Past Performing Arts
2012
Contemporary Scandinavian Reading Series:
Scandinavian American Theater Company
Mondays, 7:30 pm pre-reception/8 pm reading
January 30, 2012
Free admission
The Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC) introduces a new generation of Nordic playwrights in a series of staged readings representing Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Founded in 2009 by a group of New York-based Scandinavian theater professionals, SATC, the first-ever Scandinavian-American theater company in New York, presents high-quality, cutting-edge productions of contemporary Nordic plays and fresh interpretations of Scandinavian classics, and fosters the Scandinavian-American performing arts community in New York.
The Returns/Tilbakekomstene*
*Originally scheduled for November 7, 2011 this reading was rescheduled for January 30, 2012. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Written by Fredrik Brattberg (Norway, 2011). A mother and a father grieve the loss of their only son. The funeral is gripping and breathtaking. The whole town has turned up to say their final goodbyes. After the funeral the parents strive to find their way back to their old life. One day they get a very unexpected visitor... A new dark comedy from Norway that takes the audience on a hilarious and unpredictable ride.
About the playwright:
Playwright and composer Fredrik Brattberg (b. 1978, Porsgrunn, Norway) made his debut in 2008 at Oslo’s Student Stage with the play It Knocks, Amadeus/Det Banker, Amadeus. He has participated twice in The Norwegian Playwrights Festival in Oslo with Visit at the Hansen Family Half Past Six/Besøk Hos Familien Hansen Halv Syv (2009), a play about prejudice in which a Norwegian family invites a Muslim to dinner, and again in 2011 with his dark comedy The Returns/Tilbakekomstene. Brattberg’s newest play Monsemann (2011) was listed among the 20 best of 350 plays at The International Playwright Competition in Berlin and was later staged at Dramatikkens Hus in Oslo.
Twenty Minutes After Death/Død Mands Kvinde
March 26
Featuring Kendra Lou, Anthony Aguilar, Sidse Ploug, Amanda Johnson, and Jeff House.
Translator Nina Sokol will be in attendance.
Written by Thomas Markmann (Denmark, 2009), translated by Nina Sokol (Denmark), & directed by Anna Zastrow (Sweden/United States). Fed up with the trivialities of conventional relationships, Helena, an attractive and well-educated young Danish woman, decides to write to an American inmate, serving his ninth year on death row. What begins as an innocent flirtation turns into an extraordinary love story, in which Helena finds herself losing control not only of her daily life, but also of herself.
Twenty Minutes After Death is a gripping play, filled with humor, which exposes the modern dilemmas inherent to living in a subjective world where dreams and reality may suddenly merge.
About the playwright:
Thomas Markmann made his debut in 2009 with Twenty Minutes After Death at Odense Theater while attending The Playwright School in Århus, Denmark. He received the prestigious Reumert Prize for his dramatization of the Danish novel Oh, Romeo, a production that was nominated for a Reumert Prize - for juvenile plays - as well. Markmann's play The Arabic Blackbird/Den arabiska koltrasten premiered in 2010 at Dramalabbet Theater in Stockholm, Sweden. Additionally, he wrote a radio play for Radio Denmark. April 2012 will see the premiere of Dreyer: The Danish Tyrant at Dagmar Bio Cinema in Copenhagen, a piece based on the major Danish film director, the manuscript of which was written by Markmann. His play Brøl will be performed at Svalegangen in Århus in 2012 and his new adaptation of Schiller's The Robbers will also be performed in 2012 in Ålborg.
About the Translator:
Nina Sokol is a poet and translator. She attained her Master's degree in English from Copenhagen University and has translated and edited plays for The Stuart Lynch Company and Hamletscenen in Copenhagen.
Her own poems have been translated from English to Danish by the Danish writer Niels Svarre Nielsen for publication in the near future, and she was a grant poet-in-residence at The Vermont Studio Center for four weeks in 2011. Most recently she received a grant from the Danish Art's Council to translate Markmann's play Twenty Minutes After Death from Danish to English and will be attending The Continuing Education Program at the Bread Loaf School of English this coming June.
