Eyes WHAT REMAINS AND WILL RAWLS Wide Lights Low

at MCA Dec 5–9 Wed–Sun, Notes Program

Stage Hubbard StW 1747 Warehouse MCA

Winter/Spring What Remains running 2018–19 time is 70 minutes with no intermission. SUPPORT FOR THIS WHAT REMAINS CLAUDIA RANKINE AND WILL RAWLS MCA STAGE PROJECT –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH FROM THE CURATOR The MCA Stage staff gives special thanks for AND PERFORMED BY: their advice and support to Lee Bey; What Remains presents contemporary black Naomi Beckwith, the Leslie Cuyjet MCA’s Manilow Senior Jessica Pretty Curator; John Green; life as constructed by the dominant values Jeffreen Hayes and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste Regina Martinez of Tara Aisha Willis of our society—its weight and pain, but also Threewalls; Onye Ozuzu; Amina Ross of the Rebuild Foundation; –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– its joy and light. Nikki Springer; and Lauren Williams. PRODUCTION Generous support for What Remains at the Direction and Will Rawls The work is an opportunity to reflect on how Museum of choreography Contemporary Art we exist with and perceive those around us and Chicago is provided by the Nathan Cummings Text Claudia Rankine Foundation, with the how we, in turn, might be perceived. What support and encouragement of Jane Creative consultation John Lucas new information is gleaned with a simple shift Saks. Lead support for the Production design David Szlasa in perspective? Curator and performer Tara 2018–19 season of MCA Stage is provided by Aisha Willis has described the repetitive deep Elizabeth A. Liebman. Costume design Eleanor O’Connell

Generous support is lunging in What Remains as an embodied provided by Lois and Sound design Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste Steve Eisen and The moment where such a shift might be possible: Eisen Family Foundation, Ginger Music Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste Farley and Bob Shapiro, is the lunge the result of collapsing under a the Martha Struthers with Will Rawls Farley and Donald C. great burden, or is it the starting place from where Farley Jr. Family Foundation, Susan Producer Live Arts Bard Manning and Doug the performer might take off in a sprint? Doetsch, Ock Ju Noh, Sharon and Lee Oberlander, Maya Polsky and Nicholas Bridon, Carol Prins and The performance asks how we might come to John Hart/The Jessica Fund, and Ellen Stone see ourselves, and each other, more fully as Belic.

Additional support for humans. How might we abandon assumptions MCA Stage is provided by Ms. Shawn M. that hinder the communication of our truths? Donnelley and Dr. Christopher M. Kelly, Nicholas and Nancy How can we learn to see, and see differently? Giampietro, Carol Honigberg, Cynthia Hunt and Philip Rudolph, Anne L. Kaplan, Anne and John Situated in a corner of the MCA Warehouse and Kern, and D. Elizabeth Price and Lou Yecies. framed by the backdrop of Chicago’s gleaming Dec 5–9 Wed–Sun, Notes Program

The MCA is a proud member of the skyline, Claudia Rankine, Will Rawls, and the cast Museums in the Park and receives major of What Remains do not allow us to forget the support from the Chicago Park District. pain or darkness of their world, but they do share their light—and for that, I am hopeful.

