Tuesday, August 1, 2017

The Ikarus Play

Photo:  Emily Ann Banks (Kara) and Kendra Mittermeyer (Deedee).  Photo by Christie Marie Clark.


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I have a new one-act going up at Open Source Gallery soon.  It’s an adaptation of the Daedalus/Icarus myth called The Ikarus Play, based on sculpture by Sana Obaid.  It will be performed Sunday, August 6th at 6 and 7 pm, and Monday, August 7th at 7 and 8 pm at Open Source Gallery, 306 17th Street (near Sixth Avenue), Park Slope.   Featuring direction by Christie Marie Clark, costume design by Cathy Small, Kendra Mittermeyer as Daedalus and Emily Ann Banks as Icarus.  Admission is free. 

Nearest subway stops are the F/G/N at 4th Ave./9th St., or F/N at 7th Ave./9th St. 

If you want to read on, it gets complicated:
I’ve worked with Open Source and its artistic director, Monika Wuhrer, for ten years.  I’ve premiered six plays there, all based on art being shown in the gallery:  painting, sculpture, local artists, European artists.  Monika and I met last summer, when she suggested that Sana would be a great person to work with.  Sana and I Skyped in May; she is intelligent, candid and funny.  I immediately wanted to have her come over for dinner.  Sana’s art is not inherently political; she is interested in metaphoric walls between people, and walls of self-preservation.

Until now, Open Source has never had a problem getting an artist and their art to Brooklyn.  They got an NEA grant to bring Sana here (she’s based in Karachi), and then applied for an artist visa, which the State Dept. denied.  So there’s still a show (video), but there’s no artist.  And no art juxtasposed with the play.  Which I find deeply troubling.  But, damn it, there will be a play!

For more details:  http://open-source-gallery.org/


Photo:  Emily Ann Banks (Kara) and Kendra Mittermeyer (Deedee).  Photo by Christie Marie Clark.

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