Sokol's poems have received honorable mention in The Emily Dickinson Award for Poetry and have appeared in various anthologies, most recently in the journal Ardent: A Journal of Poetry and Art.
Co-presented by the Consulate General of Denmark New York, the Consulate General of Finland in New York, the Consulate General of Iceland in New York, the Royal Norwegian Consulate General of New York, the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, and Scandinavia House.
MorphosesInsights: Dance + Film/Pontus Lidberg
Thursday, May 3, 7 pm
$15 ($10 ASF Members)
MorphosesInsights is a series of intimate events that bring together creators, dancers, collaborators, supporters, audiences, and fans for the purpose of illumination: the illumination of the creative process. The dynamic forces combining in each Morphoses production are endlessly fascinating and by creating a context in which these forces are displayed, spoken about, and demonstrated, MorphosesInsights is an inside track on each production from the very beginning of its journey. The 2012 edition of this exciting series kicks off with choreographer/filmmaker Pontus Lidberg and some of his closest collaborators discussing the process of building a new evening-length work and a viewing of the film at the center of it all: Lidberg's Labyrinth Within.
Swedish choreographer, dancer, and filmmaker Pontus Lidberg is most recognized for his award-winning dance film The Rain (2007). As a choreographer for the stage, Mr. Lidberg has been described in the Swedish press as “one of our great choreographic talents” and has created over 30 works for major international dance companies such as The Royal Danish Ballet, The Beijing Dance Theatre, The Norwegian National Ballet, 59° North: Soloists of the Royal Swedish Ballet, The Vanemuise Ballet of Estonia, Morphoses, and his own group Pontus Lidberg Dance, which recently made its New York debut with his Faune at the Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center.
In December of 2010 NorrlandsOperan of Sweden commissioned Mr. Lidberg to create a new dance work with an original score by Swedish composer B. Tommy Andersson. That work, entitled Warriors, was named best dance performance of the year in northern Sweden. Lidberg’s full-length work Duet for Dancer and Pianist, in collaboration with concert pianist Magnus Svensson, has been performed extensively on tour in Sweden, France, and Estonia.
In just a few short years Pontus Lidberg has firmly established himself as a creative and visionary artist bringing dance and film together. His first work for the camera was commissioned by Swedish National Television: Mirror has been screened on television as well as in dance film festivals in the U.S. and abroad. His most recent dance film, Labyrinth Within, which features New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan and a score by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, received the Court Métrange du Jury prize at Court-Métrange Film Festival in Rennes, France this past October.
Pontus Lidberg is the designated 2012 Resident Artistic Director for Morphoses. In that role he plans to create a new evening-length work that weaves together dance for stage and film, expanding on and taking inspiration from Labyrinth Within - once again in collaboration with David Lang. This new work will premiere during Morphoses’ debut season at Jacob’s Pillow in June 2012. Morphoses previously commissioned Lidberg: Vespertine premiered at Works & Process at the Guggenheim in October 2010.
Mr. Lidberg received his training at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm, Sweden. Among other international dance companies, he has danced with The Royal Swedish Ballet, the Norwegian National Ballet, Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Gothenburg Ballet. He received the NOKIA Award for young talent in 2001 and the Stockholm Cultural Scholarship, also in 2001.
Co-presented by Morphoses.
2011
Contemporary Scandinavian Reading Series
Scandinavian American Theater Company
Pre-reception 7:30 pm/readings 8 pm
January 31, 2011 & May 23, 2011
FREE
Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC), the first-ever Scandinavian-American theater company in New York, was founded in 2009 by a group of New York-based Scandinavian theater professionals with the wish to introduce a new generation of Scandinavian playwrights to an American audience. SATC’s mission is to present high-quality, cutting-edge productions of contemporary Scandinavian plays and fresh interpretations of the Scandinavian classics, as well as to foster the Scandinavian-American performing arts community in New York.
In their Contemporary Scandinavian Reading Series, SATC presents five plays annually representing Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands).
Co-presented by the Consulate General of Denmark New York, the Consulate General of Finland in New York, the Consulate General of Iceland in New York, the Royal Norwegian Consulate General of New York, the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, and Scandinavia House.
