e is e text 2
Marc Lafia and the School of Propitiousness present:
Everything is Everything and
There is Nothing Else
An evening in 7 parts
Written, directed and narrated by Marc Lafia
A one night only performance
May 11, 2019, New York
Everything is Everything and There is Nothing Else
This immersive installation and performance will be presented live for 1 evening in Brooklyn, New York before it goes on tour to Berlin, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, and Mexico City
.Everything is Everything and There is Nothing Else presents, in the guise of a travel memoir, the ancient Greeks as they moved, and we continue to, from the ecstatic to reason, and from the mythopoetic to logos.
Accompanied with video projections, haptic suits, AI, virtual hot tubs, an ambient electronic surround environment, video projections, feedback and recursion, this visual and aural performance asks us to once again consider our bodies, our being, our universe, the ecstatic, and the one and only life that is ours.
Ἀσπάζομαι,
Marc Lafia and the School of Propitiousness
THE TEXT
The Text that you hear recorded and scored has 4 main sections, broken out into 134 discrete entries including Athens (29), Islands (41) Greece (40) and The Peloponnese (24). It is written as a visual and aural performance to be accompanied with video projections, haptic suits, holograms, AI, hot tubs, an ambient electronic surround environment, teletype, projection, feedback, and recursion - all that turns on initiation, communion, confession, the ecstatic.
It is a variable and modular performance theatre piece in the guise of a travel memoir that re-reads and re-presents the ancient Greeks as they move from the ecstatic or the instinctual, to reason, and from mythos to logos. Over time through lighting and staging, we realize the 'narrator' and the chorus are inside a kind of experiment, or being observed. We sense the narrator is in search of the Godhead as are those observing him - her or whomever speaks, or however the text of the piece is spoken and enacted.
It is written as a visual and aural performance accompanied by a variety of performers, Butoh, Mask and Movement Performers, various electronics, haptic suits and holograms, installation design, and projections.
THE INSTALLATION & PERFORMANCE
As a rule, the number of performers is variable, as is the length of the performance and the design. The work turns on the notion of recording, and the extension of ourselves into multiple media and our very own bodies as media. There are many levels and media throughout the piece - multiple projections, slide shows, music, sound - all of which informs how it is to be presented and where and how performance figures into the work.
Because of the voluminous text the narrator is, at times, a lecturer and story teller, unable to read from notes, and at others, observed in an experiment, by a chorus of sorts - google scientists at the Esalen Institute are reading the narrator, measuring him (her), observing him, and putting him through various rituals and enactments. And all the while, the unconscious of the narrator is given expression through Butoh dancers, mask performers, movement performers, and a number of electronics. It is a collision of the mythic and the unconscious with reason, rationality, and instrumentality.
A key to understanding the piece is not only the notion of the exile, but tied to this, the reality of ‘Greece’ aspiring to and becoming an imperium, an empire, (in the 5th century bc) and wrestling with defining who is a Greek, what is to be a Hellene, who is in The Imperium and with what status. This ranking and categorization of people we know is repeated all through human civilization and history. ‘Greece’ as an empire was never quite an empire, but a way to take up the world. It was extraordinary for a while, but like many other empires ultimately failed and was colonized.
There is a great deal at present that we can learn from the pre and post socratic greeks: the tension and conflicts of who is inside and who is outside, who is the other, who is me (a constant question in Greek Tragedy) and the longing, in our desires to transform our inner selves, wishing to understand life beyond country, language, life itself and the afterlife. The vanity, seduction and aphrodisiac of wealth and power, history, reason, community, all these things are immediately recognizable to us.
An Evening in 7 Parts
1.
Atmosphere
2.
Athens
3.
Interlude
4.
Islands
5.
Interlude
6.
Godhead
7.
