dark is a different beast

Help me. I'm caught. Some kind of blinding blare. staring blind. So hot. So Thirsty...That whirl bled the dry outta me. Took me for all I'm worth. I went for it full force. And she burned me. Stole my spark. Turned me. Spurned me. Sparked my snark. Murdered my butterflies. I was getting better I was. Hell and hellfire. I'm a wreck. I'm rubbish. I'm all smoky ash and ashy crash. Can't start over. Can't go back to zero. It'll kill me. I tell you. It... Will ... Kill... Me...

- Excerpt from "dark is a different beast" by Andrea Hart

Monday, November 28, 2011

("Swami Bondage Weekend Query and the Nigh-time Soak" by Jesse Bercowetz)

photo credit: Cristina Saez

In the midst of the chaos WORLD POWER is desperately trying to sell the budget.

world power

This is much more than a long list of numbers,

This is our free way of life!

Hope for the future!

Have you any notion of what

Our defense efforts buy us?

Our ships,

Our tanks,

Our planes,

Our training,

Our spare parts!

All intended for one important purpose -

To Keep the Peace.

We must not be misled by those who would make defense

The scapegoat of the budget.

Those loud voices

Are nothing more than noise

Based on ignorance.

We do not start fights!

We will never be an aggressor!

We maintain the peace through strength.

We maintain strength to defend against aggression.

Weakness invites attack!

Terrorists seek to deliver death and destruction to our doorstep.

Enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day!

Wouldn't it be better to save lives than to avenge them?

We are in the midst of a spiritual awakening!

Whatever sad episodes exist in our past,

We have kept alight the torch of freedom,

For those who live in totalitarian darkness

We have the power to begin the world over again!!

A final scream of iron bending and collapsing. WORLD POWER ducks for cover. Blackout. Silence.

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Andrea L. Hart is a writer, director and performer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her plays include: Splinters...and Other F-Words (“Best New Theater Company;” Ragged Wing Ensemble), best.worst.best (“10 Most Memorable Moments in Art and Entertainment for 2008,”Marin Independent Journal), ricochet, (Theater Bay Area CA$H Grant, 2010 Great Plains Theater Conference and semi-finalist for the 2011 Bay Area Playwrights Festival) and To the Birds. She is a two-time fellow at the MacDowell Colony and is co-founder of The Swap, a producing collective of playwrights from San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Andrew Braddock is a movement artist and Butoh practitioner. He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow who has worked with: Diego Piñon, Ko Morobushi, Natsu Nakajima, Joan Laage, and Nicole Legette. Last year he presented a solo performance “Never Been Deader” based on a lengthy immersion in the world of Westerns. His current work combines Butoh with current interests in religious ritual, the writing of Georges Bataille, and the stuff of weird, old America.

Jesse Bercowetz is a mixed media sculptor and installation artist. He is a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Sculpture Magazine and Art Forum. His work has been exhibited at The Brooklyn Museum, NYC; PS1 / MoMA, NYC; The Headlands Center for Art, Sausalito, CA; The Brooklyn Academy of Music, NYC; Mass MoCA, North Adams and Art Basel, Switzerland.

ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV is a composer whose works have been commissioned and/or performed by Kronos Quartet, Serbian National Theater, Carnegie Hall, Moravian Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic and Providence Festival Ballet. Vrebalov is a fellow of MacDowell Colony, Rockefeller Bellagio Center, New York’s New Dramatists, American Opera Projects, Other Minds Festival, and Tanglewood. Her awards and fellowships include The American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellowship, Barlow Endowment Commission, Highsmith Composition Competition, Vienna Modern Masters, Open Society Fund, ASCAP, Meet the Composer, and Douglas Moore Fellowship. Aleksandra holds a DMA from the University of Michigan. Her works have been recorded for Nonesuch, Innova and Vienna Modern Masters.

“dark is a different beast” is a performance about love in a time of war. The piece began as an experiment by Andrea Hart to write scenes inspired by Jesse Bercowetz’s sculptures. Consequently, structure—both figurative and literal—became the defining element in the resulting script. As we begin the rehearsal process, we are focusing on creating a structure that becomes the various elements in the play. It is the machine with which the World Powers control their world and with which they are eventually destroyed. We are also collaborating with butoh practitioner Andrew Braddock to make structure a defining element in the physicality of the performance as well as the language and design. Our collaboration combines Jesse’s background in installation, wearable art and puppetry, Andrea’s background in physical theater and stylized language and Andrew’s movement and conceptual performance. We will also collaborate with composer Aleksandra Vrebalov who will create a score that reflects the structural themes of the piece. As the staging develops it will inspire more design ideas. As those formulate, it will influence the script and physical work. This cyclical nature allows us to create in a constantly evolving manner, creating a performance that seamlessly integrates performers’ bodies, scenic design elements and language.