Chicago Collective Makes NY Debut in Layered Response to Bergman

Performance Space 122 is set to present the New York debut of Chicago performance collective Every house has a door in the New York premiere of Let us think of these things always. Let us speak of them never. Following 20 years as co-founders of Goat Island, Matthew Goulish and Lin Hixson debut their new collective in a densely layered response to the work of Ingmar Bergman. These performances are part of COIL, PS122’s annual performance festival.

5 performances of Let us think of these things always. Let us speak of them never. will take place Jan 5–9 (see schedule above) Upstairs at Performance Space 122. Tickets are $20 ($15 for students, seniors) and can be purchased online at ps122.org or by phone at 212.352.3101. Performance Space 122 is located at 150 First Avenue in New York City.

In a richly layered, high energy weaving of movement and text, performance collective Every house has a door attempt to answer the question “Is it possible to reconstruct a Bergman film that Bergman never made?" One element includes a staged re-enactment of a film by avant-garde Yugoslavian director Dušan Makavejev, a dreamlike film that is comprised of spliced scenes from several Ingmar Bergman films. Another element includes the writings of American philosopher Stanley Cavell on the work of both Makavejev and Bergman. The third, and most important element is the direction of Lin Hixson and the gripping performances of Croatian artists Selma Banich and Mislav ?avajda and American performers Stephen Fiehn and Matthew Goulish.

In this multi-faceted dance-theater work, four individuals seek common ground between their experiences in America and Croatia. They find it through a shared reference, the films of Bergman along with his influence on Makavejev. As the work unravels, film and text become a basis for choreography, and a delicate, sometimes funny, balance is found as the performers engage with the histories of utopianism and revolt in an unjust world.

Lin Hixson and Matthew Goulish, after a 20-year collaboration as co-founders of Goat Island, formed Every house has a door in 2008 to create project-specific collaborative performances with invited guests. This company seeks to retain Goat Island’s narrow thematic focus and rigorous presentation, but to broaden the canvas to include careful intercultural collaboration, and its unfamiliar, even awkward, spectrum. Goat Island was last presented at PS122 in 2008 with The Lastmaker, which marked the company’s final performances.

On Saturday, January 7 at 4:30pm a screening of the film Waking Things (2010, 25 min) will take place Upstairs at Performance Space 122 (150 First Avenue, NYC). Written and directed by Melika Bass, Waking Things tells the story of the induction of one young pupil into a mysterious, secluded family of part-human, part-animal artisans. The film is conceived as a parallel universe parable in relation to Let us think of these things always. Let us speak of them never. and features the same cast.

About the Artists

Matthew Goulish (performer/collaborator) co-founded Goat Island (1987-2008), and Every house has a door in 2008. His 39 Microlectures – in proximity of performance was published by Routledge in 2000, and Small Acts of Repair – Performance, Ecology, and Goat Island, which he co-edited with Stephen Bottoms, in 2007. He was awarded a Lannan Foundation Writers Residency in 2004, and in 2007 he received an honorary Ph.D. from Dartington College of Arts, University of Plymouth. Goulish teaches in the MFA and BFA Writing Programs of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Lin Hixson (director/collaborator) co-founded Goat Island (1987-2008), and Every house has a door in 2008. She is full Professor of Performance at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, received an honorary doctorate from Dartington College in 2007, and shared the United States Artists Ziporyn Fellowship with Matthew Goulish in 2009. Goat Island created nine performance works and toured extensively in the US, England, Scotland, Wales, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia, Germany, and Canada. Her writing on directing and performance has been published in the journals Poetry, The Drama Review, Frakcija, and Performance Research; and included in the anthologies Small Acts of Repair – Performance, Ecology, and Goat Island; Live – Art and Performance; Theatre in Crisis? and Performance and Place.

Stephen Fiehn (performer/collaborator) is an artist from Chicago, now based in Brooklyn, working in collaboration, performance, sound, visual art, and writing. He co-founded the collaborative art duo Cupola Bobber in 2000 and the electro-acoustic sound group Fessenden in 2005. Other recent collaborative projects include: Let us think of these things always. Let us speak of them never. with Every house has a door, Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated) with Sylvain Chauveau, and Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not with ON and Christian Fennesz. His work has been shown across the US and Europe. Venue highlights include Steirischer Herbst Festival in Graz, Künsthaus Mousontrum in Frankfurt am Main, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Chelsea Theatre in London, In Between Time Festival in Bristol, Fusebox Festival in Austin, PS122 and CUE Arts Foundation in NY. He has received commissions and support for various projects from Steirischer Herbst Festival, Nationaltheater Mannheim, In Between Time Productions, and NPN with Links Hall and PS122. He was an International Artist Fellow at Lancaster University in 2007 and awarded a MacDowell Colony residency in the summer of 2010. Most recently, Stephen has worked as a teaching artist with Brooklyn’s Center For Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and has been awarded a Swing Space residency by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to begin work on Cupola Bobber’s sixth evening length performance.

Selma Banich (performer/collaborator) was educated as a classical ballet dancer in Zagreb and Munich. Since 2001, she continued to develop her artistic practice through work shopping with various dance artists in Croatia and abroad. She is a co-founder and program coordinator of the Experimental free scene, platform for education and research in performing arts. She works with co-authorship initiative OOUR, Zagreb based collaborative performance research group, and collaborates with transitive-fiction theatre Trafik, DB Indoš and the House of Extreme Music Theatre, Sodaberg company and k.o. /combined operations/. In her free time she works for La bella nippola records and as band staff for Bebè na Volè. Her recent performances include Lady Macbeth in Furio (with Sodaberg), Green, green (with the House of Extreme Music Theatre), Creating Eve, Salon, Chew (with OOUR).

