The final program of the three weekends' New Original Works Festival at REDCAT brings the work of three daring women artists to the downtown stage. Emily Mast, Melanie Rios Glaser and Heather Woodbury each investigate deep, important and meaningful questions through lenses that are unique, compelling and entertaining.
Ms. Mast, working with a group of seven performers, examines the intersection of visual art and theater as she reveals the problems inherent in human communication. B!rdbrain is performed by a cast that includes a sign language interpreter, an auctioneer and a stutterer amongst others. Promotional materials say the work alludes to ”the true story of Alex, a verbally skilled parrot that was the subject of controversial findings.” Hmmm . . . controversial findings?
Collaborating with four multi-talented movement improvisers, Melanie Rios Glaser brings her personal Guatemalan performance history into new original scores for “messy, obsessive movement and humorously confessional commentary” in La Tribu. Karinne Keithley Syers, Jmy James Kidd (back after last weekend’s Program 2 “Lake”), Rebecca Bruno, Luke Hegel-Cantarella and Rios Glaser reflect on the impulses that energized the 20th century creative responses to Guatemala’s violence, enforced social norms and repressive politics.
Stemming from a whole different plant species, As The Globe Warms offers a first glimpse into Obie Award-winning theater artist Heather Woodbury‘s solo distillation of her planned 12-hour opus web-cast soap opera. Ambitiously weaving the stories of a multitude of characters that inhabit Vane Springs, Nevada, Woodbury uncovers the social complexities of the climate crisis with sympathetic humor and a sweeping dramatic narrative.
Sounds like a bold and daring climax to the laboratory festival. See you there!
