REDCAT Present The World Premiere Of WITKACY/TWO HEADED CALF

REDCAT, CalArts downtown center for contemporary art, CalArts Center for New Performance and Studio Teatrgaleria, present the US premiere of an international theatrical collaboration between Polish and US-based companies. WITKACY / Two-Headed Calf runs from Friday through Sunday and Tuesday through Friday, October 18 to Friday, October 25, 2019.

Drawing from the writings of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and directed by Natalia Korczakowska, one of eastern Europe's most exciting theater artists, WITKACY is a joint project of CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) and Warsaw, Poland's Studio Teatrgaleria.

Witkiewicz (1885-1939), popularly known as Witkacy, was a polish playwright, painter, novelist, philosopher, and avant-gardist. WITKACY / Two-Headed Calf is the latest project from an ongoing long-term collaboration between CNP and Studio. For the production, the company of Polish artists joins CalArts artists to explore Witkacy's work, set against the backdrop of California's wild nature. WITKACY / Two-Headed Calf is a journey from Poland to the California desert - and also a journey into the depths of the self. The plot unfolds through the journey of a neurotic boy and his family from New Guinea through Sydney Australia to the California desert. Witkacy believed that nature can be a source of metaphysical experience which gives humans a chance to protect their individuality from the soulless social machine of western civilization.

Travis Preston, the Dean of the CalArts School of Theater and Artistic Director of the CalArts Center for New Performance, initiated the collaboration between CNP and Studio in 2017. He was attracted by the idea of accessing and revitalizing avant-garde traditions, a vision shared by Korczakowska. "This idea is predicated on a theater that embraces all arts, abolishes genre, and forges a total transdisciplinary art practice," he said. Adding that "both companies engage in cross-cultural dialogue between similar avant-garde artistic traditions - and together we create entirely singular original productions and projects."

Inaugurating the partnership, Natalia Korczakowska visited CalArts in 2017 to work with student artists on exploring Witkiewicz's notion of "pure form." In 2018, artists from the extended CalArts community visited Warsaw and, together with Studio's resident company, developed performances, installations, video projects, and creative workshops. Supervised by Preston as an artistic response to Studio's site and tradition, these projects culminated in a three-day CalArts Festival in Poland. The CNP/Studio collaboration continues in Los Angeles and Poland, and culminates with Korczakowska's staging of WITKACY at REDCAT.

https://www.redcat.org/event/witkacy-two-headed-calf
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