Choreographer Rosanna Gamson and her company, World Wide, present a variation of 'Scheherazade.'
The second week of REDCAT’s New Original Works (NOW) Festival continues this Thursday through Saturday (Sept. 15-17) with writer and director Robert Cucuzza’s (Theater MFA 11) “backwoods reinvention” of August Strindberg’s classic Miss Julie, and choreographer and CalArts faculty member Rosanna Gamson’s take on Scheherazade.
NOW Festival Week Two Lineup
Robert Cucuzza
Robert Cucuzza: Cattywampus
In his latest production, Cucuzza hones an “essential tale of class and power,” which he stages in modern-day Appalachia. Recent director of such works as Mother Tongue by Jillian Lauren and the World Premiere of Iannis Xenakis’a Pour La Paix, his new work features multidisciplinary collaborations.
From REDCAT’s program notes:
Cucuzza and his collaborators orchestrate a multidisciplinary approach highlighted by distinctly American forms—country-western music written and performed by Juli Crockett, line dancing choreographed by Jordana Che Toback—that binds Strindberg’s characters, both the rich and the poor, by exposing their shared vulnerability in a time of economic collapse.
Watch videos of other recent productions directed by Cucuzza on his Vimeo page.
Rosanna Gamson/World Wide: Layla Means Night
Choreographer Rosanna Gamson and her dance company World Wide bring Scheherazade to REDCAT. The story is centered around the cunning bride from One Thousand and One Nights whose skills as a storyteller saved her from a murderous husband. Described as “serving up horrific melodrama as dance-theater divertissement,” Layla Means Night is an intricate exploration of violence, complicity and our desire to be entertained. The production also includes a live score by Persian percussionist and CalArts faculty member Houman Pourmehdi as well as tar performer Pirayeh Pourafar (Music MFA 84).
Read more about one of Gamson’s recent dance works, Tov, in Susan Joseph’s Los Angeles Times story from March 2010.
NOW Fest: Week Two
REDCAT
Sept. 15-17 at 8:30 pm
Tickets: $18 general, $14 students, $10 CalArts community