Horripilation! Plays The Times Square International Theater Festival

HORRIPILATION! is to be presented by Kaliyuga Arts as part of the Times Square International Theater Festival.

Written and Performed by John Sowle
Directed by Steven Patterson
Costumes by Silvia Jahnsons

3 Performances only

Monday, Jan 16th @ 6:30pm
Thursday, Jan 19th @ 10:00pm
Saturday, Jan 21st @ 8:00pm

Stage IV, Roy Arias Theaters
300 W. 43rd Street, New York, NY

For further information phone Kaliyuga Arts at 212-400-7571

Tickets for all Times Square International Theatre Festival events are at SmartTix.com

All tickets $18 advance, $12 students & seniors, $20 at the door

Kaliyuga Arts brings its award-winning production of Horripilation! to New York as part of the Times Square International Theater Festival. John Sowle, who studied South Indian drama on a Fulbright Fellowship, uses the Natya Shastra, a 2500 year old encyclopedia of theatre, Kutiyattam, the most ancient form of theater still being performed, and Teyyam, a vibrant primitive ritual dance, to bring to life the dramatic techniques of ancient Indian theatre.

Playwright and performer John Sowle has a Ph.D. in Dramatic Art from the University of California. John and his partner Steven Patterson, who directed Horripilation!, founded Kaliyuga Arts in 1986 in Los Angeles and have produced, directed, designed and performed Kaliyuga Arts' shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Most recently John directed a revival of the Al Carmines and Gertrude Stein musical In Circles at Judson Memorial Church, where it was done originally in the 60s. He is currently serving as the Associate Artistic Director at Stageworks in Hudson, NY.

In case you're wondering, horripilation is the “erection of hairs on the skin due to cold, fear, or excitement.” According to the Natya Shastra the actor should be able to produce horripilation at will when necessary to bring a character to life. If it occurs in the spectator it is one of the indications of dramatic success, “expressing their inner turmoil due to the wonder of the performance.”

More information at http://www.kaliyuga.com/

PERFORMER'S NOTE
In 1973 I received a Fulbright Fellowship to study drama in South India. I was assigned to Kalamandalam, the school for Kathakali actors which was located in a small village in Kerala State. There I discoverEd Kutiyattam, which is an ancient but living tradition in which actors, dressed in elaborate costumes, perform Sanskrit dramas using ritualized movements and chants. It forms the basis for the later Kathakali dance drama which is very popular in India. I ended up studying this amazing theatrical form with Raman Cakyar, a truly wise teacher, and his students, and I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on this art form.

In researching this piece, I decided not to use Kutiyattam directly, since it depends so much on music, costumes and spectacle not available to me, but instead to go back to the source book of all the theatrical forms in India, the Natya Shastra. This "Science of Acting," which may have been written in about 200 BC, is probably the most comprehensive book ever written on the theatre. The author calls himself Bharata, a word that later came to mean actor. This work needs to be better known in the West. It is full of insights and ideas that are completely applicable to the modern theatre. I hope that this performance will give you a taste of its contents.

For the costume I turned for inspiration to Teyyam, a very ancient ritual festival tradition also performed in Kerala State. Though there are theatrical elements in it, its primary purpose is not entertainment, but religious -- to manifest a deity in the human world. It seems to me that one of the purposes of the Natya Shastra is to provide techniques to control and redirect divine energy in more visible, human ways.

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