Big Dance Theater Comme Toujours Here I Stand

Thank You
Generous support for the 2010 /11
season of MCA Stage is provided
by Elizabeth A. Liebman, David
Herro and Jay Franke, and Susan
and Lew Manilow.
The MCA Chicago is a
proud partner of the National
Performance Network.
Foundation Season Sponsor
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provided in part by Your Private
Limousine, Inc.
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District generously supports
MCA programs.
In-Kind Equipment Sponsor
Accommodations are
provided in part by
Friends of the MCA Stage
The Baila Foundation
Ellen Stone Belic
Henry and Leigh Bienen
Teddy Dean Boys
Greg Cameron
Pamela Crutchfield
Shawn M. Donnelley and
Christopher M. Kelly
The Efroymson Family Fund
Lois and Steve Eisen and
The Eisen Family Foundation
Terri and Stephen Geifman
Hugh M. Hefner Foundation
David Herro and Jay Franke
Sarai Ho=man and Stephan Pratt
Bill and Vicki Hood
Mary Ittelson and Rick Tuttle
Anne and John Kern
Elizabeth A. Liebman
Lisa Yun Lee
Susan and Lew Manilow
Nancy Lauter McDougal and
Alfred L. McDougal
Maecenas
Susan Manning and Doug Doetsch
Abby McCormick O’Neil and
D. Carroll Joynes
Charles L. Michod and Susan A. Michod
Herbert R. and Paula Molner
Maya Polsky
Elizabeth Price and Lou Yecies
Carol Prins and John Hart/
The Jessica Fund
Mr. and Mrs. Dan Sternberg
Ms. Patty F. Sternberg
Richard and Ann Tomlinson
Pooja and Peter Vukosavich/
Studio V Design
The Weasel Fund
Angel Ysaguirre and Bob Webb
Anonymous
As of November 1, 2010
Big Dance Theater
Comme Toujours Here I Stand
Friends of
the MCA Stage
Thursday, Friday, and Sunday,
November 4, 6, and 7, 2010
Support the voices and visions of our time
by directly investing in the work of living artists.
Our Friends of the MCA Stage receive exclusive
benefits such as recognition in MCA Stage
program notes, exclusive ticket offers, invitations
to receptions with the artists, and access to
behind-the-scenes rehearsals.
Photo: PaulaCourt
John Jasperse Company. Photo © Sylvio Dittrich
Become a Friend of the MCA Stage today by calling
Marla Krupman at 312.799.3509.
Copresented by
Big Dance Theater
Comme Toujours Here I Stand
Copresented by the MCA
Chicago and the Chicago
Humanities Festival
About the artists
Performers
Tymberly Canale
Chris Giarmo
Molly Hickok
Jeff Larson
Ryutaro Mishima
Aaron Rosenblum
Kourtney Rutherford
Chris Wendelken
Additional music
Traffic and Kotchy
Fortune-teller video
Jonathan Stearns, featuring
Stacy Dawson Stearns
Big Dance Theater
was founded in 1991 to investigate both plays and
dance forms, saturating dance with theater, and
theater with dance. Big Dance Theater won a New
York Obie Award for artistic achievement in May
2000, and its Artistic Directors received a New York
Bessie Award in 2002 as well as this year for Comme
Toujours Here I Stand. Big Dance received the first
Creativity Award from Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
in 2007.
Direction/choreography
Annie-B Parson
Codirection Paul Lazar
Set Joanne Howard
Video Jeff Larson
Original title song
Robyn Hitchcock
Generous support for this presentation by MCA
is provided by Lisa Yun Lee.
Underwriting for this presentation by CHF is
generously provided by Barbara and Jim Herst.
Big Dance thanks Peter Taub and the staff
at the MCA Chicago for presenting the
show, and Lili Chopra and Lizzie Simon
for the invitation to make a new work and for
endless production assistance.
Big Dance is also grateful to the following
people for giving the space and time to create
Comme Toujours Here I Stand: Guy Walter, Cathy
Bouvard and the entire staff of Les Subsistances
in Lyon, France; Stanford Makishi and Mikhail
Baryshnikov at BAC, Frank Hentschker and Andy
Horwitz of CUNY Prelude; Travis Chamberlain
at the New Museum, and Ben Kerrick at LMCC.
Thanks also to Deb Singer and The Kitchen.