Pinocchio’s Ashes/Pinocchios aske*
January 31, 2011
Written by Jokum Rohde (Denmark, 2005) & directed by Henning Hegland (Norway). A prohibition on art and culture has been imposed in the city of Kongstad. Judge Wolff is to implement it, but in the decadent and paranoid universe Rohde has created, he and the other characters become human wrecks. Inspired by the American courtroom genre, the award-winning Pinocchio's Ashes is an expressionistic drama about the role of art in our times and the demonic in human nature. It is a dynamic, gripping story filled with melancholy, poetry and dark humor.
*Guest-starring Jokum Rohde
About the playwright:
Considered one of Denmark’s most celebrated contemporary playwrights, Jokum Rohde (b. 1970, Denmark) has been a resident playwright at The Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen since 2008. He got his breakthrough in 1998 with the three-character theater-noir drama Nero. A prolific writer, he followed with nine plays that were produced throughout Denmark and in 2005, he wrote Pinocchio's Ashes for which he was awarded the prestigious Reumert award in the category Playwright of the Year. Pinocchio's Ashes has subsequently been produced at Dramaten, the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as in Norway, Lithuania and Italy.
National Test/Nasjonal prøve
May 23, 2011
Written by Maria Tryti Vennerød (Norway, 2011) & translated by Nick Norris. In a small community, students are waiting with sharpened pencils to take a national exam when they are threatened by a potential school massacre. Can it be the former student, Vidar, who plans to kill them all? No matter what, they are forced to take their exam.
Vennerød's play is about fear and especially fear of the different and unknown. A dramaturgical collage, National Test is an energetic drama with snappy lines and a complex plot. The play premiered in 2011 at Rogaland Teater.
Featuring: Vigdis Hentze Olsen (Faroe Islands), Joey Mintz (US), Kristina Korsholm (Denmark), Andrew Vallins (US), Pangia Macri (Germany), Nick Brown (US), Karl Glusman (US), Flannery Spring-Robinson (US), Alexandra Gjerpen (Norway), Line Oestergaard Jeppesen (Denmark), Kwasi Osei (Denmark), Erik A. Schjerven (Norway)
About the playwright:
Maria Tryti Vennerød’s (Norwegian, b. 1978) first play More was produced at the Norwegian Drama Festival in 2002. Since then she has written ten plays that have been performed by different theaters and ensembles in Norway and Sweden. Writing with linguistic energy and a taste for tragedies caused by human folly and with a desire to combine humor, pain and politics, Vennerød is one of the strong, new dramatic voices in Norway today.
In 2005 she received the Ibsen Award for her play The Lady at the Counter. In 2003 Vennerød was awarded with the First Prize in a Swedish/Norwegian drama competition. Recently, Vennerød has written and directed two projects, one of them being the contemporary opera Heat for young people, composed by Julian Skar. These days she is back to the sole business of writing. In 2010 her play Neverland was produced by Det Norske Teatret, directed by Jon Tombre.
Home Sweet Home/Hjem Kære Hjem
Scandinavian American Theater Company
Friday, September 16, 8 pm
$15 ($12 ASF Members)
Written by Andreas Garfield (Denmark, 2007) & directed by Christoffer Berdal (Denmark). Kim (Brian Smolin), a former Sergeant in the Danish army, and his girlfriend Iben (Lisa Pettersson), an editor of women's magazines, are preparing a “welcome home” dinner for Carsten (Albert Bendix), Kim's lifelong friend. Carsten has recently returned from service in Iraq. During the evening, the couple is confronted with a person whose understanding of life has become radically different from theirs. A pleasant reunion becomes a fatal evening where all three characters' relationships, values, and principles are tested. Inspired by interviews with Danish soldiers, the award-winning Home Sweet Home/Hjem Kære Hjem reveals the traumatic experience of war and the unsympathetic indifference of home as refracted through a Nordic country. 85 min. No intermission.
Home Sweet Home was a sensation in 2007 when it premiered at Teater Grob in Copenhagen, a well-known venue for experimental theater and new work. Since then, Teater Grob has toured the play around Denmark. The year of its debut, playwright Andreas Garfield won the prestigious Talent Prize in the Reumert Awards, Denmark's equivalent of the Tony Awards. Home Sweet Home was also nominated in the categories of Best Play and Best Leading Actor and won in the category of Best Supporting Actor. This recognition was exceptional since the playwright was a student at the time. He graduated from the playwrighting division of Aarhus Theatre, Denmark, later that year and his plays have since been produced in theaters all over Denmark and Scandinavia.
