Honor Program

A lecture? A performance? An idiosyncratic conjoining of both? Visual artist Suzanne Bocanegra uses theater to interrogate the history and practice of the visual arts. Part performance, part memoir, and part gleefully rambling cultural essay, her “Artist Performance Lectures” are intensely personal, exhaustively researched, and kaleidoscopically wide-ranging. With the assistance of a series of mirthful “guests,” she explains the hows and whys of being an artist, while offering elucidating meditations on art-making, history, popular culture and our shifting ideals of human beauty.

Honor, starring Lili Taylor and directed by Geoff Sobelle, is based on a 16th-century tapestry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled “Honor,” which depicts 69 historical and allegorical figures who offer personal stories as moral lessons in honor and in dishonor. Bocanegra’s very close reading of the tapestry leads her to weave together such diverse topics as Carole King’s Tapestry album, tableau vivant, the founding of the Girl Scouts of America, Anni Albers, the Monkees, and the history of theater.

Previous performances have been commissioned and/or presented by the Museum of Modern Art, The Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance at the Ace Theater, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Hammer Museum, and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, among others. Bocanegra’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston) and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), among others. https://suzannebocanegra.com

About the Artists

Creator/Writer/Performer: Suzanne Bocanegra

Performer: Lili Taylor

Director: Geoff Sobelle

Video by: Derrick Belcham

Wardrobe Supervisor: Theodora Bocanegra Lang

Designer & Technical Director: Joseph Wolfslau

Costume photos by Thibault Jeanson, Georgia Nerheim, and Peter Serling

“Ríu, Ríu, Chíu” arranged by David Lang

Producer: Jecca Barry

Featuring: ModernMedieval (Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, Chloe Holgate, Martha Cluver, Elisa Sutherland), Amy Garapic, Theodora Lang, Dee Beasneal, and Gia Gonzalez

Honor, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra starring Lili Taylor, was commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Additional support provided by UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance.

Part artist lecture, part memoir, part cultural essay, Honor, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Lili Taylor is the fourth in a series of performances by Suzanne Bocanegra. It follows Farmhouse / Whorehouse, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Lili TaylorWhen a Priest Marries a Witch, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Paul Lazar and Bodycast, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Ruth Negga.

Suzanne Bocanegra (Creator/Writer/Performer) is a visual artist who uses theater and theater craft to interrogate the history and practice of visual art, employing large-scale video, performance and installation, as well as collage, sculpture and painting. She is the recipient of the 2020 Robert Rauschenberg Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, among other awards. In 2019, a major show of Bocanegra’s work titled “Poorly Watched Girls” was presented at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. Also in 2019, her solo show “Wardrobe Test” was the inaugural exhibition at Artcake, an exhibition space in Brooklyn. Bocanegra’s most recent performance “Honor, an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra starring Lili Taylor,” was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has traveled to LAMoCA, ICABoston and the Walker Art Center.

Geoff Sobelle (Director) is a US-based actor and creator devoted to making original actor-driven performance works.  His shows include: HOMEThe Object LessonThe Elephant Roomall wear bowlers and machines machines machines machines machines machines machines (among others).  He has received commissions from BAM, Lincoln Center, Arizona State University, Center Theatre Group, Edinburgh International Festival and The New Zealand Festival. His shows have been recognized by a Bessie Award, an Obie Award in design, two Edinburgh Fringe First Awards, the Best of Edinburgh Award, a Total Theatre Award and an Innovative Theatre Award.  He is a Pew Fellow and a Creative Capital Grantee.  Geoff was  a company member of Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company from 2001-2012.  He trained in physical theater at the Lecoq school in Paris and is a graduate of Stanford University.  www.geoffsobelle.com

Lili Taylor (Performer) has been working on stage and screen for thirty years. She has appeared in dozens of films including Mystic Pizza, Say Anything…, Dogfight, Short Cuts, Household Saints, Factotum, I Shot Andy Warhol, The Notorious Bettie Page, Ransom, and The Haunting. In television she has starred in Six Feet Under, Almost Human, Outer Range and American Crime, for which she earned an Emmy nomination. Taylor has appeared on stage in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions including Three Sisters (Roundabout), Mourning Becomes Electra (Acorn Theater), and The Library (Public Theater).

