Theaterlab Presents MOTHERS MYTHS MONSTERS: Matrophobia This Month

Theaterlab will present the 2021 edition of its series MOTHERS MYTHS MONSTERS, a female artist-led residency presenting short works focused on the comforting and sometimes terrifying figure of the Mother, with bodies at once fecund and ferocious; the complex Myths that shape our personal and collective identities; and/or the repulsive yet riveting Monster. Curated by dancer-choreographer Stefanie Nelson, this year's project, Matrophobia, deals with the fear of becoming like one's own mother and features pieces by Maya Orchin, Boris Willis, and Maria Takeuchi (EMU). Performances will take place at Theaterlab (357 W 36th St, 3rd floor, NYC, 10018 on Friday, November 19 and Sunday, November 21; both shows at 6:00 pm. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/1087186.

MOTHERS MYTHS MONSTERS: Matrophobia - this year's iteration of a curated program initiated in 2017 - will feature three short-form pieces centered around the titular fear of becoming like one's mother and the space/s we make to accommodate this fear. Curator Stefanie Nelson uses this term (coined by the poet Lynn Sukenick) as a starting point for exploration of questions such as how we position ourselves in opposition or agreement with our own mothers, how we shape our relationship with them, and how we judge our mothers' achievements and failures in relation to our own lives. Is becoming like one's mother an inescapable fate, or is it a matter of choice? The participating artists - Maya Orchin, Maria Takeuchi (aka EMU) and Boris Willis - use a variety of modalities, from dance to digital media to music - to investigate and illuminate this complex topic.

Curator Stefanie Nelson explains: "When Theaterlab's Orietta Crispino approached me about curating Mothers Myths Monsters, I began to think about the space that exists between Mother as archetype and mother as a living, breathing, brave, fallible human, which led me to think about the space (or lack of) between the relationships with our own mothers. After stumbling across the term matrophobia - the fear of becoming your own mother - reading Adrienne Rich's musings on motherhood I knew I'd found my way in. I invited a multidisciplinary, culturally diverse group of artists to contemplate these ideas: Maria Takeuchi to create an all-encompassing audiovisual space as a metaphor for total immersion in the idea; Boris Willis, a game-designer, to invent a parallel cyber universe; and choreographer Maya Orchin, with whom I've worked in the past and feel a creative kinship, to explore in real time through the physical body."