Publicity, Design &
Consultation
545 52nd Street, Floor 2 €
Brooklyn, NY 11220
____________________________________________________________________________
PRESS
RELEASE: Press Information &
Reservations: Tom Pearson
718.871.3932 (work) or 917.658.4374 (mobile)
tpearson@nyc.rr.com
cabula6 and onnotheater present Trace,
a two-part multi-media,
multi-sensory experience created by
Claudia Heu and Jeremy Xido
³Claudia, Jeremy and their team
scatter roses over memories like scars drawn
in the body of the city.² Nicole
Haitzinger, Tanzquartier Wien
March 8,
2004
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
cabula6
and onnotheater, together with Tanzquartier Wien and The Austrian Cultural Forum New
York, are proud to present Claudia Heu and Jeremy Xido¹s Trace, premiering in New York City as
a two-part theatrical experience. The first component will be a
CD/walkman-guided tour through the Lower East Side and Chinatown from April 24
through May 2, 2004 (11am to 4pm, daily). Register for the tour by email at trace@acfny.org
or (917) 520-9238. The second component will
invite tour participants to the Austrian Cultural Forum Theater, 11 East 52nd Street at 5th Avenue. Performances are April 30th
at 8pm and May 1st at 4 pm and 8pm. The performances are FREE and
are conceived for but not limited to those who participate in the audio tour.
Press are invited to a special preview performance on April 30th at
4pm, but are welcome to attend any of the performances. For other information,
queries should be directed to Klaudia Bercow at the
Austrian Cultural Forum: (212) 319-5300 ext. 203 or kbercow@acfny.org.
In
an attempt to bridge the conscious divide which seemingly separates people,
Trace is a playful meditation
on how memories and fantasies are constructed and lost. Both components of the work (tour and
performance) explore the neurological phenomena which construct ³coherent²
visions of the world out of the millions of fragmented sensory and conceptual
impressions we experience daily.
The tour and performance are integrated. ³Audiences² sign up to walk the tour, which is led solely by a voice on a CD player. They are scheduled for a specific time at a specific location upon registration. The audio tour begins from two different sites in the city, and winds its way through New York¹s Lower East Side and Chinatown as each participant embodies and walks the path of the recorded character from 1919. Two separate characters convene and diverge, and upon finishing the tour, meet at a table in a restaurant.
Those who participate in this portion of the work are then
invited to join the others that have walked the same path for the second
segment, a performance in a traditional theatrical setting featuring
co-creators and performers Jeremy Xido, Claudia Heu
and Tsuyoshi Kondo, with lighting and set design by Lucrecia Briceño and
video by Leah Gelpe.
The
performance begins upon entering the space. Again, the participants are given
headsets, and recorded voices guide them to their seats, suggesting ways for
them to absorb their environment until the performance begins. The actors then
move onto the stage and conduct their experiment under the auspices of a
fictional relationship with the audience, and the narrative of the play
commences.
A
team of researchers for Trace have gathered historical information and evidence
relevant to the specific geographic locations of the tour and have given birth
to the recorded characters out of a labor of fact and fiction. The performance
portion of the work is an experiment in memory and historical reconstruction,
an exploration and deconstruction of mind-workings, where fact and fantasy
intersect and convolute. Trace concerns itself with ideas of transparency, how
bodies interact and relate to the past and share spaces with history. The memories that register in the minds
of participants from walking the tour manifest in myriad and surprising ways
within the context of the performance.
* * * * *
The
Tour: NYC.
April, 1919. Chinatown and the Lower East Side. A warm sunny day. Or, perhaps
it is raining. A man: sweating. He stops and balances against a lamppost. His head is aching. He looks up. They are etching the date
into the doorway of a newly constructed building. A woman. She has to urinate.
She hurries along, late for a meeting. A scream. She
turns. There has been an accident. She feels like she¹s being watched.
The man and woman do not know each other. Not yet. We walk in their footsteps.
Our breath, thoughts, feelings and reactions, mingle with theirs. What do we
see? What did they see? Is this
city alive?
The
Performance:
NYC. April, 2008. An experimental neuro-imaging chamber. We gain access into
the mind of a New York City bicycle messenger who underwent brain surgery after
an accident in Columbus Park. We
follow two doctors as they descend into the bottomless black well of the
messenger¹s memory a place shrouded in mystery and contradiction, where the
recent dead intermingle with past loves and where sea monsters roam the brittle
ground.
For
complete biographical information on the creative team, please see attached
one-page information sheet.
* * * * *
For more information on Trace and other projects, visit
PRESS KITS AND
PHOTOS ARE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
* * * * *
Trace is co-produced by Tanzquartier Wien and the Austrian
Cultural Forum New York with additional support from the Horace W. Goldsmith
Foundation, Synestre LLC, City and Province of Salzburg, and the Field in New
York.