Laura Paige Kyber Hubbard StW 1747 Warehouse MCA ABOUT THE MCA WAREHOUSE –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Curatorial Assistant, Performance Many museums, including the MCA, cannot store all of their collection works on-site due to space limitations. The MCA Warehouse is designed in part to house and protect a portion of the more than 2,500 artworks in our permanent collection while The performance was curated by Associate Curator of Performance Tara Aisha they are not on rotating display at the museum. Willis, who has invited Curatorial Assistant Laura Paige Kyber to write this note. SUPPORT FOR THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE WORK RELATED PROGRAMS What Remains was commissioned, ————————————————————————————————————— developed, and “In making What Remains, we are trying to premiered by Live Arts POST-SHOW TALK Bard, the commissioning and residency program imagine the state of being both living and Fri, Dec 7, immediately following the performance of The Richard B. Fisher Center for the already slated for death as a habitable place, Performing Arts at . What Remains The audience is invited for a conversation with Will Rawls was developed with a vast void or tundra where we use our additional and the performance cast moderated by MCA Manilow commissioning support voices and bodies to call ourselves into existence. from the French Senior Curator Naomi Beckwith. Institute Alliance Française’s (FIAF) It may be the ‘already-dead’ space, but it is Crossing the Line Festival, the American ours, or at least a space where we are already ————————————————————————————————————— Repertory Theater at Harvard University, Yale MCA TALK: CLAUDIA RANKINE WITH WILL RAWLS Repertory Theater, and accustomed to its particular discomforts. Summer Stages Dance Tue, Dec 4 at ICA/Boston. What does it mean for us to welcome an Rehearsal space support was provided by Gibney Dance. What audience into our space?” The MCA’s Learning and Public Programs department hosted Remains was developed in part during a Claudia Rankine in a public symposium with Will Rawls BRIClab Residency at BRIC (Brooklyn, on Tue, Dec 4. The MCA Talks series highlights cutting-edge New York). Tara Aisha Willis, thinking and contemporary art practices across disciplines. “What Remains: Reflections on Blackness, ————————————————————————————————————— Dance, and Curation,” Performa Magazine, GUEST TEACHING AT COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO October 2018 Tue, Nov 6 Through an ongoing partnership with Dr. John Green, Director of the Graduate Program in Theatre at Columbia College Chicago, Will Rawls participated as a guest lecturer in the Department of European Devised Theater. ————————————————————————————————————— THREEWALLS IN-SESSION What Remains is presented in association with Threewalls In-Session 2019, a series of discussions and performances with Chicago-based artists centered on Claudia Rankine’s book-length poem Citizen, which captures the invisibility and hypervisibility of black Americans. During his November 2018 visit to Chicago, Will Rawls met with several local artists associated with the Threewalls Research and Development Lab Outside the Walls program.

ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCE ————————————————————————————————————— Fri, Dec 7 ASL Interpretation by Veramarie Baldoza and Julikka LeChe Audio Description by Victor Cole ABOUT THE ARTISTS

