Masterclass Digital Program
Written by Feidlim Cannon, Gary Keegan & Adrienne Truscott
Creative Producer Rachel Bergin
Movement Direction by Eddie Kay
Set Design by Ellen Kirk
Lighting Design by Dara Hoban
Costume Design by Sarah Foley
Sound Design by Jennifer O’Malley
Production Manager Eoin Kilkenny
Stage Manager Grace Donnery
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Brokentalkers are a multi-award-winning Dublin-based theatre company led by Co-Artistic Directors Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan with Creative Producer Rachel Bergin. For over a decade, Brokentalkers have been making formally ambitious work that defies categorization and have built a reputation as one of Ireland’s most innovative and original theatre companies. They make work that responds to the contemporary world, using elements such as original writing, dance, classic texts, film, interviews, found materials, and music to represent that world in performance. Some of their notable works include Bellow, The Examination, Have I No Mouth, The Blue Boy and Silver Stars. To date Brokentalkers have presented work in Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, New Zealand, and the USA.
brokentalkers.ie
Adrienne Truscott’s work crosses lines and methodologies from dance, theatre, comedy, cabaret, and performance art; these iterations appear as drag club acts as well as evening-length pieces; dances to one-lady plays; group pieces to solos. Recent pieces include THIS, Grey Arias, and Wild Bore and she is a recipient of an Obie, Doris Duke Impact, and FCA Grants to Artists Awards among others. She is also one half of The Wau Wau Sisters, a boundary-busting cabaret & circus collaboration that has been laying stages to waste for 20-plus years, and her critically acclaimed Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It: A One-Lady Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else (both a solo and an expanded group show). This show is considered a critical impetus to the evolving discourse about intersections of rape culture, gender, and comedy. adriennetruscott.com
SUPPORT
NYU SKIRBALL
NYU Skirball holds close James Baldwin’s dictum that “artists are here to disturb the peace.” Our mission is to present adventurous, cross-disciplinary 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. 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 the Howard Gilman Foundation; Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels; The Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater; Collins Building Services; Harkness Foundation for Dance; Villa Albertine; Polish Cultural Institute; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Québec Government Office in New York; Goethe Institut-New York; Austrian Cultural Forum New York; and Marta Heflin Foundation; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Allies for Arts Access Fund support.
BECOME A MEMBER
NYU Skirball Members are friends …. with benefits. Members receive discounted tickets to productions, events, pre-sale opportunities, exclusive invitations, and special access to innovative artists, academics, and thought-leaders. More importantly, members support a broad range of cutting-edge performances to New York City. Memberships start at $75.
GO BEYOND THE STAGE
NYU SKIRBALL STAFF
Director Jay Wegman
Supervisor, Lighting And Sound Emily Anderson
Ticket Operation Specialist Cliff Billings
Engagement Director J De Leon, PhD
Theater Technician Brian Emens
Company Manager Tayler Elizabeth Everts
Theater Technician George Faya
Theater Technician Angie Golightly
Operations Manager Jenny Liao
Marketing Manager Clare Lockhart
Box Office Manager Craig Melzer
Development Director Kimberly Olstad Piegaro
Front of House Supervisor Jordan Peters
Production Manager Alberto Ruiz
Senior Supervisor, Lighting And Sound Don Short
Finance and Administrative Manager Caroline Grace Steudle
Operations Director Ian Tabatchnick
Press Representative Helene Davis
NEXT @ NYU SKIRBALL
Fist and Heel Performance Group /Reggie Wilson: The Reclamation
April 4–5 | World Premiere
Choreographer Reggie Wilson is conspicuously reclaiming foundational ideas from his early gestural and “duet-ed” works and landing on provocative questions and surprises fitting to the times we are now experiencing. Wilson’s meticulous and rigorous kinesthetic reclamation process is asking, if not begging us What do you have? What do you keep? How do you make what’s ever left meaningful…ultimately, Is the reclamation of self, necessary to build resilience?
Daniel Léveillé Danse: Amour, Acide et Noix
April 11–12
Four bodies, given over to the dance, reveal what has taken refuge behind the strangely opaque skin: muscle, water, breath, energy, an outlook on life, so alive and aware of the other, in spite of or maybe because of a need to not be entirely alone. This remounting of Amour, acide et noix speaks of solitude but also and, most specifically, of the infinite tenderness of touch, the harshness of life, and the desire for avoidance or escape from these bodies, often so heavy.
Seán Curran Company: PATH and Everywhere All The Time
April 18–19| World Premiere
Seán Curran Companymakes its NYU Skirball debut with two works: the world premiere of PATH, a 30-minute work reflecting on the phenomenon of the Camino de Santiago — the ancient Catholic pilgrimage route across northern Spain to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia – and Curran’s own spiritual wayfaring; and Everywhere All the Time (2018), which explores the relationship of humans with the natural environment.
Łukasz Twarkowski: The Employees
April 24–26| North American Premiere
The story of The Employees unfolds in an undetermined near future, on a spaceship carrying people and humanoid robots, with Earth having been annihilated. The crew of the spaceship 6000, overseen by a mysterious organization, is on a mission to explore a distant planet called the New Discovered. Among them are both humans and humanoid robots, though it’s unclear who’s who. This dark satire follows the crew’s reflections on consciousness and identity through fragmented reports left by the spaceship’s crew.