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Home , Hal Willner, Light Sleeper, No Hands, Robert Wilson (director), The Black Rider, Woyzeck (musical)

Friday, November 21, 2014, 8pm Saturday, November 22, 2014, 8pm Sunday, November 23, 2014, 3pm Zellerbach Hall

Robert Wilson h c s n a J e i c u L

The Old Woman

A Baryshnikov Productions, Change Performing Arts, and The Watermill Center project.

Commissioned and co-produced by Manchester International Festival , Spoleto Festival dei 2Mondi, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris/Festival d’Automne à Paris, and deSingel Antwerp.

Executive Producer Change Performing Arts, in collaboration with Baryshnikov Productions and Centro Ricerche Teatrali.

Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

CAL PERFORMANCES 19 PROGRAM

The Old Woman

Robert Wilson Direction, Set Design, Lighting Concept

with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Willem Dafoe

by Daniil Kharms

Adaptation Darryl Pinckney Music Hal Willner Costume Design Jacques Reynaud Light Design A. J. Weissbard Associate Set Design Annick Lavallée-Benny Sound Design Marco Olivieri Assistant Directors Charles Otte, Lynsey Peisinger Dramaturg Tilman Hecker Stage Manager Jane Rosenbaum Technical Director Reinhard Bichsel Lighting Supervisor Marcello Lumaca Stage Technician Chris McKee Follow Spots Roberto Gelmetti, Elisa Bortolussi Assistant Costume Design Micol Notarianni Assistant Stage Manager Louise Martin Makeup Marielle Loubet, Natalia Leniartek Company Manager Simona Fremder

MUSIC CREDITS

“Bye Bye Blues” by Frederick Hamm, David Bennett, Bert Lorn, and Chauncey Gray by permission of Bourne Co.

“Good Night Sweetheart” by Jimmy Campbell, Ray Noble, and Reginald Connelly by permission of Music Sales Corporation.

“Here’s Charlie (Charlie Bratton)” by Benny Davis, Jackie Gleason, and Murray Mencher by permission of Len Freedman Music and Guild of America.

“I’ll Be Home” by by permission of Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

“Innocent When You Dream” by Thomas A. Waits by permission of Jalma Music.

“Rosie,” Traditional.

Spiegel im Spiegel for Violin by Arvo Pärt by permission of Schott Music Corporation.

“Tiger Rag” with music by James Larocca. Eddie Edwards, Henry Ragas, Tony Sbarbaro, and Larry Shields and lyrics by Harry DeCosta by permission of EMI Entertainment World, Inc.

Music clearance by BZ/Rights and Permissions, Inc.

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

For many years, Misha and I had discussed creating a work together. One of our ideas was to use a Russian text. Several years ago, Wolfgang Wiens suggested The Old Woman . Although we were familiar with other works

h by Kharms, neither of us had heard of this c s n

a story, but once we read it we liked the idea. J

e i

c I thought that Darryl Pinckney would be u L the perfect person to adapt it. Darryl has been EVELOPED WITH , and starring, legendary a friend and artistic collaborator for many Ddancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov, years, and he knows my work very well. He and co-starring world-renowned actor agreed to do it and had a first translation and Willem Dafoe, The Old Woman is an adapta - dramatic text adaptation in a little more than tion of the work of the same name by Russian three months. Change Performing Arts and author Daniil Kharms. Baryshnikov Productions agreed to produce Born in St. Petersburg in 1905, Kharms suf - the work, and the Manchester International fered through Stalinist rule for much of his Festival commissioned and produced it, part - life; eventually, he was arrested, imprisoned, nering with the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the and killed by Soviet soldiers in the Gulags at Théâtre de la Ville/Festival d’Automne in age 36. The shortness of Kharms’s life paral - Paris, and deSingel in Antwerp. lels the brevity of his absurdist writings, some In summ er 2012, we h eld a workshop at the of which stretch to little more than a para - Watermilll Center for a few days to find a di - graph. One exception is The Old Woman , an rection for the production and to help Misha obscure, brilliant, and slyly political novella and I understand each other’s ways of work - written in th e 1930s. ing. Then, in spring this year, I started re - Carrying echoes of Beckett and Ionesco in hearsals in Spoleto with almost no idea of its deadpan narrative, The Old Woman is per - what to do: I hadn’t decided who would speak haps the finest work by one of the great avant- which text, or even what the stage would look garde Russian authors, following the story of like. I began to shape the piece in terms of a struggling writer who cannot find peace light, scenery, and movement, and slowly with himself. began to add text. I worked on all the elements at the same time. An old lady is standing in the courtyard I generally start with the light first and then and holding a wall clock in her hands. I the movement, adding text and audio ele - walk past the old woman, stop, and ask ments later. I sketch a scene, then go to the her, “What time is it?” next scene and see what differs from what has gone before. Eventually, once I have a draft for “You look,” the old woman says to me. the whole work, I go back to the start, and begin to make alterations and add more I look and see that the clock has no hands. detail. Finally, I work with makeup and cos - tumes and define the time-space construc - “There are no hands,” I say. tion. I often move things around until the parts seem to support or complement one The old woman looks at the face of another. Since there is no single narrative, the clock and says to me, “It’s a quarter one is allowed a certain freedom to construct to three.” and deconstruct. * * * I have chosen the two actors, Misha and Willem, because I think they complement