CLAUDIA RANKINE (TEXT) is the 2015 Foundation for Contemporary author of five collections of poetry, Arts Grant. He has held teaching including Citizen: An American Lyric fellowships at Wesleyan University and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely, two and and continues plays including The Provenance of to lecture widely in university and Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue, festival contexts. and video collaborations, and is the editor of several anthologies, JOHN LUCAS (CREATIVE including The Racial Imaginary: CONSULTATION) is a documentary Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. photographer and filmmaker Her recent play The White Card working in the humanist tradition. premiered in February 2018 Lucas has directed and produced (ArtsEmerson/American Repertory several cutting-edge multimedia Theater). Among her many awards projects, including a collaborative and honors, Rankine is the recipient series of video essays with poet of the Bobbitt National Prize for Claudia Rankine entitled Situations. Poetry, the Poets & Writers Jackson In 2014 he completed his first Poetry Prize, and fellowships from feature-length documentary film, the Guggenheim Foundation, the The Cooler Bandits, awarded “Best Lannan Foundation, the MacArthur Documentary” at the 2014 Harlem Foundation, United States Artists, International Film Festival. His work and the National Endowment of has been exhibited in museums and the Arts. She is a chancellor of the galleries including the Brooklyn Academy of American Poets Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum and teaches at as of Art, REDCAT (Los Angeles), OK the Frederick Iseman Professor Harris Works of Art Gallery (New of Poetry. In 2016, she cofounded York), the Smithsonian Institution The Racial Imaginary Institute. (Washington, DC), the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis), La Panadería WILL RAWLS (DIRECTION AND (Mexico City), Aeroplastics CHOREOGRAPHY) is a choreographer, Contemporary (Brussels), and writer, and lifelong performer Fieldgate Gallery (London). based in New York. His practice combines dance with other media DAVID SZLASA (PRODUCTION to investigate the poetics of DESIGN) is a designer and producer blackness, ambiguity, and abstraction. working in performance, dance, video, Rawls has presented his work at The and social practice. Collaborators Chocolate Factory Theater, MoMA include Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Joanna PS1, Performa 15, the Whitney Haigood, Hope Mohr, Sara Shelton Museum of American Art, ImPulsTanz, Mann, Joe Goode, Myra Melford, and the Portland Institute for Boots Riley, Yuri Zhukov, Rennie Contemporary Art. He cocurated the Harris, and Bill Shannon in venues Danspace Project Platform 2016: Lost including the Brooklyn Academy of and Found with Ishmael Houston- Music, the Sydney Opera House, the Jones. Focusing on the Walker Arts Center, the Yerba intergenerational impact of the AIDS Buena Center for the Arts, JazzFest epidemic on dancers, women, and Berlin, and the Harare International people of color, he helped organize Festival of the Arts, Zimbabwe. His performances, reconstructions, own generative works have been discussions, and coedited the called “so timely as to feel timeless” catalogue, Lost and Found: Dance, New by the SF Chronicle and have York, HIV/AIDS, Then and Now. His received an Isadora Duncan Dance other writings have been published Award, Future Aesthetics Award, by Artforum, Triple Canopy, les and a Wallace Alexander Gerbode presses du réel, the Museum of Foundation Special Award in the Modern Art, and the Hammer Arts. Range Studio, a public art Museum. He is recipient of a 2017–18 project, mobile workspace, and Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2017 micro–residency center was deemed Robert Rauschenberg Foundation a Living Innovation Zone by the City Residency, the 2017 Bessie Award of San Francisco in 2015 with major Will Rawls, Claudia Rankine, and John Lucas, What Remains. Photo: © Ian Douglas, courtesy of Live Arts Bard. for Emerging Choreographer, and a funding from the Center for Cultural ACCESSIBILITY Innovation and The Kenneth Rainin Dance and Queer Studies, INFORMATION Foundation. Szlasa has taught design she spends her free time curating Select MCA Stage performances include at Stanford University, Saint Mary’s methodologies for living past open-captioning, College of California, Bard College, survival through being as sign-interpretation, listening devices, or and New York University. unapologetically black as