Mislav ?avajda (performer/collaborator) is an acting graduate of the Academy of Drama Arts in Zagreb. For two years he has been an ensemble member of the Croatian National Theater (CNT) in Rijeka and Teatar &TD in Zagreb. Recently he has decided to continue as an independent/freelance artist. ?avajda has acted in numerous performances in various Croatian theaters: The Glembays by Miroslav Krleža (the leading role of Leone; director B. Brezovec, CNT Rijeka), Polygraph by Robert Lepagea (director D. Mustafi?, CNT Rijeka), Othello (role of Iago; director D. DeBrea, CNT Rijeka), Weddings & Trials (director B. Brezovec, Teatar &TD), Theater of Our and Your Youth (Montažstroj, author Borut Šeparovi?), Dido and Aeneas & Death in Venice (according to the opera by H. Purcell and short story by T. Mann, directed by Oliver Frlji?; title role of Aeneas, Teatar &TD), Bakhae according to Euripides’s tragedy (role of Dyonisius, directed by Oliver Frljic, Split Summer Festival).

Credits

The creation of Let us think of these things always. Let us speak of them never. has been supported by a grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. It is a co-production with OOUR and Centre for Drama Art with further support from the City Office for Culture Zagreb, The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, ekscene platform in collaboration with CeKaO “Zagreb”, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, FACE Croatia, commissioning support from The Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster, UK, and a United States Artists Ziporyn Fellowship. This work is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund/Forth Fund Project co-commissioned by Performance Space 122 in partnership with Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,Fusebox Festival and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information: www.npnweb.org

About Performance Space 122

For over 3 decades, Performance Space 122 has been a hub for contemporary performance and an active member of the cultural community in N.Y.C. and across the globe. In 1980, the organization was founded by Charles Moulton, Charles Dennis, Tim Miller and Peter Rose to offer artists rehearsal and performance opportunities in the revamped cafeteria of a former New York City public school (PS 122) at the corner of First Avenue and Ninth Street in New York’s East Village. In 1986, under the artistic direction of Mark Russell, the organization doubled its programming by converting the gymnasium on the first floor of the school building into a second performance space. Over the past 30 Years, PS122 has brought forward not only artists, like John Leguizamo, Jonathan Ames, Eric Bogosian, the Blue Man Group or Annie Dorsen who have gone on to make waves in commercial arenas on Broadway or at HBO, but also artists who have triggered national debate about political and ethical issues, like the original “NEA four”, Ethyl Eichelberger (HIV/AIDS activist), or more recently Young Jean Lee and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (contemporary social critiques), as well as artists who have radicalized aesthetic form like Meredith Monk, Spalding Gray, Ron Athey, Richard Maxwell, Elevator Repair Service, Radiohole, Adrienne Truscott, Verdensteatret (Norway), Rabih Mroué (Lebanon), Philippe Quesne (France), and Maria Hassabi (Cyprus).

In the past 7 years, under the curatorial vision of Artistic Director Vallejo Gantner, PS122 has developed a set of Presenting Programs that include commissions and presentations of New York, national and International Artists working in contemporary performance, theater, dance, multi-disciplinary, new music, media and installations. All of the programs at PS122 have been designed to further the creative process for our artists and launch them into more sustainable careers. In the last two years PS122 has shifted focus to better serve audiences, both locally, nationally and internationally by advocating and building partnerships across the globe. The results of these efforts have benefited our artists by increasing their local exposure and earning capacity, and by expanding their touring opportunities and therefore also the life-span and reach of their works.

Beginning this season, PS122 has embarked on one of the most unusual and potentially radical shifts in the 30-year history of Performance Space 122, its artists, and its community, including a re-structuring of our artist support, a business model overhaul, and the renovation of our building. As PS122’s East Village home undergoes a much-needed interior renovation supported primarily by the City of New York, DCA and DDC, PS122’s core activity continues to be providing audiences with contemporary live performance.

Website: ps122.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PerformanceSpace122
Twitter: @PS122
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ps122/

Performance Space 122 receives support from the following organizations: Alacran, American Association of Performing Arts Presenters: Cultural Exchange Fund, Axe-Houghton Foundation, The Booth Ferris Foundation, Edith C. Blum Foundation, British Council, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Continuum Health, Crumpler, Culture Ireland, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Eastern Bloc, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Gawker Media, Gesso Foundation, Grayson Maine, Great Brewers, The Greenwall Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Jerome Foundation, Jerome Robbins Foundation, Jewish Communal Fund, The Lambent Foundation, Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for the Arts/The New York Community Trust, Mary Queen of Scots, McGraw Hill Companies, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New York Theater Program, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The Morrison & Foerster Foundation, Monsieur Touton, National Performance Network (NPN), New England Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project (NDP), New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council for the Arts, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, San Arturo, Peg Santvoord Foundation, Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Puffin Foundation, The Scherman Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, SPiN New York, Time Warner Cable, Tony Randall Theatrical Fund, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Two Boots, Vbar St. Marks and Veselka.

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