In addition, Big Dance thanks Marianne Weems,
Josh Higgason and the Builders Association,
Katie Brook, Shira Milikowsky, Yann Carmona,
Heloise Darcq, Sylvain Haase, Cynthia Hopkins,
Sound Jane Shaw
Lights Joe Levasseur
Costumes Claudia Stephens
Production management
Aaron Rosenblum
Stage manager Aaron Rosenblum
General manager
Estelle Woodward Arnal
Sound board operator
Jamie McElhinney
Interns Cory Antiel, Casey Crowley,
Emma Galvin, Mieke Duffly,
Cyndi Perczek, David Stadler,
Chinaza Uche, and Emma Wiseman
Also appearing on video:
Cab driver Carmona Ghislaine
Art students Paul Silvers,
Emanuel Mathias, Agnès
Lammert, Julien Himmer,
Laurent-Cyprien Giraud,
and Irène Sinou
Hair piece Beatrice Colter,
Helena Collection
Based on the script for the film Cleo from 5
to 7 by Agnès Varda. Used by permission.
The DVD of the film is available for sale
through Criterion Collection, criterion.com.
Brad Kasicki, Zabeth Loisel-Weiner, Susan
Marshall, Honora Fergusson Neumann, Liz
Sargent, Helen Shaw, Stephanie Sleeper, Claudia
Tanney, Nancy Tanney, Laurie Uprichard,
Greenbush Construction, and Will Knapp.
Comme Toujours Here I Stand was commissioned by FIAF (the French Institute Alliance
Française), New York City, with coproduction,
production, and residency support by Les
Subsistances 2008/09, Lyon France.
Comme Toujours Here I Stand was presented by
The Kitchen, New York, October 2009.
Comme Toujours Here I Stand was developed, in
part, in residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.
Big Dance Theater’s residency at Les
Subsistances was supported by FUSED, a
program of the French US Exchange in Dance,
in partnership with the Cultural Services of the
French Embassy in the United States,
Culturesfrance, and the New England
Foundation for the Arts/National Dance Project
(NEFA/NDP). US touring for Comme Toujours
Here I Stand in the 2009–10 season is being
supported by a Touring Grant from NEFA/NDP.
Additional support has been provided by Altria
Group, Mental Insight Foundation, the Jacob’s
Pillow Creativity Award, the Starry Night Fund of
the Tides Foundation, the LMCC Swing Space
Program, the New Museum, the Edith Lutyens
and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation at Alliance
of Resident Theaters/NY, Mary Sharp Cronson,
Nancy Crown, Micki Wesson and public funds
from the New York State Council on the Arts, a
state agency.
For touring information, contact:
Estelle Woodward Arnal, Producer
T: +1 646 717 0585
E: [email protected]
The company has created 15 original works and has
been presented at Dance Theater Workshop for
eight seasons. They made their Chicago debut at
the MCA Chicago in 2001 with A Simple Heart, and
returned to the MCA in 2004 with Antigone, their
collaboration with playwright Mac Wellman. Other
venues presenting their work include The Kitchen,
New York; Works & Process at the Guggenheim,
New York; Classic Stage Co., New York; Jacob’s
Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Massachusetts; the
American Dance Festival, Durham, North Carolina;
the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota;
UCLA Live!, Los Angeles; the Spoleto Festival USA,
Charleston, South Carolina; Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts, San Francisco, California; The Performing
Garage, New York; and On the Boards, Seattle,
Washington.
Big Dance has toured internationally to Italy,
France, Brazil, The Republic of Georgia, Germany,
the Netherlands, and Belgium. It is creating a
new work to premiere at National Theatre of Paris/
Chaillot in 2011, co-commissioned by the Walker
Art Center and the Anticodes Festival.
Annie-B Parson
received a Bessie Award in 2002 and a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 2007. In 2008 she choreographed for
David Byrne; the Other Shore Dance Co. at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York; Cynthia Hopkins; and
ETHEL (a string quartet). She codirected and
choreographed Anne Carson’s Orestes at Classic
Stage Co. (CSC), New York, and recently created
choreography for Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando, also at CSC.
Parson cofounded Big Dance Theater in 1991 when
the company presented its first performances at
Dance Theater Workshop, New York.
Paul Lazar
most recently directed Anne Carson’s translation
of Euripides’ Orestes at Classic Stage Co. in New
York. He directed Major Bang for The Foundry
Theatre, New York (touring to St. Ann’s Warehouse,
New York; the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus,
Ohio; On The Boards, Seattle, Washington; and the
Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, South Carolina).
