She is a director (Ramayana, Nicolas Nickleby), actress, and author (Farewell to Manzanar, based on the life of Jean Houston). She is a professor of theatre arts at UCSC. The pair first worked together as graduate students at the University of Hawaii and bring their voices together to animate the words and actions of women whose lives intertwined on the cusp of modernity.
More Info - Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
Dancer: Rodrigo Estava, Photo: Mike Slack
Julia Graham
NOHspace Presents
Dance Monks &
Bodi Gram
November 17th & 18th, 2008
Monday & Tuesday at 8pm
NOHspace Presents kicks off the 08-09 season with a double bill featuring two up and coming Bay Area choreographers.
More Info - Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
Mr. Yoowho, credit Peter Kuku Cunningham
Moshe Cohen and NOHspace CoPresents
Mr. Yoowho's Holiday
December 12th - 28th, 2008
Friday & Saturdays at 7pm, Sundays at 2pm
Mr. YooWho discovers his dream of traveling the world in the most unlikely of places, a field of sunflowers. He travels through a potpourri of wonder generating laughter that reaches far across generational lines. Enter a world where humor and poetry intermingle with precision mini-board high diving, a world where European clown and mime mix with Japanese Kyogen and Yiddish Absurdism.
Following rave reviews this summer in Europe (“Charlie Chaplin of a modern time”,) Moshe Cohen brings his new show back home to San Francisco. This fall, Moshe traveled to Krakow to work intensely with director Marek Pasieczny, bringing together work that Moshe has developed over the last twenty years. After serious dramaturgy work, Moshe unveiled his new work at the basement cabaret theater Loch Camelot. Now Moshe returns home to San Francisco, and builds upon this foundation in collaboration with the Theatre of Yugen, injecting a Noh and Kyogen influence to his insightful ritual of travel, and holiday celebration.
Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
Oleg Lipstin
NOHspace Presents
Oleg Liptsin’s International Theater Ensemble
January 12th & 13th, 2009
Monday & Tuesday at 8pm
An experimental modern approach to The Overcoat by Nicolay Gogol, transforming the 19th century humanistic myth into an interactive theatrical performance for a modern audience.
Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
DROP (2007) © Morgan Stetler, 2007
NOHspace Presents
April 6th & 7th, 2009
Monday & Tuesday at 8pm
An installation of their latest incarnation, Love-Child Gets Sliced
Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
NOHspace CoPresents
June 8th - 21st, 2009 (various dates & times)
The Fury Factory, a festival of theater work by ensemble theater companies.
Press page - Neighborhood Eats & Drinks - Directions to NOHspace
Touring & Training
On tour in Serbia
June 29th, 2009 - Dah Teatar Belgrade, Serbia
July 1st, 2009 - INFANT Festival Noiv Sad, Serbia
Shuron (A Religious Dispute)
A Classic Kyogen performed in English In a new translation by Yuriko Doi with Theatre of Yugen
Pretty
The fifth (Demon Category) play in The Cycle Plays written and Directed by Erik Ehn with Theatre of Yugen
Theatre of Yugen on tour in New York State
Llanto
September 29th - October 3rd, 2008
In Residency at University at Buffalo
in cooperation with Buffalo Seminary as part of their Prince Lecture Series
Theatre of Yugen will lead workshops as well as perform their latest fusion piece Llanto along with three plays from thier Kyogen comedy repertoire in English: Shuron (A Religious Dispute), Busu (Sweet Poison) and Fukuro Yamabushi (Owl Mountain Priest)
October 4th, 2008
North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL)
Fellow NET company member NaCl hosts Theatre of Yugen for an evening of new work, as we perform our two latest additions to our repertoire; Llanto and Shuron.
Classes open to the Public
Beginner’s Mind Noh
October 4th & 5th, 2008
Saturday & Sunday 11-5pm
Principles for the Western Performer
An introduction to Noh and its key principles
Weekend intensive workshop led by Joint Artistic Director Libby Zilber
October 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th, 2008
Mondays 6-9pm
Practice for the Western Performer
Learn traditional technique and the application of key principles to Western work.
Weekly training classes led by Joint Artistic Director Libby Zilber
Theatre of Yugen's 7th Annual
Winter/Spring Training Session
with Joint Artistic Director Jubilith Moore
Physical Musicality
Feb 7th & 8th, 2009
Physical Character
March 7th & 8th, 2009
Deep Space
April 4th & 5th, 2009
Physical Listening
May 9th & 10th, 2009
Deep Time
June 6th & 7th, 2009
Theatre of Yugen's Winter Training Session is a six week semi-intensive, performance-based training in the dance (komai/shimai) and chant (kouta/utai) of the classical Japanese forms of Kyogen comedy and Noh drama. Students learn a number of short dances and songs from Kyogen and Noh plays and focus on one piece for the final recital.
Theatre of Yugen's 30th Anniversary Season is generously funded in part by our supportive individual donors, The William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation, the San Francisco
Hotel Tax Fund/Grants for the Arts, The Zellerbach Family Foundtion, Johnson & Johnson, Rockefeller MAP, The Lloyd Spiegel Foundation, the Flintridge Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Theatre of Yugen is a proud member of Theatre Bay Area, Project Artaud, Theatre Communications Group and the Network of Ensemble Theaters.