The U.S. premiere and English-language debut for Home Sweet Home was at P.S. 122 in November 2010, produced by the Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC). The English translation is by actress Lisa Pettersson in collaboration with SATC. SATC is an emerging troupe that will be offering New York audiences daring and innovative works from Scandinavia's burgeoning theater scene.
Contemporary Scandinavian Reading Series:
Scandinavian American Theater Company
Mondays, 7:30 pm pre-reception/8 pm reading
September 19
Additional readings for January 30, March 26, & June 4, 2012 TBA
Free admission
The Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC) introduces a new generation of Nordic playwrights in a series of staged readings representing Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Founded in 2009 by a group of New York-based Scandinavian theater professionals, SATC, the first-ever Scandinavian-American theater company in New York, presents high-quality, cutting-edge productions of contemporary Nordic plays and fresh interpretations of Scandinavian classics, and fosters the Scandinavian-American performing arts community in New York.
Desire/Begär
September 19, 2011
Written by Richard Hobert (Sweden, 2010), translated by Susanna Stevens, & directed by Christoffer Berdal (Denmark). Set in a landscape of extreme modern environments, Desire is a story about a growing power struggle between four successful people in the multinational business world. Outer perfection is in rough contrast to the forces and emotions that threaten to rip these four apart. Desire is a psychological chamber play that explores what power does to people. Who wins, who gets abandoned, and who will disappoint or be disappointed?
About the playwright:
Richard Hobert (b. 1951, Kalmar, Sweden) is one of Sweden’s most celebrated film directors, and writers for film, television, and theater. He studied political science, languages, and film/theater at the University of Lund in Sweden and debuted as a radio playwright in 1974. In 1995 Hobert was awarded the Ingmar Bergman Prize for his work. His previous work includes internationally acclaimed films including Spring of Joy/Glädjekällan (1993), Run for Your Life/Spring för livet (1997), The Eye/Ögat (1998), Everyone Loves Alice/Alla älskar Alice (2002), and Harry's Daughters/Harrys döttrar (2005).
The Undiscovered Country/Det Oupptäckta Landet
November 7, 2011
Written by Jacob Hirdwell (Iceland, Sweden) and directed by Kathy Curtiss (American). The majority of the human genome was mapped out by the late 90s. The information matches a text quantity of 800 bibles. But what does this mean and how can we use this knowledge? What effect would “eternal life” have on society from an economical, religious, and political perspective?
In The Undiscovered Country young scientist Tekla is hired by the Icelandic company Genome. She quickly advances within the hierarchy of the company where she's faced with a patient suffering from a very strange disease: a person that genetically looks like nothing else in the world.
The Undiscovered Country was first staged at the National Theatre in Reykavík in 2007.
This play is presented in arrangement with Nordiska ApS, Copenhagen.
Co-presented by the Consulate General of Denmark New York, the Consulate General of Finland in New York, the Consulate General of Iceland in New York, the Royal Norwegian Consulate General of New York, the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, and Scandinavia House.
2010
Aladdin
The Lahjan Tytöt Aesthetic Gymnastics Club
Thursday, February 25, 5 pm
FREE, no tickets or reservations required; seating is first-come first-served
The Finnish gymnastic group Lahjan Tytöt combines Finnish art and sport in an enchanting combination of high-energy modern dance, group aesthetic gymnastics, and traditional Finnish folk song and dance. The performance at Scandinavia House will tell the story of Aladdin, interpreted through dance and aesthetic group gymnastics. Founded in Turku, Finland in 1971, the club boasts 750 members from age 2 through 80. It has been a formidable presence in national and international competitions, winning the Finnish Cup and taking the silver medal in the world championship.