Escape Velocity
Cast & Crew
Elliot Arkin, Statuary
Christian Andrews, Set Camera
Will Atkins, Butoh Dancer
Reza Behjat, Lighting
Sindy Butz, Butoh Dancer
James Burgin, Movement Performer
Marcus Burnett, Performance Camera
Nikki Burnett, Still Photographer
Sindy Butz, Butoh Dancer
Ochion Jewell, Musician
Howie Kenty, Musician
Yvette King, Sapho + Chorus
Ellen Ko, Movement Performer
Marc Lafia, Narrator, Mystic Fool
Andreea Mincic, Set Design, Costume
Ayodamola Okunseinde, Chorus
Ana Guzmán, Movement Performer
Chad Raines, Sound Design, Composition
Monica Sanborn, Movement Performer
Luke Shwartz, Musician
Azumi Oe, Butoh Dancer
Gil Sperling, Projections
Margherita Tisato, Butoh Dancer
Shelley Wyant, Mask Director
Biographies
ELLIOT ARKIN
Real Salvator Mundi is the nom de plume and project of sculptor Elliot Arkin and follows the artist’s conceptual exploration of humor and the absurd. Elliot Arkin has exhibited throughout the US and Europe.
REZA BEHJAT
Reza Behjat is a lighting designer based in New York City. He began his career in Iran before moving to the US in 2014.
JAMES BURGIN
The Name given at birth, James Burris Burgin IV is in constant change. From James into Corvette into Dumpster Bandit. Or #4. What doesn’t change is the love for life and art, seeking new friends and experiences. Vegan and globally conscious with devotion to the Divine. We’re all god in drag.
CHAD RAINES
Chad Raines is a composer, sound designer, and performer from Dallas, Texas. He composes often for theater.
OCHION JEWELL
Originally from Appalachian Kentucky, Ochion received a Bachelor’s in music from the University of Louisville, where he performed as a sideman with several acts that came through the city. After graduate study, Ochion and his quartet moved to Brooklyn.
HOWIE KENTY
Howie is a Boroklyn-based composer and performer, occasionally known by his musical alter-ego, Hwarg. His music is stylistically diverse, encompassing ideas from contemporary classical, electronic, rock, sound art, and theater.
ELLEN KO
Ellen is an actor and improvisor based in New York City. Ellen gravitates towards comedy and is heavily influenced by physical theater such as clown, mask, and mime.
MARC LAFIA
Marc Lafia is an American artist, author and filmmaker. He has been exhibited at the Walker Art Center, the Whitney, the Tate, the Minsheng Museum of Art in Shanghai and the Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale 2014. His books Image Photograph and Everyday Cinema are published by Punctum Books.
ANDREEA MINCIC
Andreea is a visual artist who works as a theater designer in New York City. From stage design to costumes, making masks, or puppets, Andreaa loves working with everything that unconventional and challenging.
YVETTE KING & AYODAMOLA OKUNSEINDE
Universal solvent studios; art, technology, fabrication, magic. They work as artists and performers, to explore the unknown.
ANA GUZMÁN QUINTERO
Ana is a Mexican actress and producer who recently graduated from The Atlantic Acting School’s full time conservatory program. This summer she will be reprising her role as Athena at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
MONICA SANBORN
Monica is a NYC-based actor and artist, originally from Windsor, Ontario. She is a graduate of the Atlantic Acting Conservatory and has worked closely with Shelley Wyant as her mentor and mask work teacher.
LUKE SCHWARTZ
Luke is a composer and guitarist based in New York City who produces for the screen, the concert hall, and everything in between.
GIL SPERLING
Gil Sperling is a multimedia performance maker and video designer. His work has been presented at art centers in New York, Germany, Israel and Japan.
MARGHERITA T ISATO
Margherita Tisato is a dancer, performer, and movement educator. She has been studying and sharing movement for most of her life.
SHELLEY WYANT
Shelley Ryan began working with masks in 1981 after a trip to Bali. Masks have guided her professional life leading her to wonderful people and places–several of whom are a part of this exciting project.
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