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& Special Events

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FALL 2007 PRODUCTIONS & EVENTS

MAIN STAGE PRODUCTIONS:

CONTINUOUS CITY
Excerpts from a Work-in-Progress by The Builders Association
created with students from UC Berkeley
The Builders Association is a New York-based performance and media company that exploits the richness of contemporary technologies to extend the boundaries of theater. The Builders' current project, Continuous City, considers the sense of place within a global context, and how electronic connection contributes to--and complicates--that sense of place. The project will extend theater's reach by providing a space for others to step into the project - through a social networking site (www.continuouscity.org) where videos can be uploaded for the performance. While on campus this fall through a residency with the Arts Research Center, members of the group, led by Artistic Director Marianne Weems, will develop and present excerpts from this work-in-progress with students from across campus. Together, they will examine not only how they see what's happening in the world, but how to deliver that vision to the audience.
October 5, 6, 12, 13 at 8pm
October 7, 14 at 2pm
Zellerbach Playhouse

WINTERTIME
by Charles L. Mee
Directors: Charlotte McIvor & Kelly Rafferty
Three couples converge on a picturesque cabin in the snow to enjoy a weekend of erotic antics. But their interlocking lives--and the interruptions of some uninvited guests--ensure that the scorching action they encounter isn't exclusively of the Kama Sutra sort. Charles Mee's Wintertime is a rollicking romantic comedy from a playwright who may not be a household name, but is filling theaters across the country with laughter and tears. Come find out who ends up with whom, how good it was, and whose work you've already missed far too much of.
November 9, 10, 16, 17 at 8pm
November 11, 18 at 2pm
Durham Studio Theater

WORKSHOP PRODUCTIONS:

YELLOWJACKETS
by Itamar Moses
Director: Tony Taccone
A staged reading of a play inspired by Moses' experience as a student at Berkeley High. Presented in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Performances will be followed by post-performance discussion.
September 15 at 8pm
September 16 at 2pm
Durham Studio Theater -- FREE

365 DAYS/365 PLAYS
by Suzan-Lori Parks
Director: Brandi Wilkins Catanese
In 2002, Suzan-Lori Parks decided to write at least one play a day for a year. Since November of 2006, these plays have been premiering across the country as part of the largest nationwide theater debut in U.S. history, with theater companies large and small each performing a week of Parks' plays. TDPS is pleased to produce these seven short plays in conjunction with the national festival.
October 11, 12, 13 at 7pm
Zellerbach Room 7 -- FREE

NEITHER HER NOR THERE
Director: Yve Laris Cohen
An exploration of gender issues through dance and spoken word.
November 29, 30 at 8pm
December 1 at 2pm & 8pm
Zellerbach Room 7 -- Tickets: $5.00

FALL CHOREOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Director: Marit Brooke-Kothlow
Students in the dance program present original dance works.
December 5 at 6pm
Bancroft Studios -- FREE

LECTURES, WORKSHOPS & SPECIAL EVENTS:

FREEDOM BEAT: NATIONAL ANTHEMS, PATRIOT ACTS, EMBLEMS OF BELIEF
TDPS Associate Professor Peter Glazer will examine certain songs and musical performances to better understand how these cultural objects expose and become sites of negotiation over patriotism and national identity in th US. Drawing on film, video, sound recordings, and also performing live, Glazer will analyze both familiar national songs and lesser known pop and folk tunes that have either laid claim to the national ethos or been appropriated in its name.
September 4, 5pm
Durham Studio Theater

BARBARA KIRSCHENBLATT-GIMBLETT:
GIVING FORM TO VALUE
Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Professor of Performance Studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, will examine what the field of folklore might become and what might it offer in an increasingly post-disciplinary landscape. Co-sponsored with UC Berkeley Folklore Program.
September 6, 5pm
Gifford Room, Kroeber Hall

CONNECTIVE TISSUES: RELATIONAL NEW MEDIA PERFORMANCE AND THE PRIVATE IMPLICATION IN SCIENCE
A presentation by performance studies doctoral candidate Kelly Rafferty. If recent advances in reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization, stem-cell research, and genetic engineering have significantly altered how bodies operate, relate, and generate meaning in public, then what does it mean to create relational performance in the age of biotechnology? Examining performances by Critical Art Ensemble, subRosa, and Anna Furse, Rafferty argues that by understanding the body as constituted in and through biotechnological networks, performance scholars and practicioners can take theorization of the body in performance in productive new directions. -- Kelly Rafferty is a doctoral candidate and and theater practitioner in UC Berkeley's Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Her scholarly interests include Science and Technology Studies, feminist theory, and biotechnology in relational art and new media performance. As a director and an acting instructor, Rafferty has explored how physical theater techniques can help student actors and audiences alike interrogate gender, sexuality, and embodiment.
September 18, 4pm
Durham Studio Theater

