Un Lie de Vie

Un Lieu de Vie is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. LMCC.net

Un Lieu de Vie is an experiential piece that is loosely based on the 1917 Jean Cocteau - Erik Satie - Pablo Picasso collaboration of Parade. It represents the collective memory of Erik, an eccentric, memory-starved, and lonely New York artist who seeks glimpses of the past while wandering the streets of Manhattan. Through Erik’s rumination, we are transported to specific locales at various stages of his life. We experience Erik’s memories through the clamor of sounds, sights, and rhythms that embolden him to fulfill his destiny.

Is he a musician? He denies that. Does he compose? He says he notates. Is there a love interest? Well there was that one!

Does he respond to his surroundings? That’s complicated! Rumor has it that, in order to not be influenced by the outside, he kept every letter ever written to him but never opened and read them. On the other hand, he is keenly aware of what is happening in his art, with his acquaintances, and in his city and shouts it in high voice!

The story is not linear. There is no imposed theatrical arch - imposing one works against the concept. It’s a life with a conglomeration of memories, all shared in the time of the show.

We use a collage technique to construct a complex performance that includes the popular, the artistic and the everyday. Un Lieu de Vie is a dialogue with modern life and the tension in modernity between a celebration and disparagement of popular culture. It is a show that represents an absent life that is never seen, a form of theatrical deferral.

Imagine sitting on the steps of the TKTS booth at Times Square at 7:00 pm on any weekday for say, 75 minutes. As you watch the chaotic activity, imagine the stories you would hear if you could ask 20 or 30 people to tell you something about the past. Now imagine that those stories all belong to Erik!

Producer/Creator:

Allan Markowitz

concrete timbre & d’moiselles

Creation: 2014

Composers:

Chris Chappell

Whitney George

Lillian Redl

Ann Warren

and Erik Satie

Writers:

Carina Beckerman

Terence Diamond

Mark Farnen

Nancy Greening

Sylvaine Hinglais

Ann Warren

and Erik Satie

Projections:

Robert Morton

Director:

Ann Warren

Music Director:

Whitney George

Choreographer:

Michelle Stuckey

Production Stage Manager:

Joanne Schwartzberg

Musicians:

Saxophone:  Manuela Lechler

and

Curiosity Cabinet members:

Piano:  Melinda Faylor

Double Bass:  Emilio Guarino

Percussion:  Joe Tucker

Violin/Viola: Pedro Vizzarro Vallejos

Trombone: David Whitwell

Performers:

Nathalie Bryant

Fedly Daniel

Samantha Grassian

Zilong Zee

Performances:

Sunday-October 26, 2014 @ 7:30 pm

Monday-October 27, 2014 @ 7:30 pm

Saturday-November 1, 2014 @ 8:30 pm

Sunday-November 2, 2014 @ 7:30 pm

Monday-November 3, 2014 @ 7:30 pm

Where:

Gallery MC

549 West 52 Street, 8th floor

(between 10th & 11th Ave.)

With support from:

Allan Markowitz

Robert Morton

Ann Warren

Richard Sage

Michael Stebbins

Milica Paranosic

Gallery MC

Anonymous (several!)

Thank you!