Joseph Wolfslau (Designer and Technical Director) is a set, sound, and costume designer based in Brooklyn. Recent designs include sound design for Sw!ng Out (Joyce), production design for La Sonnambula (Prom-enade Opera), production design for Magnum Opus: A Retrospective (The People Movers), sound for The Emperor’s Nightingale (Pan Asian Rep.), sound for The Peanut Butter Show (Little Lord), production design for Cendrillon (Promenade Opera), sound for Romulus the Great (Yangtze Rep.), sound for Brideshead Obliterated (Dixon Place), set, sound, and costumes for 410 [Gone] (Yangtze Rep), sound for CoIncident (JACK), sound for Ski End (New Ohio), sound for CoVenture (Baryshnikov), and set and costumes for Poor Sailor (Tugboat Collective).

ModernMedieval was created by Dr. Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, a member of the world-renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4, to explore the worlds of early and new music through lectures, workshops, masterclasses and performances. ModernMedieval Voices is a project based all-female ensemble directed by Jacqueline. She is joined by early and new music specialists for concerts and special projects that combine medieval chant and polyphony with music from later eras and new commissions influenced by the poetry and sonorities of music from the Middle Ages. ModernMedieval Voices takes the vocal techniques developed by Anonymous 4 for singing this repertoire and combines them with a fresh approach to programming that introduces this wonderful music to new audiences. www.modernmedieval.org

Jecca Barry (Producer) is an independent theatre, opera, film, and music producer. She is the founder and creative producer of Fin Productions, and a co-founder of the Up Until Now Collective. Jecca’s practice focuses on developing work with artists that are challenging the conventions of the performing arts industry. From 2012-2022, she served as Executive Director of the acclaimed production company Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and was a Co-Director of New York’s annual PROTOTYPE Festival from 2017-2022. Jecca has overseen the commissioning, development, production and touring of over 30 new theatre, music-theatre, and opera works, and has toured those works to over 40 national and 20 international venues. Jecca holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in avant-garde flute performance from the Royal Northern College of Music and New York University.

About NYU Skirball

Skirball Stage

NYU Skirball holds close James Baldwin’s dictum that “artists are here to disturb the peace.” Our mission is to present adventurous, transdisciplinary work that inspires yet provokes, confirms yet confounds, and entertains yet upends. We proudly embrace renegade artists who surprise, productions that blur aesthetic boundaries, and thought-leaders who are courageous, outrageous, and mind-blowing.

A roster of international artistic visionaries command our stage, often with North American or World Premieres, including directors Milo Rau and Toshiki Okada; choreographers Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Florentina Holzinger, and Faustin Linyekula; composers Du Yun, George Lewis, and John Zorn; the theatre ensembles Elevator Repair Service, Forced Entertainment, Gob Squad, Wooster Group, and Teatro La ReSentida; along with the dance companies A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Big Dance Theater, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance. Eminent scholars, authors, and paradigm shifters headline our events and have included Kwame Anthony Appiah, Judith Butler, David Chalmers, Angela Davis, Zadie Smith, and Slavoj Žižek.

NYU Skirball’s engagement programming supports the University’s academic mission with conjunctions of cutting-edge live art and practical, experiential curricular resources, including artists’ conversations, workshops, scholarly essays, and diverse public events. Our work promotes encounters with boundary-pushing art forms, enhances critical thinking, nurtures imaginations, and employs the performing arts as an essential means of teaching, researching, and lifelong learning.

We are NYU’s largest classroom. We want to feed your head.

 

NYU SKIRBALL FUNDING

NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and by Howard Gilman Foundation; FUSED (French U.S. Exchange in Dance), a program of FACE Foundation in partnership with Villa Albertine; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Collins Building Services; Korean Cultural Center New York; Marta Heflin Foundation; Harkness Foundation for Dance; Van Cleef & Arpels; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Stage Pass Fund support.