CATASTROPHIC CONSTELLATIONS: IMAGES OF CALAMITY AND THE MODERNIST IMAGINATION
This presentation by Freddie Rokem will examine how, during the late 1930's, two paintings, Picasso's Guernica and Klee's Angelus Novus , became contextualized within discourses of catastrophe and conflict, creating what Walter Benjamin termed "constellations." Also, the street accident, from which an important aspect of acting theory was developed during these years, in particular by Stanislaviski and Brecht, will be examined. These images of calamity, Rokem will argue, constitute an important aspect of the early modernist imagination. Freddie Rokem is Professor of Theatre Studies at Tel Aviv University where he served as the Dean of the Faculty of the Arts (2002-2006), and a permanent visiting Professor at Helsinki University, Finland. During the last year he has been a visiting Professor at Stanford University and the Free University in Berlin, and in the fall of 2007 he is a visiting Professor at UC Berkeley.
September 25, 5pm
Durham Studio Theater

REFUGE IN THE RAYS OF THE SUN: IMMIGRATION, DECENTRALIZATION, THEATER
A presentation by performance studies doctoral candidate Emine Fisek. In 2003, the Paris-based theater company Théâtre du Soleil launched an epic spectacle, "Le Dernier Caravansérail: Odyssées", a collaborative creation based on stories that company members had collected from refugees at the Sangatte refugee camp outside Calais. By way of a closer look at the structures of care and compassion with which this performance approached its subjects, this paper hopes to ask a larger question: how did late-century changes in French cultural policies and practices create vocabularies to accommodate a post-colonial reality? Emine Fisek is a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Her research interests reside within the broad field of twentieth century francophone performance.
October 2, 4pm
Durham Studio Theater

THEOLOGICAL SPACE AND 17th CENTURY FRENCH POLITICAL RITUAL
A presentation by performance studies doctoral candidate Joy Crosby.
October 9, 4pm
Durham Studio Theater

CONTINUOUS BODIES:
PERFORMANCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY
Local and international scholars and artists will convene to explore the changing role of technology in experimental art, global communication, and contemporary understandings of space, urbanism, and human connection. Participants will include Richard Gough (University of Wales), Nick Kaye (University of Exeter), Adriene Jenik (UCSD), Beatriz da Costa (UCI), Simon Leung (UCI), as well as UC Berkeley faculty and graduate students. The final panel will feature Builders Association artists and student collaborators, followed by a reception. Free. No tickets or pre-registration required.
October 12
9:00am-3:30pm - Sessions - Berkeley Art Museum Theater
4-5:30pm - Panel Discussion - Zellerbach Playhouse

ARTS, NEIGHBORHOODS, AND SOCIAL PRACTICE
This fall marks the beginning of an exciting collaboration between the Department of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies, the Department of City & Regional Planning, and the Berkeley Center for Community Innovation in an effort to construct a multi-disciplinary understanding of the arts as integral to developing neighborhood identity and activating civic engagement, both in the United States and abroad. These colloquia will explore the roles that arts and cultural activities can play in neighborhood improvement and community-building. Do arts organizations inevitably lead to the destabilization of neighborhoods, or can certain types of organizations foster community stability? How can the arts reshape community perceptions? How might the arts as social practices be better integrated into neighborhood fabric?
Informal Arts Districts and Neighborhood Change:
Two Oakland Case Studies
October 17, 11am - 1pm - Wurster Hall, Room 1000
AND
Easy Intimacy: The Politics and Aesthetics of Social Welfare
- together with -
Social Anxiety: Contexts of Cultural Efficacy in British Live Art
November 14, 11am - 1pm - Dwinelle Hall, Room 30
Heinz Room, Faculty Club

TWYLA THARP DISCUSSION WITH MARCIA SIEGEL
Dance critic and author Marcia Siegel will discuss the choreographer's innovative crossover ballet works.
Co-sponsored with Cal Performances.
November 9, 4pm
Heinz Room, Faculty Club

FROM IBSEN'S MASTER BUILDER TO MEDIATIZED PERFORMANCE
A lecture by Marianne Weems, Artistic Director, The Builders Association. Co-sponsored with the UCB Scandanavian Department.
November 29, 3:40pm
Wheeler Hall, Room 24

MOVEMENT IMPROVISATION WORKSHOP
A workshop for dancers, actors, physical performers & athletes taught by nationally recognized artists Rodrigo Esteva (from Mexico) and Mirah Kellc Moriarty (from U.S.) of DANCE MONKS. In this improvisational workshop, an emphasis will be put on dance as a useful resource for increasing movement potential and full-body expression. Participants will be given tools to integrate their physicality into improvisational phrases of movement. The classes will begin with a warm-up which will include: energy balancing, breath-work, voice, self-acupressure, floor-work and focused "organic" movement sequences. The beginning of each class will focus on establishing a state of heightened inward awareness and connecting to internal motivations where the unique language of each person can emerge. Participants will learn specific skills including the rudimentary acrobatic skills and inversions to integrate into whole-hearted, full-out dancing. Students will be encouraged to move honestly, make clear choices, and experience how space, breath, and dynamics greatly impact presence. Extensive improvisational exercises will guide the group to create dances which are truly alive. This workshop is open to UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff and is free of charge. Participants must commit to both days of the workshop. Advance registration is required. Sign up sheet is located at the front desk of the Dwinelle Annex. Participants must be in sound physical health with movement experience.
Bancroft Dance Studio
Tuesday, December 11, 10am-noon
Wednesday December 12, 10am-noon &
1-2pm demonstration/talk with the artists