Painted Bride Announces Two-Year Partnership with Ain Gordon

The Painted Bride Art Center is gearing up to take an incredible theatrical journey into an untold story buried in the city's rich history. The venerable arts institution is partnering with three-time Obie winner Ain Gordon and noted Philadelphia documentary filmmaker Nadine Patterson to begin an 18 month residency that will culminate in a new theatrical work, tentatively titled, Place Philadelphia.

With the support of a grant from the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, the Painted Bride Art Center commissioned writer/director/actor Gordon to create a new play that unearths a "forgotten" story from Philadelphia's past. Over the course of an 18-month residency, he will work in collaboration with Philadelphia documentarian/filmmaker Nadine Patterson to do an in-depth search of the area in order to find an untold or unknown story that will come to be the subject of the play. The two artists will conduct interviews, visit archives, and traverse the city.

The Bride is partnering with The National Museum of American Jewish History, The Free Library of Philadelphia, Scribe Video Center, and Mother Bethel African Methodist Church to provide Gordon and Patterson with entryways into a diverse range of communities and will host events as the work is developed. Once research is complete, Gordon will write, cast, and direct the show's production in May 2013.

"The Bride has chosen to work with Ain because of the quality of his work, his artistic process and his ability to engage people through an in-depth exploration in the community. The importance of dedicating unfettered access to an artist over the full creation arc rather than cherry-picking relatively complete work is crucial. This commitment requires support for the artistic process as well as the production and it is an investment in the artist and the community, "said Laurel Raczka, Executive Director of The Painted Bride Art Center. "With the support of the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, we are able to explore the possibilities of artistic commitment with an ongoing presence in the community over a longer arc. Too often, artists "drop in" to a city, make potential impact, and disappear. We wish to build a relationship between Ain, the audience, our partners, his subject and our city."

In April of 2012, The Bride will introduce audiences to Gordon's work to the region. Part of the residency includes a remounting of one of Gordon's earlier works, In This Place... Rooted in the real lives of Daphney and Samuel Oldham, the first free African-American's to build their own house in Lexington, KY - in 1830, In This Place... is told from the woman's point of view and conjures a dead woman striving to preserve her "living days." "Haunting," she says, "is just a ghost trying to remember."

Gordon has built his career on work that focuses on marginalized/forgotten history and the invisible players who inhabit that space. His work carries a particular blend of historical fact/imagined truth. The Bride began conversations with Gordon in 2010 when he was part of the cast of Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell. The Bride realized they wanted to collaborate and began discussions. The Bride paired Gordon with Patterson, after he brought up how he likes to partner with a local artist, who centers his or her practice in another medium. Patterson is an independent producer of documentary, experimental and narrative film. She has experience in multicultural programming and works with artists and community organizations in using media to disseminate information and raise awareness about critical issues.

Gordon began writing and directing for the stage in 1985. He emerged on to the downtown dance/performance scene with four consecutive seasons at Dance Theater Workshop plus performances at Movement Research, The Poetry Project, and Performance Space 122. By 1990, Gordon was recognized in the inaugural round of the NEA's "New Forms" initiative - funding for artists whose work defied clear classification. In 1991, Gordon entered a multi-project relationship with Soho Rep that encompassed five productions and workshops. In 1992, he began collaborating with his father, highly praised playwright and director, David Gordon, on The Family Business. It was then he became Co-Director of the Pick Up Performance Company (founded by his father in 1971 and incorporated in 1978).

Gordon won his first Obie Award as one of the creators of The Family Business. He won his second Obie Award for his play Wally's Ghost. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting. Gordon won his third for his performance in the Off-Broadway production of Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell. He was commissioned by the VSA North Fourth Arts Center, rooted in Native American history, and developed a new two-person play, and one woman play, as a Core Writer of the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis

This two-year project has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage though the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. In This Place... was originally a collaboration with LexArts made possible, in part, with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Multi Arts Production Fund (MAP) and produced by Pick Up Performance Co(s).

Bride Mission
The Painted Bride Art Center collaborates with emerging and established artists to create, produce and present innovative work that affirms the intrinsic value of all cultures and celebrates the transformative power of the arts. Through performances and exhibitions, education and outreach, the Bride creates a forum for engagement centered on contemporary social issues.

Bride History
Founded in 1969 by a group of visual artists who had recently graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, the Painted Bride Art Center is a presenting arts organization located in Old City, Philadelphia. The Bride is part of the Alternative Art Space movement, which is a small genre of cultural organization in America that grew from a movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This movement sought to establish organizations where artists had greater control over the presentation of their work and were able to present the work of the underrepresented in commercial or larger established institutions such as women, people of color, gay and lesbian artists and the disabled. The Bride has evolved into an innovative, internationally recognized, artist-centered, multi-disciplinary institution.

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