Contemporary Scandinavian Theater: Staged Readings
Monday, May 3, 6:30 pm pre-reception & raffle, 7 pm reading
FREE
“They’re young. They’re wild. They’re looking... for an apartment. At any price. At a time when everything has its price. Aaron and Peter are brothers. Nina and Allan have been together. Nadja meets Peter first, then Aaron. And Gary, Aaron and Peter’s father, would rather meet Nina than sort out his role as a father.”
A staged reading of Hand in Hand - a dark, fast-paced comedy filled with repartee that rattles forth like Morse code – a fictitious report from a young, urban world. Written by Sofia Fredén, one of Sweden’s most exciting contemporary writers, and directed by New York-based Swedish director Anders Cato. The cast features Danish actress and Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC) Ambassador Charlotte Munck and actors from SATC.
SATC is a New York-based Scandinavian theater company founded to further Scandinavian performing arts in New York by staging innovative productions of plays from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The company was formed in 2009 and Hand in Hand is its first reading.
Co-hosted by the Consulate General of Sweden in New York and the Consulate General of Denmark, New York.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Anders Cato recently directed his own adaptation of Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Crime and Punishment at Cleveland Playhouse and Mrs. Warren’s Profession at the Alley Theatre in Houston. Other directing credits include Lars Norén’s War, and Craig Lucas’s adaptation of Miss Julie at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York, Texts for Nothing at The Royal Court Theatre in London and the Magic Theater in San Francisco, When the World Was Green at American Repertory Theater and Moscow Art Theatre, Blood Orange at Cherry Lane Theatre, A Dream Play at Westbeth Theatre, The War in Heaven at La Jolla Playhouse, All My Sons, Tango Palace, and In Berlin at 7 Stages, The Seafarer, Doubt and Souvenir at George Street Playhouse, Gross Indecency and Dirty Blonde at Theatre in the Square. His production of I Am My Own Wife was seen at Cleveland Playhouse, Coconut Grove Playhouse and George Street Playhouse. At Berkshire Theatre Festival he also directed Texts for Nothing (with Joseph Chaikin), Miss Julie, Talley’s Folly, Heartbreak House, The Misanthrope, The Father, American Buffalo, The Night of the Iguana, Via Dolorosa, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Candida and Waiting for Godot. Presently, he is working on three short films.
Sofia Fredén was born in 1968 in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city. She studied writing for film and theatre at “Dramatiska Institutet”, graduating in 1995. Since graduation she has written prolifically for the theatre and also manages to write for film and radio. Her plays have been produced in many of Sweden’s city and regional theatres, at the Royal Dramatic Theatre and outside of Sweden, chiefly in Germany and France. In 2005, Sofia received the critics prize for Children and Youth Theatre, for three plays that played simultaneously at three different theatres; Bara Barnet (Only a Child), Ruttet: a princess liv (Rotten: The Life of a Princess) and Solapan (The Sun Monkey). In January 2008 she received the Ibsen Stipend for White Baby. Several of Sofia’s plays are translated to other languages; French, German and English primarily. Sofia is playwright in residence at Stockholm “Stadsteatern” and lives in Stockholm with her boyfriend, her baby daughter and two stepchildren.
Charlotte Munck graduated from “Teaterskolen” in Odense in 1998 and made her breakthrough in 2001 as the female lead in the Danish feature film En Kort en Lang (A Short a Long). Her subsequent interpretation of the role “Anna Pihl” in the crime TV-series with the same name made her one of the most acclaimed and well-recognized actresses in Scandinavia. In 2010 she was nominated for a ‘Best Supporting Actress’ Roberts Award (the Danish equivalent of the Oscars) for her work in the film Headhunter.
Stories, Music & Dance: A Benefit for Haiti
Sunday, May 9, 1 pm silent auction, program 2-4 pm, Victor Borge Hall
$20 ($10 Students & Seniors)
For reservations, call 212.613.3117
This Mother’s Day at Scandinavia House, celebrate the culture of Haiti at a special event to raise support for mothers and children affected by the recent earthquake. Join us for a family-friendly concert with storytellers and musicians, preceded by a silent auction at 1 pm.
Funds will go directly to ATD Fourth World, working in Haiti since 1980. Additionally, Smörgås Chef Restaurant, open for brunch and dinner, will donate 10% of the day’s proceeds to the benefit.