Lazar is an Associate Member of The Wooster
Group, acting in Brace Up!, Emperor Jones, North
Atlantic, and The Hairy Ape. Other stage credits
include Young Jean Lee’s Lear, Richard Maxwell’s
Cowboys and Indians at Soho Rep, Richard III at
Classic Stage Co., Svejk at Theatre for a New
Audience, New York; Maria Irene Fornes’ Mud at
the Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia; and
Mac Wellman’s 1965 UU. He appears in more than
30 feature films, including The Host, Mickey Blue
Eyes, Silence of the Lambs, Beloved, Lorenzo’s Oil,
and Philadelphia.
Lazar has taught acting and directing at New York
University’s Undergraduate Drama Department;
Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey; The William
Esper Studio, New York; SUNY Purchase; Jacob’s
Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, Massachusetts; and
The Seoul Institute of the Arts in Seoul, South Korea.
He has codirected and acted in more than a dozen
full-length works for Big Dance, including commissions from the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,
Minnesota; Dance Theater Workshop, New York;
Classic Stage Co., New York; and Japan Society, New
York. He is a founding member of Big Dance Theater.
Tymberly Canale
began her dance training at The Pittsburgh Dance
Alloy, Pennsylvania, and is a recent graduate of
the Hollins University/ADF (Roanoke, Virignia)
MFA program. She has performed in the work
of Poppo and the GoGo Boys, Richard Move, David
Neumann, Stacy Dawson, and Robert LaFosse.
Canale has taught dance composition at New York
University’s Tisch School of the Arts Experimental
Theater Wing; a master workshop at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston; and for
the Six Week School at the American Dance Festival
in Durham, North Carolina. Her choreography
has been presented at Highways Performance Space
in Los Angeles, MIT, and The Tank in New York.
It was also featured at New York University’s Catch
and AUNTS Main Stage production of Bertolt
Brecht’s A Respectable Wedding and in Tristan
Tzara’s The Gas Heart for Big Dance Theater, which
toured to the EXIT Festival in France. Canale has
been with Big Dance Theater since 1995.
Trisha Brown Dance
Company
Pygmalion and other works
Friday–Sunday, April 15–17
This MCA Stage debut combines landmark works of postmodern
dance with Trisha Brown’s newest work, set to an 18th-century
baroque opera.
For tickets, visit mcachicago.org
or call 312.397.4010.
Photo: Julieta Cervantes
Scrupulous magic … profound
inventiveness. —Village Voice
Chris Giarmo
is pursuing his master of science degree in
Communications Design from Pratt Institute, New
York. He plays accordion and sings with Heather
Christian & The Arbornauts and is the resident
composer of New York–based performance
group Half Straddle. Giarmo has assisted Annie-B
Parson on her work with David Byrne and the
string quartet ETHEL, and created video for her
lecture The Virtuosity of Form. He has performed
with Big Dance Theater since 2005.
Molly Hickok
was honored with a New York Bessie Award in
2005 for her work with Big Dance Theater and
is a founding member.
Jeff Larson
was director of Get Mad at Sin! at the Chocolate
Factory Theater, New York, and appeared in Chris
Yon’s Hugo at Dance Theater Workshop, New York.
He cocurated the 2008 Movement Research Spring
Festival in New York; worked on the short film A
Store of Sucking Stones made with Zach Steel; and
set designed for Beth Gill’s Eleanor & Eleanor at
Dance Theater Workshop. Larson is cocurator of the
CATCH performance series (catchseries.org), and
production supervisor and adjunct faculty member
with the Department of Design for Stage and Film
at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Ryutaro Mishima
has performed for Kathryn Sanders, RoseAnne
Spradlin, Nami Yamamoto, Chris Yon, Yasuko
Yokoshi (for which he received a Bessie Award
in 2006), and others. He has collaborated with
Dean Moss in performance work presented
by Dance Theater Workshop, New York; Dance
Across Borders, and Sitelines: Lower Manhattan
Cultural Council. Mishima’s work has been
presented by Danspace Project’s Food for Thought
series in New York. His visual art has been
exhibited at the National Arts Club, Chashama
Gallery, and Bertha and Karl Leubsdort Gallery, all
in New York, and the Tokyo Salon in Japan. Mishima
is a recipient of the Ruth Mellon Memorial Award
and the Francis Donin Award for his visual work.
Aaron Rosenblum
is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston. Over
the years, he has worked with Big Dance Theater,
Young Jean Lee, Dan Hurlin, the string quartet
ETHEL, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Cynthia Hopkins,
Wally Cardona, David Zambrano, Lou Reed,
Suzanne Botanegra, Liz Sargent, and many others.