NYU SKIRBALL MEMBERS ARE FRIENDS...WITH BENEFITS

FRBenefits include:
• Up to 30% off one ticket per show
• Advance notice of upcoming events
• Exclusive pre-sale tickets
• Subscription to NYU Skirball’s e-newsletter
• Personalized NYU Skirball Member card
• Member offers at local Greenwich Village restaurants and shops
(Fully tax-deductible)

Sidekick $125All of the benefits Friends receive plus:
• Up to 30% off two tickets per show
• Complimentary NYU Skirball tote bag
• Complimentary ticket exchanges
• VIP reserved seating for select NYU Skirball humanities events
($110 tax-deductible)

Comrade $250All of the benefits Sidekicks receive, plus:
• Up to 30% off four tickets per show
• Waived ticketing fees (savings of up to $6 per ticket)
• Exclusive access and invitations to meet artists
• Invitations to private dress rehearsals
($235 tax-deductible)

Bosom Buddy $1000All of the benefits Besties receive, plus:
• Two complimentary drinks at the Lobby Café per Skirball Presents production
• Two passes to all Skirball humanities event receptions
• Enhanced pre-sale, prior to Member pre-sale
• Dedicated patron line for personalized customer service
($955 tax-deductible)

JOIN AS A BOSOM BUDDY MEMBER

Soul Mate $2500All of the benefits Bosom Buddies receive, plus:
• Four passes to all NYU Skirball humanities event receptions
• Ability to secure premium house seats
($2455 tax-deductible)

NYU Skirball Team

NYU SKIRBALL ACADEMIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

Sheril Antonio
Senior Associate Dean, Strategic Initiatives, NYU Tisch

Ulrich Baer
University Professor

Una Chaudhuri
Divisional Dean for the Humanities &
Vice Dean for Interdisciplinary Initiatives

Anna Deavere Smith
University Professor

Michael Dinwiddie
Associate Professor, NYU Gallatin

Georgina Dopico
Interim Provost, NYU

Karen Finley
Arts Professor, NYU Tisch

Faye Ginsburg
David B. Kriser Professor, NYU Arts & Science

Lynn Gumpert
Director, NYU Grey Art Gallery

Sylvaine Guyot
Professor of French Literature, Thought, and Culture,
NYU Arts & Science

André Lepecki
Professor; Chair of Performance Studies, NYU Tisch

Julie Malnig
Associate Professor, NYU Gallatin

Judith Graves Miller
Professor Emerita of French and Collegiate Professor, NYU Arts & Science

Pamela Pietro
Arts Professor; Chair of Dance, NYU Tisch

Rubén Polendo
Associate Dean, Institute Of Performing Arts, NYU Tisch

J. Ryan Poynter
Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs & Chief of Staff

Karen Shimakawa
Associate Professor; Academic Associate Dean, NYU Tisch

Catharine Stimpson
University Professor

Justin Townsend
Arts Professor; Chair of Graduate Design for Stage & Film, NYU Tisch

Tomi M. Tsunoda
Associate Arts Professor; Chair of Drama, NYU Tisch

Bryan Waterman
Associate Professor, English Literature, NYU Arts & Sciences

Deborah Williams 
Clinical Professor, Liberal Studies

Julia Wolfe
Professor of Music Composition; Artistic Director of Music Composition, NYU Steinhardt

 

NYU SKIRBALL ARTISTIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

Kyle Abraham

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

David Lang

Elizabeth LeCompte

Eiko Otake

Annie-B Parson

Philippe Quesne

Alex Timbers

 

NYU SKIRBALL STAFF

Jay Wegman
Director

Emily Anderson
Supervisor, Lighting And Sound

Cliff Billings
Ticket Operation Specialist

J De Leon, PhD
Associate Director, Engagement

Brian Emens
Theater Technician

George Faya
Theater Technician

Angie Golightly
Theater Technician

Jenny Liao
Manager, Operations

Craig Melzer
Box Office Manager

Kimberly Olstad
Director, Development

Jordan Peters
Front of House Supervisor

Alberto Ruiz
Production Manager

Don Short
Senior Supervisor, Lighting And Sound

Caroline Grace Steudle
Administrative Coordinator

Ian Tabatchnick
Director, Operations

Julia Thorncroft
Marketing Manager

Helene Davis 
Press Representative

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