Burning Libraries:

Description

A L I C E PRESENTS Burning Libraries: Stories from the new Ellis Island, a theatrical performance spectacle that expands the concept of immigration through stories, music, movement, dance and aerial arts. Burning Libraries is brought to life by aerialists, dancers, and dramatic video effects, transporting us from a Yemen kitchen to Vietnamese refugee boat and from a Mexican desert to a Liberian campfire.

At a time when this nation is engaged in a shrill “dialogue” about minority rights and immigration, Burning Libraries, tells the stories of ordinary people overcoming ex-traordinary challenges of war, migration, hunger and prejudice, dissolving the boundaries between human experience and political expediency through the transformational power of theatre. Directed by Helen Stoltzfus, Burning Libraries: Stories from the New Ellis Island features a musical score by Albert Greenberg, puppets and set design by Antonio Echeverria, performed by dancers Danny Nguyen and Jesus Cortez, and aerialists Azana and Susan M. Voyticky

Burning Libraries soars with aerial magic, haunting sound and rich imagery that celebrates the ability of the human spirit to take flight. Embedded in a rich musical score, the stories create an aural landscape for each narrative, transport the audience through a kaleidoscope of human experience both personal and shared.

Helen Stoltzfus, Director, Playwright
Helen Stoltzfus has been creating, performing, directing and teaching collaborative theatre for over twenty years. She is former co-artistic director of the inter-nationally acclaimed ensemble, A Traveling Jewish Theatre—and its only non-Jewish member. Her plays have been performed worldwide, from The Los Angeles Theatre Festival to Hamburg’s Sommer Theatre Festival, and from Prague to Appalachia. In 1999, she produced the first National Ensemble Theatre Festival in San Francisco.

Albert Greenberg, Composer, Dramaturg
Albert Greenberg was a founder, co-artistic director, playwright, actor and principal composer for A Traveling Jewish Theatre for 23 years. His plays include Berlin, Jerusalem and the Moon, Trotsky and Frida, The Fatherless Sky, and Una Noche de Suenos Vidi Flores—A Dream of Flowers. His works have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Israel. Mr. Greenberg has composed music for the American Public Radio program An Open Gate and the Kennedy Award-winning adaptation of the David Grossman novel See Under Love. Before moving to the Bay Area he was a recording artist with Pentagram Records and the Silvery Moon Production Company. He is currently developing a new performance work with Ms. Stoltzfus, tentatively titled Stories from the Cradle: Beyond the Iraq War.

Antonio Echeverria, Puppets
Antonio Echeverria has been a professional sculptor/mold maker in the film and theatre industry for over 19 years. He’s been a puppet sculptor for The Fratello Marionettes’ production: Carnival of the Animals, his detailed mask artistry has been featured in The Willows Theatre’s Beauty & the Beast, and Evil Dead: The Musical, and he has sculpted large, elaborate sets for the Bay Area’s Opera San Jose and for Festival Opera’s productions of Turandot, Lucia, and Carmen. He has worked on such films as The Matrix II &III, Dante’s Peak, The Sandlot, and Mortal Combat among others. At Walt Disney Imagineering he sculpted full size dinosaurs for Disneyworld’s Dinosaur ride. Other work is featured permanently as the enormous statues adorning the Monte Carlo Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas. Antonio is an experienced sculptor who brings his high caliber skill to the realistic puppet design of Burning Libraries.

Azana, Aerialist
Azana is originally from San Francisco. Trained as a dancer in many styles, she has traveled the world acquiring a wide range of skills and disciplines; including firespinning, mime, clown, aerial, flying trapeze and rock climbing. Currently back in the Bay Area, she has been exploring flying fire.
Jesus Cortez, Dancer
In 2000, Jesus began dancing with Ballet Folklórico de Mexico de Amalia Hernandez in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. As a soloist in the role of The Deer Dance “La Danza Del Venado” he toured Mexico, Europe and the US. He was the company choreographer and lead
teacher for Los Niños de Santa Fe y Compañia. He joined Moving People Dance Theater performing Contemporary, Jazz and Modern in June 2005. In 2006 he founded and was the artistic director of Arte Sin Fronteras, a new dance school/company in rural Northern New Mexico. He joined Printz Dance Project Company in 2009 as a guest artist for their tenth anniversary. Currently, Mr. Cortes lives in San Francisco.

Danny Nguyen, Dancer
Danny Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam. At the age of eighteen, he escaped in an eight-meter boat with 47 other Boat People. Upon arriving in the US, he was inspired to begin a career in dance. He earned his MFA in Dance, Performance, and Choreography from Mills College. In June 1999, he formed the Nguyen Dance Company and has participated in numerous international dance workshops.

Susan M. Voyticky, Aerialist
Susan Voyticky honed her craft through studies at Stanford University, Ecole Jacques Lecoq and The Circus Space. In San Francisco, she developed Circo Zero with Keith Hennessy, starred in the New Pickle Circus, and worked with a variety of Bay Area companies including The Medea Project, Epiphany Productions, and Zaccho Dance Theatre. Susan has toured Europe with the Caravan Stage Company, the Eastern seaboard of the US with the UniverSoul Circus, as well as performing in Osaka for Universal Studios Japan. In addition to choreographing and creating original work, Susan teaches aerial arts at the San Francisco Circus Center and New York Circus Arts.

More Info

Link

http://www.alicepresents.org

Call

510 762-2220

Call

(800) 838-3006 (Box Office)