Dec 12, 2008

WILSONIAN

There will be two Robert Wilson productions in Germany next summer, each flanking the time frame of The Estonian Adventure (hint hint Patron Benefactors). There will be "Saint John Passion," cryptically, in July at "Das Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival" (yah!) and perhaps more exciting in May, "Viktor & Rolf, renowned fashion designers from Amsterdam, will design costumes exclusively for the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden production of the “Freischütz”." Viktor & Rolf on stage! Yes! And speaking of Germany, there should be a Karl Lagerfeld stage production by now, too, shouldn't there?

I love Robert Wilson. Well, I have never seen a Robert Wilson piece, and being a part of the ADD Generation I am actually really against long productions (I have to pee! I want a snack! This part is boring! Time to go!) and he is famous for looooooong productions, but I love his images and it would be phenomenal to see them live. I have a book of images from his shows and they all appear to be just magnificently staged pieces. Awe inspiring, in fact. Long or not, I would really like to have the opportunity to see a Wilson piece and would pay good money to do so (and probably would have to. This is not such an easy proposition, because although he is American, his work is rarely staged here - which I believe is probably a result of both our national tastes and our arts budgets, his works are epic, in every way).


From The Magic Flute, 1995.

From Woyzeck, 2000.
Both images from robertwilson.com.


From Persephone, 2006. Image by Gordon M. Grant for The New York Times.

There is a documentary called "Absolute Wilson" that was released about him last year, in which he comes off as THE despot artist (who is probably impossible to have a normal conversation with), as exactly the kind of director that I could never be, (or want to be,) that tyrannical guru figure, who as a result is a complete fucking genius. He stages a summer workshop every year at his arts center in upstate New York called The Watermill Center where you take little classes and work collaboratively on aspects of Wilson's upcoming productions - with him. I think it would be a very cool opportunity to see someone of his caliber work in-progress, and to have any part of that creative development. Anyone can apply to the program, including you!, here, and it is a free program and application (albeit competitive). I applied last year, and did not get it, but I think I am going to apply again every year until I pull a Susan Lucci and DO get in.

Dec 11, 2008

LUMPS OF COAL

Buy your 2009 datebook/calendar here.

Also, buy your Christmas presents here, here and here.

HOMESCHOOL

Jack, Jess and I have an affordable art shop called HomeSchool. It is quite neat. We sell art work and art objects that cost under $50. (We are always looking for new work, by the way!) Currently, we do not have a home except on the internet, but we have been having monthly gatherings where the work is on display and you can come hang out. Here are pictures from the November gathering at the Barn:


Perusing the artwork.


Jess adding food coloring to the Light Show.

Erik at the entrance to the Magical Mystery Fort.

New Friends.

Jess giving FREE HAIR CUTS (actual cost: submission of Turkey Hand Drawing.)

Children of the White Horse Face Painting Booth.

And You Kept Us Awake With Wolves' Teeth

The Knife is writing an opera. Oh my! Since irony is dead (thanks Barack!), I'm glad to hear a healthy appreciation for magical creepiness is alive and well in the world.




From Hotel Pro Forma:

CONCEPT - "Tomorrow, In a Year" - A Darwin Opera
"Time forms our lives, gives our existence meaning and populates the globe. Generations, eons and millions of years create the new and eradicate existences. Nature selects, invites, dares everything without limitations.

In November 2009, it is 150 years since Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species. Our view of the world has been changed forever as a result of the theory of evolution. Tomorrow, in a year uses Darwin’s way of observing and describing the world. Change as a process and the interrelationship of all things is the basic material of the performance. Darwin claimed that evolution is not linear but moves in curves, in leaps. Tomorrow, in a year points to evolution as a field of possibilities, where nature unfolds its great liberality, finding niches and new paths. A performance of evolution and change, of transformation and mutation.

Tomorrow, in a year is an opera. The Swedish music group The Knife creates completely new compositions that challenge the conception of opera. The form is experimental and exploratory. The music is written for three singers who come from different backgrounds: electronica pop, classical opera and performance. They are structure, sensation, form, time and thought. They are the spokesman, the organiser, and the one who acts.

The Japanese choreographer and dancer Hiroaki Umeda creates the choreography for six dancers of different ages and physiognomies with a background in classical or modern dance. They are organisms, raw material, bodies that enter into various contexts. They are main and secondary characters in a changing process."

According to The Knife's website, Olof Dreijer (the male half, with sister Karin, that make up the duo), is currently making, "field recording(s) in the Amazon (of) animals, fish and plants."