Rosenblum has served on the staff of Dance Theater
Workshop and St. Ann’s Warehouse, both in New
York. His original performance work includes A
Dream Play, New York Is Here!, and Dr. Faustus And
The Seven Deadly Sins.
Kourtney Rutherford
is pursuing her master’s degree in Educational
Theater from City College of New York. She has
worked with playwright Sibyl Kempson, and the
bands Radiohole and Witness Relocation.
She cofounded the theater group The Operating
Theater with Jason Schuler in 2004 and has
written, directed, and performed in several of
their originally devised productions. She has
performed with Big Dance Theater since 1997.
Chris Wedelken
has a BFA from New York University. He has worked
with New York's Atlantic Theater Co. and New York
University’s Tisch School of the Arts Experimental
Theatre Wing, and in the productions Firefall at
Dance Theater Workshop, New York; Coming/Going
at Chashama and Dixon Place, New York, and 3
Sisters/Mourning at Columbia Rep. He is featured
in the film Shadowland and the television series
Law & Order: SVU.
Joanne Howard
is a painter, sculpture, and installation artist who
has been designing sets for Big Dance Theater
since 1992.
Jane Shaw
has an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. She
has designed sound for the productions The
Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead
(City Theatre, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); Hamlet
(Theater for a New Audience, New York, with
Christian Camargo); The Other Side of the Island
featuring Olympia Dukakis (Alpine Theater Project/
Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Whitefish,
Montana); Liberty City (New York Theater Workshop); Merchant of Venice featuring F. Murray
Abraham (New York and Royal Shakespeare
Company tours); and The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd
(The Mint/Lortel Award Nomination). Some of her
collaborators include National Asian American
Theater Company, The Pearl, Queen’s Company,
Terry Creach, and David Dorfman. She was a
fellow in the New England Foundation for the Arts/
National Dance Project (NEFA/NDP) Career
Development Program and a Meet the Composer
Program. Her work with Big Dance Theater
includes The Other Here, Plan B, Shunkin, Girl
Gone, and A Simple Heart and Antigone in
collaboration with Mac Wellman, which were
presented at the MCA Chicago in 2001 and 2004,
respectively.
Claudia Stephens
has designed costumes for venues such as Lincoln
Center for the Performing Arts and Classic Stage
Co., both in New York; Portland Opera, Oregon;
Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Denver Center Theater;
and Dallas Theater Center, Texas. She has worked
as associate costume designer for Broadway and
national tours of Into the Woods, Falsettos, Lost in
Yonkers, and The Goodbye Girl. She is a professor
of costume design at Southern Methodist University
in Dallas, Texas. She has designed costumes for
Big Dance Theater since its inception.
Photo: Mike van Sleen
Photo: Mike van Sleen
Joe Levasseur
works in visual art and lighting. He has designed
lighting for dance artists John Jasperse, RoseAnne
Spradlin, Sarah Michelson, David Dorfman, Beth
Gill, Maria Hassabi, Ashleigh Leite, Jennifer Monson,
LeeSaar the Company, Anna Sperber, Megan
Sprenger, Christopher Williams, and Pavel Zustiak.
He has designed theater lighting for the Chocolate
Factory in New York, Brick, and the off-Broadway
play Edge. His body of work has received a New York
Dance and Performance Bessie Award.
The MCA Chicago and the Chicago Humanities
Festival (CHF) welcome you to the 21st
annual festival.
The MCA Chicago has been a proud partner of
CHF since 1997. Since 1989 CHF has created
opportunities for people of all ages to support,
enjoy, and explore the humanities. The organization
accomplishes this by creating annual fall and
spring festivals, presenting programs throughout
the year that encourage the study and enjoyment
of the humanities, and maintaining an online
home forthe humanities community on its website.
This year’s festival, The Body, offers more than
100 events at 18 venues in and around Chicago’s
Loop and Hyde Park neighborhoods, and features
concerts, dance performances, exhibitions,
discussions, gallery tours, lectures, and more.
Photo: John W. Sisson, Jr.
Welcome
Join us in May 2011 for Stages, Sights & Sounds.
CHF’s nationally recognized spring festival, Stages,
Sights & Sounds, features even more performancebased programs that appeal to a wide audience,
including children and families. The MCA Chicago
is proud to be a host of the 12th Stages, Sights
& Sounds festival, with additional locations in
Chicago and Evanston.
Have you visited CHF’s online home?