possible. are relaxed sensory. Please call JEREMY TOUSSAINT-BAPTISTE TARA AISHA WILLIS (PERFORMER) 312-397-4010 in (SOUND DESIGN AND PERFORMER) is Associate Curator of Performance advance to reserve seats and is a New York–based artist, composer, at the MCA, having previously inclusive services. and performer considering worked at Movement Research in errant relations that thrive across New York. She is a PhD candidate subjectivities. Toussaint-Baptiste in Performance Studies at NYU and was a 2017 Artist-in-Residence at has held editorial positions at ISSUE Project Room and received a Women & Performance and TDR/The Bessie Award in Outstanding Drama Review and coedited a special Music Composition/Sound Design issue of The Black Scholar with –––––––––––––––––––– in 2018. He has presented visual and Thomas F. DeFrantz. Other writings BUY TICKETS performance work at Performance appear in Movement Research Performance Journal Performa ONLINE Space New York; The Brooklyn ; mcachicago.org/stage Museum; The Kitchen; ISSUE Project Magazine; Dancing Platform Praying BY PHONE Room; The Studio Museum in Grounds: Blackness, Churches, and 312-397-4010 Harlem; the Philadelphia Museum Downtown Dance; and Performance AT THE MCA of Art; FringeArts, Philadelphia; Research. Willis performed in works BOX OFFICE Tanz im August at HAU3, Berlin; and by Kim Brandt and Yanira Castro. 220 E Chicago Ave Stoa Cultural Center, Helsinki, She held a 2018 SET FREE residency Chicago, IL 60611 among others. Toussaint-Baptiste is at Links Hall and dances with Single performance a founding member of the Skeleton Architecture, a Bessie tickets starting at $30; performance collective Wildcat! and Award–winner for Outstanding $10 for students, limited collaborates with performers Performer in 2017. availability. and visual artists including Yanira Groups of ten or more save 20% on full-price Castro/a canary torsi, Tiona Nekkia LIVE ARTS BARD (PRODUCER) tickets; call 312-397-4010. McClodden, Jaamil Olawale The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Kosoko, and André M. Zachery. Performing Arts is a world-class destination for new productions and LESLIE CUYJET (PERFORMER) rediscoveries of music, dance, theater, FREE MUSEUM has been performing and dancing and performance. From its landmark ADMISSION in New York since 2004, working Frank Gehry building, the Fisher WITH TICKET with artists from David Gordon Center provides a home for artists ––––––––––––––––– Present your MCA and Meredith Monk to Niall Jones to create intellectually and socially Stage ticket stub to and Kim Brandt to Anohni and engaged works for local and global receive FREE ADMISSION* and 10% Solange, while holding a long- communities. New multidisciplinary off your purchase at standing performing and touring works are developed year-round the MCA Store.** Or become an MCA history with Jane Comfort & through Live Arts Bard (LAB), the Member and save 15%. Company and Cynthia Oliver Co. Fisher Center’s residency and Ticket stub is valid Dance Theatre. Her choreo- commissioning program. LAB provides during regular hours graphic work has been presented time, space, and funds to professional up to seven days after in New York by La MaMa, Gibney artists to create new work. A program the performance date. Dance, Center for Performance of Bard College, the Fisher Center * Not accepted for special ticketed Research, Movement Research, illustrates Bard’s commitment to exhibitions. AUNTS, and Danspace Draftworks. the performing arts as a cultural and ** Regular price, in-stock merchandise Cuyjet is a 2017–18 Movement educational necessity. Building on only; no other Research Artist-in-Residence. a 150-year history as a competitive discounts apply. and innovative undergraduate JESSICA PRETTY (PERFORMER) institution, Bard enriches culture, is on a quest for pleasure that public life, and democratic discourse. transcends time and the spaces in which she claims to reside. She makes dances, performs, collaborates with other artists (Larissa Velez-Jackson, Leslie Cuyjet, Dianne McIntyre, Cynthia Oliver, Jennifer Monson, and Niall Jones), and teaches dance art. Based in New York after receiving an MFA in Will Rawls, Claudia Rankine, and John Lucas, What Remains. Photo: © Ian Douglas, courtesy of Live Arts Bard. CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES SEASON CALENDAR Michael O’Grady PRITZKER DIRECTOR Madeleine Grynsztejn JAMES W. ALSDORF DATE NIGHT CHIEF CURATOR 2018 Michael Darling Aug 18 Tamar-kali and Damon Locks –––––––––––––––––––– Demon Fruit Blues and PERFORMANCE ASSOCIATE CURATOR