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NOW Fest at REDCAT is Back, Opens Tomorrow
Killsonic photo by Christopher Donez
Killsonic photo by Christopher Donez
The seventh annual New Original Works Festival opens Thursday at REDCAT, our city’s center for cutting edge and experimental performing arts. Housed below the statuesque Disney Hall, the festival runs for three weekends and showcases the work of eight adventurous local artists in music, theater, dance and multimedia, with mixtures of all the arts abounding.
The three distinct programs include works by Maureen Huskey and Killsonic in week one, Christine Marie & Ensemble, Rae Shao-Lan Blum & Tashi Wada and Raphael Xavier during week two and, for the final week, artists Alexandro Segade, Hana van der Kolk and Miwa Matreyek share the stage. Festival Director and REDCAT Associate Director George Lugg says that "the eight new projects . . . are fueled by the creative force of more than 83 artists and performers [who] reinvent theatrical forms, assimilate new technologies and pose essential questions about how we live the political and social realities of now."
What can I say? Previous seasons have often surprised and pleased me and, selected from this year’s pool of 160 applicant proposals, I expect to see some exciting and inventive interpretations of what it means to be making art in front of people.
Opening week starts with Bessie Award-winning director Maureen Huskey’s collaboration with artistic producer Elizabeth R. English. Together, the two bring to life Jennifer Barclay's darkly funny neo-gothic text about a campus coup in The Exile of Petie DeLarge. This is paired with the 30-piece musicians' collective Killsonic, who are said to play under the direction of a reanimated Saddam Hussein. Tongues Bloody Tongues presents the factious history of Iraq in the era of British rule via a staged processional that features a giant set piece, ragged costumes and blaring megaphones.
Doesn’t sound like a conventional night in the theater, but certainly worth the visit! Click here to check out the band in action and head downtown for the fun!
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