Sponsored by the Storytelling Center in New York City, in cooperation with the African Folk Heritage Circle and The American Scandanavian Foundation.
Miss Julie
The Scandinavian American Theater Company
June 10-12 & 17-19
Midsummer—the longest night of the year. A duo in a dance of power, sex, dreams and violence swirling out of control: Miss Julie (Lisa Pettersson) and Jean (Albert Bendix), her father’s valet, dreaming of a different life, bring their conflict of class, wealth and gender into the cook Kristine’s (Anette Norgaard) arena of the kitchen.
Directed by Henning Hegland and choreographed by Vigdis Hentze Olsen, Scandinavian American Theater Company brings August Strindberg’s timeless classic to the contemporary stage in their debut production with soundscapes, video, and dynamic physical staging.
Contemporary Scandinavian Reading Series
Scandinavian American Theater Company
Mondays, pre-reception 7:30 pm/readings 8 pm
October 18, 2010, December 6, 2010 & January 31, 2011
Additional reading for May 23, 2011 TBA
FREE
Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC), the first-ever Scandinavian-American theater company in New York, was founded in 2009 by a group of New York-based Scandinavian theater professionals with the wish to introduce a new generation of Scandinavian playwrights to an American audience. SATC’s mission is to present high-quality, cutting-edge productions of contemporary Scandinavian plays and fresh interpretations of the Scandinavian classics, as well as to foster the Scandinavian-American performing arts community in New York.
In their Contemporary Scandinavian Reading Series, SATC presents five plays annually representing Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands).
Co-presented by the Consulate General of Finland in New York, the Consulate General of Denmark New York, the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, and Scandinavia House.
For Sheer Love of Me/Rakkaudesta minuun
October 18
Written by Anna Krogerus (Finland, 2005) & directed by Kathleen Amshoff. The Northcliff family is slowly falling apart in their large apartment in a wealthy neighborhood. Tina, an interior decorator, and Edward, a TV psychologist, are growing apart, while their ten year-old daughter, Sylvia (named after Sylvia Plath), becomes increasingly lonely and isolated. All these suppressed feelings surface with the arrival of a new neighbor, Sally Peak. The entire family piles their hopes and desperation onto Sally, which leads to an inevitable collision. Starring Kaia Foss (Norway), Tullan Holmqvist (Sweden), Anette Norgaard (Denmark), Sean Kazarian (USA) and Eija Ranta (Finland), For Sheer Love of Me is a melancholy, perceptive, compassionate and subtly humorous examination of alienation within a family.
About the playwright:
Anna Krogerus (b. 1974, Kuopio, Finland) got her breakthrough as a playwright in 2006 with For Sheer Love of Me/Rakkaudesta minuun, first performed at the Finnish National Theatre. Both a critical and popular success, it also received the Finnish Critics’ Association Award for Best Play. Krogerus studied literature at the University of Tampere and dramaturgy at the Theatre Academy of Finland (1996-2002). Since 2005, she has worked as resident writer and dramaturge at the Kajaani Municipal Theatre in Finland. Krogerus writes sensitive and complex plays, full of deeply introspective characters, balancing between anxiety and joy.
Me and My Boy
Starring Charles McMahon* (USA), Evan Joiner* (USA-Norway), Erin Gorski* (USA), Alexis Savino (USA), Amanda Broomell (USA), Annemette Andersen* (Denmark)
December 6
Written by Thorvaldur Thorsteinsson (Iceland, 1998), translated by Anna Yates, and directed by Henning Hegland (Norway). Me and My Boy opens and closes with a call from a telephone salesman… Stuart has just moved into a new apartment, where he has invited his alcoholic father Richard to stay with him (he has difficulty walking and suffers from a heart condition) and his sister Valerie to help decorate. His new neighbors are an argumentative, young couple: Edward, the lazy and sullen boyfriend, and Marie, a hyper-positive and romantic, born-again Christian. When the couple disrupts Valerie’s decorating plans with their arguing, she scolds them through the wall. Suddenly ghosts of the past capture the stage and everybody except Mary knows one another. It is revealed that Richard was involved with Edward’s mother, who was then married to a disabled worker. After Stuart’s mother commits suicide, questions arise as to whether or not Edward is Richard’s son.