Where Future Unfolds Tara Aisha Willis THEATER PRODUCTION MANAGER Richard Norwood Aug 24–25, Chicago Dancemakers Forum CURATORIAL ASSISTANT Aug 31–Sep 1 SHareOUT! Laura Paige Kyber ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Oct 3–4, 6–7 Dorothée Munyaneza/Kadidi Anthony Williams –––––––––––––––––––– MCA TECHNICAL Unwanted PRODUCTION STAFF LIGHTING SUPERVISOR Mike Goebel Nov 2–3 Ishmael Houston-Jones, SOUND ENGINEER Ralph Lemon, and Bebe Miller Mati Johnson ELECTRICIANS Mati Johnson Relations Mat Sharp Jack Rhea Megan Turnquist Matt Bearor Dec 5–9 Claudia Rankine and –––––––––––––––––––– HOUSE MANAGEMENT Will Rawls ASSOCIATES Phill Cabeen Megan Cline What Remains Cameron Heinze Lacey Whittaker –––––––––––––––––––– 2019 BOX OFFICE MANAGER Marisol Escobar. Photo: Herman Hiller. Jan 24–27 Mariano Pensotti Matti Allison ASSISTANT MANAGER Arde brillante en los bosques Phongtorn de la noche (Burning bright Phongluantum COORDINATOR Join us for dinner or drinks before or after the theater at in the forest of the night) Molly Laemle Marisol, named one of the “hottest restaurants in Chicago” VISITOR SERVICES ASSISTANTS by Zagat and one of Vogue's “Six Chicago Restaurants Julia Kriegel You Should Know About Now.” Call 312–799–3599 to make Feb 7–10 Ingri Fiksdal and Caitlin Joseph ASSOCIATES reservations. Jonas Corell Petersen Stephanie Branco Malcolm Evans Graham Feyl STATE Cagla Gillis Peyton Lynch Janelle Miller Georgie Morvis Jill Perez Feb 11–13 Ingri Fiksdal Grace Wellin Lisa West Diorama Lacey Whittaker Program notes compiled by Mar 21–24 Annie Dorsen Laura Paige Kyber. The Great Outdoors RESTAURANT AND BAR 205 E PEARSON ST AT THE MCA CHICAGO, IL 60611 SUPPORT FOR ABOUT ENACT ABOUT MCA STAGE MCA STAGE Lead support for the MCA Stage is supported As an internationally renowned institution devoted to contemporary 2018–19 season of MCA by Enact, a group of culture, the Museum of Stage is provided by MCA donors dedicated to Contemporary Art Chicago presents Elizabeth A. Liebman. supporting the Museum’s the most thought-provoking visual renowned Stage programs. art and performing arts of our time. MCA Stage is a vibrant series presenting theater, dance, and Generous support Join today for opportunities music by leading artists from the is provided by: to meet artists and gain United States and around the behind-the-scenes access world in the MCA’s three-hundred Lois and Steve Eisen alongside MCA curators—all seat Edlis Neeson Theater. and The Eisen Family while providing vital support. MCA Stage’s groundbreaking Foundation performances are an integral part Ginger Farley and Circle Donor membership of the MCA’s artist-activated, audience-engaged programming. Bob Shapiro is required to join Enact. Along with the museum’s exhibitions The Martha Struthers Enact donations begin at and educational initiatives, they Farley and Donald C. $1,000 annually. For more encourage a broad and diverse Farley Jr. Family information on benefits community to experience and discuss Foundation or to join, contact us at the work and ideas of living artists. Susan Manning and [email protected] PARKING Doug Doetsch or 312-397-4044. Validate your ticket at the coat Ock Ju Noh check for $12 parking in the MCA garage (220 E Chicago Ave) and Sharon* and Lee Oberlander The MCA is a proud the Bernardin garage (747 North Maya Polsky and member of the Museums in Wabash). The $12 parking is Nicholas Bridon the Park and receives major limited to six hours on the date of Carol Prins and John Hart/ support from the Chicago performance. The Jessica Fund Park District. LOST AND FOUND Ellen Stone Belic To inquire about a lost item, call the museum at 312-280-2660. FOUNDATION SEASON Unclaimed articles are held for Additional support for SPONSOR thirty days. MCA Stage is provided by: SEATING Please switch off all noisemaking Ms. Shawn M. Donnelley devices while you are in the theater. and Dr. Christopher Patrons are seated at the M. Kelly management’s discretion. Food and Nicholas and Nancy open beverage containers are not Giampietro allowed in the seating area. Carol Honigberg REPRODUCTION Cynthia Hunt and HOTEL SPONSOR Unauthorized recording and Philip Rudolph reproduction of a performance are Anne L. Kaplan prohibited. Anne and John Kern GENERAL INFORMATION D. Elizabeth Price and 312-280-2660 Lou Yecies BOX OFFICE 312-397-4010 *Enact Chair VOLUNTEER FOR PERFORMANCES As of November 2018 312-397-4072 [email protected]

MUSEUM OF 220 E CHICAGO AVE MCASTAGE@ CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO, IL 60611 MCACHICAGO.ORG CHICAGO MCACHICAGO.ORG