Launched in August 2009, the CHF website offers
lectures, slideshows, and materials from CHF’s
20-year archive. The programs of the 2010 festival
are currently posted. The site also features blogs,
ongoing conversations, and commentary. Create
an account, share a festival itinerary, and join the
conversation at chicagohumanities.org.
For the CHF schedule and tickets, visit
chicagohumanities.org or call the box office
at 312.494.9509.
Every house has a door
Let us think of these things always. Let
us speak of them never.
Wednesday–Sunday, February 9–13
Cocommissioned by the MCA
Every house has a door is a joint project between artists from
Chicago (former members of Goat Island) and Zagreb, Croatia.
Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s films, this conceptual dance-theater
experiment builds a common body of language while exploring
ideals of utopia and revolt.
Limited stage seating. Buy tickets early.
For tickets, visit mcachicago.org
or call 312.397.4010.
Let us think . . . is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by P.S.
122 with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Fusebox Festival, and NPN. Support is
also provided from the NPN Forth Fund. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts
(a federal agency). The Forth Fund is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Courtesy Guidelines
and Information
Museum of
Contemporary Art
Chicago
Mary Ittelson,
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Madeleine Grynsztejn,
Pritzker Director
Janet Alberti, Deputy Director and
Chief Operating Oªcer
Michael Darling, James W. Alsdorf
Chief Curator
Performance Committee
Lois Eisen, Chair
Katherine A. Abelson
Ellen Stone Belic
Pamela Crutchfield
Ginger Farley
Gale Fischer
Timothy A. Herwig
John C. Kern
Lisa Yun Lee
Elizabeth A. Liebman
Lewis Manilow
Alfred L. McDougal
Paula Molner
D. Elizabeth Price
Carol Prins
Cheryl Seder
Patty Sternberg
Richard Tomlinson
Pooja Vukosavich
Performance Programs
Peter Taub, Director
Yolanda Cesta Cursach, Associate Director
Surinder Martignetti, Manager
Corinne Lyon, Volunteer Coordinator
Kevin Brown,
House Management Associate
Dylan Rice,
House Management Associate
Sarah Seaman, House Management and
Box Office Associate
Marianka Campisi,
House Management Associate
and Intern
Bana Kahan, Intern
Theater Management
Dennis O’Shea, Manager of
Technical Production
Richard Norwood,
Production Coordinator
Box Oªce
Matti Allison, Manager
Phongtorn Phongluantum,
Assistant Manager
Molly Laemle, Coordinator
Pablo Anaya, Associate
Nigel Harsch, Associate
Communications and
Community Engagement
Angelique Power, Director
Karla Loring, Director of Media Relations
Chaz Olajide, Associate Director of
Marketing and Social Media
Erin Baldwin, Media Relations Manager
Alexis Nido-Russo, Coordinator of
Marketing and Social Media
Alicia Silva, Marketing Assistant
Design, Print and Digital Media
James Goggin, Director
Scott Reinhard, Senior Designer
Alfredo Ruiz, Designer
Sarah Kramer, Associate Editor
Pei Chi Yang, Design Intern
Robbert Irrgang, Web Developer
Sarah Wambold, Multimedia Manager
Development
Lisa Key, Director of Development
Julie Havel, Director of
Institutional Advancement
Marla Krupman, Director of
Individual Giving
Kaitlin Allen, Assistant Director of
Individual Giving
Jonathan Kinkley, Manager of
Foundation and Government Relations
Catherine Bradley,
Manager of Corporate Relations
Parking
Validate your ticket at coat check for $10
parking in the MCA garage (220 E. Chicago
Avenue) and Bernardin garage (747 N.
Wabash Avenue). $10 parking is limited to
six hours on the date of the performance.
Lost and found
To inquire about a lost item, call
the museum at 312.280.2660. Unclaimed
articles are held for 30 days.
Seating
Switch o= all noise-making devices while
you are in the theater.
Late arrivals are seated at the management’s discretion. Food and open
beverage containers are not allowed in
the seating area.
Reproduction
Unauthorized recording and reproduction
of a performance is prohibited.
Program notes compiled by
Yolanda Cesta Cursach
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
220 E. Chicago Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611
mcachicago.org
General information 312.280.2660
Box office 312.397.4010
Volunteer for performances
312.397.4072
[email protected]
Contact the Performance department
[email protected]
Museum hours
Tuesday: 10 am–8 pm
Wednesday–Sunday: 10 am–5 pm
Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and New Year’s Day