LA MAMA PRESENTS COFFEEHOUSE CHRONICLES #136 'THEODORA SKIPITARES'

LA MAMA PRESENTS COFFEEHOUSE CHRONICLES #136 "Theodora Skipitares"

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8 FROM 3:00PM - 5:00PM AT LA MAMA.

CURATED BY MICHAL GAMILY. MODERATED BY JoAnne Akalaitis.

Spend an intimate afternoon celebrating the life and work of interdisciplinary artist and theater director, Theodora Skipitares. The event moderated by JoAnne Akalaitis features panelists Andrea Balis, Claudia Orenstein, and Jane Catherine Shaw with screenings of archival material and live performances. Skipitares, trained as a sculptor and theater designer, began creating personal solo performances in the late 1970's which revolved around the use of handmade objects that were worn on her body. Gradually she moved away from autobiography to explore social and historical themes. She introduced small 3-dimensional representations of herself into these performances, which she understood (later) to be puppets. She has created 25 works featuring as many as 300 puppet figures, in live music, film, video and documentary texts. Her visual work has been exhibited widely in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, most recently at the Whitney Museum. JoAnne Akalaitis is a Lithuanian American theatre director and writer and co-founder of Mabou Mines. She is the former artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Festival and of The Public Theater, and was artist-in-residence at the Court Theatre in Chicago. She has staged works by Euripides, Shakespeare, Strindberg, Schiller, Tennessee Williams, Philip Glass, Janá?ek, and her own work at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York City Opera, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Court Theatre, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Guthrie Theater. Claudia Orenstein is Chair of the Theatre Department at Hunter College with a concurrent appointment at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her books include The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance (co-editor), The World of Theatre: Tradition and Innovation (with Mira Felner), and Festive Revolutions: The Politics of Popular Theatre and the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Jane Catherine Shaw is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and is curator of La MaMa's Puppet Slam. Ms. Shaw was puppetry co-director and master puppeteer for Mabou Mines' PETER AND WENDY and built and directed the puppetry sequence for Lee Breuers' DOLLHOUSE. Ms. Shaw has worked with Theodora Skipitares since they met in 1989, helping to build her shows and puppets, and puppeteering in many of her productions.

COFFEEHOUSE CHRONICLES #136 "Theodora Skipitares" Moderator: JoAnne Akalaitis Panel: Andrea Balis | Claudia Orenstein | Jane Catherine Shaw Performances: Jane Catherine Shaw Series Director: Michal Gamily, Educational Outreach: Arthur Adair When: Saturday October 8, 2016 at 3:00pm - 5:00pm Where: La MaMa | The First Floor Theatre | 74A East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 Reservations & Info: http://lamama.org/theodora_skipitares/ ADMISSION IS FREE/SUGGESTED DONATION
COFFEEHOUSE CHRONICLES - is an educational performance series exploring the history and development of Off-Off Broadway; part artist portrait, part creative event, part history lesson, part community forum.

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