For Immediate Release: May
5, 2005
Contact: Bridget Klapinski/Jen Cipolla (212) 505-2900
bklapinski@thekarpelgroup.com/jcipolla@thekarpelgroup.com
HERE Arts Center & the Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre’s Digital Performance Institute are thrilled to announce a special 4-week limited engagement of James Scruggs’s Disposable Men directed by HERE Co-founder and Executive Director Kristin Marting. This run is presented as part of HERE’s 2004–05 season, which features six original multidisciplinary productions developed by resident artists, four festivals, three visual art exhibitions and HERE’s eagerly anticipated purchase of its space. Disposable Men is set to play Monday, June 6th through Saturday, July 2nd. Official Opening is Sunday, June 12th at 8:30 PM.
In a multi-media environment, Disposable Men pairs old-fashioned storytelling with innovative new technology in a solo work that demonstrates the role of the popular media in classifying African American men as “disposable.” With a dose of sharp wit, Scruggs gives life to a variety of characters and circumstances: from a waiter at a theme restaurant that features customized lynchings to a modern-day minstrel who performs at kids’ parties and more. Scruggs’s vantage point reveals a fate shared by Hollywood monsters and African American men in that both are often feared, killed and ultimately disposed of – sometimes in the most imaginative ways.
In development since May of 2000, segments of Disposable Men have been shown at the AM Foundation in DUMBO, Brooklyn Arts Exchange and at the 2004 CULTUREMART Festival at HERE, where Scruggs is a resident artist. Creator/performer James Scruggs has designed video for Division 13’s version of Ionesco’s Journeys Among the Dead and Kristin Marting’s Orpheus (both at HERE). He was also one of seven writers selected for the Naked Angels Writers’ Lab, where his ten-minute play Thuggish was performed (February 2003).
The MediaBeam robotic video projector is a state-of-art piece of technology that transports roving images from the screen to the stage. Hal Eagar, Technology Director for Disposable Men, has been a trailblazing innovator in live performance technology and digital media since 1995.
The MediaBeam robotic projector opens an entire space as a possible projection surface, allowing artists to utilize video and animation in myriad ways, even creating the illusion of media interacting with the physical world. In this production, this technology has been made possible through the generous support from the Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation, and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art (awarded to James Scruggs in 2002) and supported by Jerome Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Director Kristin Marting has constructed 17 works for the stage, including seven dance-theatre pieces, five adaptations of novels and five classic plays. Most recently at HERE, she directed Orpheus, a 21st-century version of the popular Greek myth as an alt-rock musical developed collaboratively with writer Stephanie Fleischmann and composer Nikos Brisco and the design team of Juliet Chia, David Morris, Liz Bourgeois and James Scruggs. Disposable Men includes compositions by Philip Pares, costumes by Patrice Busnel and lighting by Chris Brown.
Since opening in 1993, the OBIE-award winning HERE Arts Center has housed daring and unique theatre, visual art, puppetry, music and dance in its three theatres, two art galleries and café. Previous works originally produced by HERE include Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, Basil Twist’s Symphonie Fantastique, Camryn Manheim’s Wake Up! I’m Fat and original musical and dance works created and directed by Executive Director Kristin Marting.
In 2003, HERE launched its Secure HERE’s Future campaign to purchase its space and secure a permanent position as one of the city’s preeminent presenters of multidisciplinary art. HERE Arts Center supports the work of artists at all stages in their careers through full productions, artist residency programs, festivals and subsidized performance and rehearsal space. All work at HERE is curated based on the strength and uniqueness of the artist’s vision. Disposable Men is being presented, in part, through HERE's Artist Residency Program (HARP), which provides development, commissions and full production support.
This production is also presented in association with the Digital Performance Institute (DPI), created to develop new processes in the performing arts using digital technology. DPI produces new media performance works and encourages dialogue about the intersection of technology and performance. DPI is a project of The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre, known for its use of cutting edge technologies to promote formal innovation in the theatre.
HERE Arts Center is located at 145 Sixth Avenue (one block below Spring Street). Disposable Men plays Thursday – Sunday @ 8:30 PM, with additional performances on Sunday @ 5:00 PM, and Monday @ 8:30 PM. All tickets are $20.00. For tickets, call SmartTix at (212) 868-4444 or visit www.here.org. Tickets can be purchased at the HERE Box Office from 4:00 PM until curtain. For more info, visit www.DisposableMen.org.