Photo by Vincent Koglund.

This sounds amazing. Jacqueline, I hope your praying mantis- Heartbeats move is incorporated into this. Man, I would love to be a part of any of this... the costumes! the sets! the make-up/masks...! Can you imagine. It is set to open September 2009 in Copenhagen. Hm, maybe I need to do some networking and get to Copenhagen post haste after Estonian Adventure in June. Hotel Pro Forma sounds pretty rad on its own, as well. They did a musical production about Hans Christian Andersen in 2005, called "I Only Appear To Be Dead," among other ambitiously wonderful sounding projects.


Photo by Elin Berge.

Two related videos by my brother, Sam Lipp:
Bakcheia, only available on his website, and Xylem Phloem, on YouTube.

Dec 8, 2008

Quail Eggs

Send in the Clowns



Check out "Slava's Snowshow," currently playing in NYC starring veteran clown Slava, complete with participatory snowball fights and "Chariots of Fire" on the soundtrack. I never understood the fear of clowns so many people seem to have, I have always loved them, and I really like this image: the cardboard set quality (one of my favorite things), their costumes, facepaint. When I was a child we were all friends with Violet, the local clown. She came to my best friend's seventh birthday party. And stage clowns are just so physically talented, amazing to watch. Wish I could go see this festive production! It sounds so fun.
Erin, Jacqueline, Jack's parents and I attended a ballet production last week that had the most miniature dancers (aka six and seven year olds) dressed as darling Pierrots and Harlequins. They had the best costumes in the whole production, with little pom poms and eyes crossed with black lines for the little Pierrots and great shiny onesies for the Harlequins.











Some googling just revealed these Goldfrapp pictures from her last album, A&E, which despite how much I love her I have not heard because when it came out I was not listening to music and heard it was bad... 




Well, regardless, clearly Alison Goldfrapp always knows what I want before I do, and she's been on my brain because Nick and I have listened to Supernature the past two Sunday mornings at Navarre just to wake ourselves up. It works wonders. 
Miu Miu also killed it with this harlequin dress that I absolutely covet from last fall. On the runway and then on the street from The Sartorialist:




My parents are also on it, they have this Picasso print in their house:




When I took a Commedia Dell'Arte class in college I was the group's Columbina, by default, because there were only four of us and we needed a female love interest. I should have been Pierrot. Hmm, maybe I'm going to need to be a clown for Halloween. Or better yet, Purim Theme 2009, ready.

Hello


So four years after the creation of my first blog, which I deleted in May after almost two years of inactivity,  and which was on the now terminally out of fashion (!!) Myspace, I jump with only a little trepidation into the blogosphere again. Four years ago, you realize, it was not so common to have a blog, and posting felt both necessary and scandalous. Now it feels almost beside the point to do so, it's so ubiquitous, yet, well... At any rate, hello. 

I plan on using this site to write about and collect ideas for performance, that thing that somehow stimulates me most yet I often feel directionless and confused about. Me: I began appearing in plays at age seven, and over the years have been a part of many theater groups and projects in different capacities, including as an actor, a designer, a stage hand, a writer and a director, and I graduated from Lewis and Clark College ('07) as a theater major. Since graduating, I have worked with Hand2Mouth Theatre and served on the board at CoHo Productions, appeared in works by Linda K. Johnson and Seth Nehil, designed and sewn costumes at Lewis and Clark, and orchestrated one of my own pieces, 100 Acre, last summer in Laurelhurst Park. I have been writing plays, dreaming up productions, and am constantly full of ideas... However, I often feel unsure how to make those ideas come to life (or how/if I want them to). I believe theater and live performance are somewhat awkwardly expressing themselves in the contemporary world, and I find myself similarly somewhat awkwardly negotiating their place in my life, or my relationship to them. I hope posting ideas and finds in this format may prove to be interesting, both personally and to anyone who chooses to respond, as a way to explore these topics and highlight interesting work that is happening. 

I also plan on using this site to write about: what I would like to have for dinner, shoes, projects,  flowers, records, my friends and family, my job(s), the weather, dancing, typography, bird cages, butterflies, things I like, things that look neat, wine, art, fashion, collections, design, baby animals, nonsense, and glitter (mostly) among other things. Because it is all related you see!! After all, the Wagnerian in me believes above all that theater exists to be a synthesis of not only art and "culture," but all these things and notions we fill our lives with.