Thorsteinsson is keenly adept at describing rotten family relationships; his language is crisp and sharp, the dialogue sarcastic, and the contrasts glaring as the author sets the stage for serious confessions when death calls. Me and My Boy was originally staged in 1998 with great success at the Hafnarfjörður Theatre.
About the playwright:
Thorvaldur Thorsteinsson (b. 1960, Akureyri, Iceland) studied Icelandic and literary history at the University of Iceland, before he was accepted at the School of Handicraft in Reykjavík in 1983. He finished his education in 1989 at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht in the Netherlands. Since 1982 Thorsteinsson has made a name for himself in Iceland and abroad as a non-traditional sculptor, painter, visual artist, and performer at numerous exhibitions and events. He has created several literary works for Icelandic radio and television. Thorsteinsson has also written several plays that have all been successfully staged in Iceland, including In Honor of the Occasion (1992), The Message Pouch (1993), Live (1997), Me and My Boy (1999), Fairytale about Love (1999), Talespin (2001), And Björk, Of Course… (2002), The Farting Hill (2002), There was a Child in the Valley (2002), and Guilty (2003).
*Actors appear courtesy of the Actors’ Equity Association.
Blocks/Kloss
Teater Tr3
Saturday, October 23, 2 performances – 11 am & 1 pm
$10 ($7 ASF Members), ages 3+
Which is more fun? Building up or knocking down? Filled with slap-stick humor and a touch of seriousness, Blocks is a happy story about three characters trying to organize their world. Blue overalls inspire choreography that freely mixes the concepts of work and play.
Teater Tre is one of the most active and beloved theater groups in Sweden, performing over 300 shows every year all over Sweden and on their home stage in Stockholm. During the last year the group has been invited to many international theater festivals including Finland, Lithuania, Serbia, France, Italy, Japan, Cameroon, Egypt, Germany, and Australia. Formed in 1979, Teater Tre began as mime-based, visual theater that included text, movement and music, and consisted of students graduating in mime from the Academy of Theater in Stockholm.
The 2nd Annual Live Action New York
Friday, November 5, 7:30 pm; Saturday, November 6, 7 pm; Sunday, November 7, 2 pm
$10 ($7 ASF Members)
Now in its second year, Live Action New York will showcase twenty of the most engaging and up-and-coming Scandinavian and North American performance artists. Featured are a mix of young and emerging artists (including Peter Rosvik, Finland, and Søren Dahlgaard, Denmark), selected for their natural energy, ambition and inventiveness, alongside the experience and quality of internationally-established artists (among them Rita Marhaug, Marilyn Arsem, Johanna Householder, and Tanya Mars). This inter-generational blend of styles goes beyond mainstream contemporary art in an artistically high-profile, thought-provoking, and avant-garde milieu.
About the curator:
Jonas Stampe, the curator and project manager of Live Action New York 09: Scandinavian Performance Art, has established himself on the international performance art scene. As the curator of three performance art festivals in Europe, Infr'Action - Festival International d'Art Performance in Sète, France, Infr’Action Paris and Live Action Göteborg, since 2001 he has presented more than 200 artists from more than 34 countries.
In 2001 and 2003 he was the project manager and curator of the biennial of contemporary art, Ideologia, which in its first edition presented 28 Scandinavian artists and in its second edition 56 artists.
He has been active as an art critic since 1987, writing for different Swedish and Scandinavian newspapers and art magazines on exhibitions on the international art scene and major exhibitions and events like Documenta, the Venice Biennial and the Whitney Biennial of American Art.
He is preparing a Ph.D. in contemporary art history at the University of Lund, Sweden, focusing on post-war European and American art. He has also studied art theory at l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris under the direction of Hubert Damisch. Also a theorician, his specialty is European and American post-war art from 1944-1965.
Recently he was selected as one of eight curators of the 10th Open International Performance Art Festival in Beijing, which took place in Beijing in August and September, presenting more than 300 artists. He was also the curator of a delegation of three French artists to the international biennial of performance art LIVE, which took place in Vancouver October 15-31, 2009.