Here is a MUST SEE event. It is an inspiring creative synergy of art spread over several evenings to raise momentum against the very serious threat of hydrofracking.
The Irondale Arts Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn is putting it on and it starts in a couple of weeks. The show’ll be different every night: it incorporates artwork, live music, video, modern dance, and physical theater. Each night ends with a town-hall discussion of the issues presented. “Same River” presents the community with an opportunity to get involved in an important environmental issue, so check it out if you’re in the area.
Check out the Irondale website for more information and tickets:
Here’s their press release:
2/23: “SAME RIVER” ON HYDRO-FRACKING @ IRONDALE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STRIKE ANYWHERE’S SAME RIVER ON NYC’S ENDANGERED WATER PREMIERES FEBRUARY 23, 2012
NIGHTLY POST-SHOW TOWN HALL DISCUSSIONS
“Same River” A Play About Hydro-Fracking @ Irondale
“SAME RIVER” is a multi-media, interview-based, improvised production. As hydro-fracking is poised to affect NYC’s water supply, “Same River” brings the upstate war over this controversial method of drilling downstream. Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble, whose production of “10 Brecht Poems” was heralded by the Village Voice as “poignant and appreciated,” will premiere “SAME RIVER” starting February 23, 2012 and run until March 3, 2012 at the Irondale Center on 85 S. Oxford St. Brooklyn, NY 11217. Tickets $20-$40 ($15 tickets Wed/Thurs only). Shows Thursday-Saturday 2/23-2/25 and Wednesday-Saturday 2/29-3/3 at 8PM; student matinee at 1PM on Friday March 2nd, 2012. Tix: 866-811-4111 or www.irondale.org
Including live music, modern dance, physical theater, and video, this improvised show will be different every night. Following each show, there will be a tightly facilitated “town hall” discussion on the issues the piece presents. Experts will be on hand to propel the conversation.
Audience members will experience a visual art installation upon entry to the theater. The artwork is the result of a seven-week residency at nearby Brooklyn High School for the Arts with the science, theater and technical theater classes. Art work will also be developed during a community art-making day for families on February 11 at 2:00 PM at Irondale Center (ages 6 and up).
Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble began to develop SAME RIVER in July 2010 as part of the North American Cultural Laboratory’s (NACL) Catskill Festival of New Theater. During this 10-day residency, Strike Anywhere interviewed local residents about water and researched community water issues. Now, as the decision to lift the moratorium on fracking in New York creeps nearer, Strike Anywhere seeks to engage the Fort Greene neighborhood in this discussion. The ensemble will trace the path of Brooklyn’s water supply and illuminate the struggles of communities upstate which are in the thick of the gas-leasing gold rush. Interviews with Brooklyn residents will examine their relationship to water, their knowledge of local water issues and their familiarity with fracking. The piece seeks to draw connections, to give voice to multiple viewpoints and to acknowledge that we are all downstream, that the earth’s water supply is all the same river.
Established in 1997, STRIKE ANYWHERE is a permanent ensemble of world-class jazz musicians, modern dancers, and actors. Known for their use of SOUNDPAINTING, the live composing sign language, the ensemble creates art in the moment, allowing intuition, the sounds of the room and audience suggestion to shape what they play. SA performances always feature live music, physical theater and modern dance. The company applies structures and concepts from American jazz to their inter-disciplinary improvisations to create performances that are provocative and alive. Strike Anywhere has toured nationally and internationally. The company was in residence at The Zipper Factory and St. Clements developing new works. It has appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the American Airlines Theatre, The Irondale Center, P.S. 122, Theatre for the New City, and HERE Arts Center. Additionally Strike Anywhere has been featured on Radio France, NPR, WBAI and German Public Radio.
Irondale was created by Jim Niesen, Terry Greiss and Barbara Mackenzie-Wood, in 1983. Through the power of the ensemble process, Irondale creates and presents theater, performance, and education programs that challenge traditional assumptions about art, and help us to better understand today’s world. The Irondale Center is the company’s theater, laboratory, and classroom. It is also home for ensemble artists of all disciplines and cultures.