Cynthia Hopkins' ARTICLES OF FAITH to Debut at LUMBERYARD in the City Festival

LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts will present the world premiere of Articles of Faith, a new, autobiographical performance work by the acclaimed interdisciplinary theater artist Cynthia Hopkins, June 15-17 at The Kitchen, as part of the second annual LUMBERYARD in the City festival. Hopkins created Articles of Faith in collaboration with designer Jeff Sugg after the destruction of her home, work studio, records and materials in a May 2015 fire.

Hopkins will perform Articles of Faith three times at The Kitchen: June 15, 16 and 17 at 8pm. Critics are welcome as of the first performance, which also serves as the official opening. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased at www.thelumberyard.org or 855-4LYDTIX. The Kitchen is located at 512 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011.

"An article of faith is a deeply held belief, theoretically unshakeable regardless of circumstance," says Hopkins. "It's like a flame that glows steadily from within a swinging lantern on a boat being tossed by the waves." In late May 2015, the artist emerged from Yosemite National Park to learn that a catastrophic fire had destroyed her home and work studio, obliterating all record of past performances and the items used to make them: costumes, wigs, instruments, thousands of pages of hand-written notes, lyrics, musical compositions, hard drives and computers. It was as if the fire was saying, "It's time to tell a story unadorned, unmolested by theatrics, or wigs, or costumes, or lies. It's time to tell the truth that is always more complex, and more uncanny, than anything anyone could ever invent." Narrated by Hopkins and featuring songs written and performed by her, Articles of Faith is that story.

The fire prompted Hopkins to ask herself-and she, in Articles of Faith, asks her audience-"What do you believe in, and how do your beliefs carry you through catastrophic events?" For Hopkins, the answer was: the work of the artists she admires, and the possibility of making her own work. Articles of Faith finds her paying homage to a number of these artists, including Laurie Anderson, Spalding Gray, Charles Mee, Les Waters, David Byrne, Jérome Bel and Neil deGrasse Tyson, to name a few.

To be sure, Articles of Faith is not just about surviving tough times; rather, it makes the case that misfortune is often a blessing in disguise. The fire catapulted Hopkins out of Brooklyn, with its skyrocketing cost of living and rapid gentrification, to Philadelphia, where she is living a remarkably productive artistic life-including having launched a podcast, Moving to Philadelphia-and lives in a magnificent house where the artist Walter Edmonds previously lived and worked. Articles of Faith pays tribute to the house, as well as to Hopkins' wide-ranging artistic heroes.

Cynthia Hopkins is a writer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and internationally acclaimed musical performance artist. She writes and sings songs, records albums and creates groundbreaking multi-media performance works that intertwine truth and fiction, blurring the lines between edification and entertainment. Through the process of making performances, she attempts to alchemize disturbance into works of intrigue and hope that simultaneously stimulate the senses, provoke emotion and enliven the mind. She is dedicated to creating groundbreaking original works that investigate innovative forms of communication, melding music, text, technical and theatrical design, and video with unbelievable fact and outrageous fiction. Her mission is to obscure the distinction between edification and entertainment through the creation of works that are as philosophical as they are entertaining, as intellectually challenging as they are viscerally emotional, as deeply comical as they are tragic and as historically aware as they are immediately engaging.

Hopkins has produced seven musical performance works, eight albums of original music and one museum installation. Her work has been honored with many awards, including a 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award, a 2015 Grants to Artists Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2007 Alpert Award in Theater. She most recently premiered The Alcoholic Movie Musical!, a collaboration with video artist Jeff Sugg, at commissioning venue The Bushwick Starr; and Memorabilia, an exhibit of five memorial quilts and one requiem in honor of five deceased musical performance works, at commissioning venue The Fabric Workshop & Museum in Philadelphia. Hopkins recently chronicled her relocation to Philadelphia after 20 years in Brooklyn with a podcast, posted weekly for one year, entitled Moving to Philadelphia. (All 52 episodes are available for free online). She continues to work as a performer, composer, voice over artist and musician.

Articles of Faith is being developed with directorial consultation by Rebecca Wright.

LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts, based in New York City and led by Executive and Artistic Director Adrienne Willis, is a national non-profit organization that evaluates the needs of artists throughout their creation process and fills gaps in the structures that exist to support them. LUMBERYARDwelcomes audiences of all experience levels into the inner world of the contemporary performing arts, giving them opportunities to witness the creation, as well as the performance, of new work.

Among LUMBERYARD's varied and ever-expanding offerings are an acclaimed residency program that gives artists and companies from across the U.S. housing, space, time, and other resources to develop new work before a New York or national premiere; LUMBERYARD in The City, an annual New York City festival of premieres; and the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography.

LUMBERYARD is developing a state-of-the-art facility in Catskill, New York. When it opens in the spring of 2019, the four-building facility on the Hudson River waterfront will allow the organization to drastically expand its activities, especially its residency program. LUMBERYARD will make a significant contribution to the village's revitalization efforts. The complex consists of a main lumberyard building in Catskill and three large adjacent barns along Catskill Creek. There will be a large, column-free, flexible theater, a lobby, administrative offices, housing for up to 20 resident artists, a chef's kitchen, an artist lounge and a public courtyard. Phase II will encompass the three adjacent structures, which LUMBERYARD will develop in collaboration with the Village of Catskill and in line with the Village's Downtown and Waterfront Revitalization Strategy.

Each year in Catskill, LUMBERYARD will present a summer season consisting of premiere and work-in-progress performances by celebrated professional artists and companies, serving local residents and attracting tourists from across New York and beyond. From October through April, the facility will be available for collaborative residencies, subsidized and commercial rentals, and community programming.

Connect with LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts online at thelumberyard.org, or follow on Facebook: www.facebook.com/LumberyardContemporaryPerformingArts, Twitter: @Lumberyard, and Instagram: www.instagram.com/lumberyard_catskill.