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM NOTES each other with their different personas. I I heard Bob Wilson say recently that one think of the two as one: the writer. And during thing he’s learned through the years is “to the course of the play, they change: A becomes enter the rehearsal room with no ideas, with B and B becomes A, because A and B are one a blank book.” whole, not two. Rather than trying to make what’s in his Robert Wilson head, he prefers to see what is in the room, hear the text, listen to the music, play with the * * * space light and scenic elements, create a struc - ture for the actors. Working with Bob Wilson isn’t an easy task. As refined as his theater is, there is nothing The rehearsal process is intense and demand - pedantic about his approach. ing and requires a versatility I’ve never had to When Bob proposed The Old Woman , I access before. One minute you’re a silent knew I would be partnering with the leg - movie actor, the next a vaudevillian, the next endary Mikhail Baryshnikov (whom I had ad - a noh theater performer. This is in addition to mired since I was a young man), but it wasn’t Bob’s precise staging and lighting. It’s restric - at all clear which character I would play. The tive in a way, but ultimately he gives his per - text was divided simply between two per - formers freedom to find the extremes he’s formers, “A” and “B.” I asked Bob who was “A” looking for. and who was “B,” and he told me he didn’t Of course, Willem Dafoe, an incredibly know yet. arresting and layered actor, made it easier for In The Life and Death of Marina Abramović , me to decode Bob’s almost painterly approach at the beginning there was a similar ambiguity to the creative process. He has worked with in what my role or function would be. In the Bob before and taught me a lot about a certain end, it was so inspiring, and I loved so much kind of patience. working with Bob, that I was emboldened to I think Daniil Kharms’s The Old Woman is take the leap to work on The Old Woman . a brilliant piece of absurdist literature. In the It’s always mysterious to be part of an orig - hands of Bob Wilson and his talented creative inal work. As Bob says, “If you know what it is, team, along with an extraordinary fellow actor what’s the point of doing it?” (I am the rookie in this mix), all we need is the Willem Dafoe audience, and we’ll see what we have. Mikhail Baryshnikov * * *

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INVISIBLE KHARMS

ANIIL KHARMS was born in St. Petersburg being young pushed away World War I and its Din 1905, the year of the bloody massacre legacy of carnage. The absurdist mood saved in front of the Winter Palace, and he died in artists like Kharms from the cynicism that was what was then called Leningrad in 1942, when making the Age desperate for so many the city was under blockade. They say he may across Europe. But, then, the lightness of have died of starvation in his cell. In certain Kharms, his deft, noiseless style, perhaps photographs, he looks like what Mayakovsky came from his inner knowledge about what would have ended up looking like had he not was coming. After all, he had grown up with killed himself. To look at certain photographs Russian history. His father had been a mem - of Kharms, gaunt and wild-eyed, is to re - ber of the People’s Will, the terrorist group member that he had been having a difficult that assassinated Alexander I I in 1883. The time long before he was imprisoned in 1941. imperial government executed thousands of Kharms had been arrested before, in 1931, terrorists in the late 19th and early 20th cen - when Soviet authority criminalized the avant- turies, just as the terrorists executed thou - garde in the arts. Mayakovsky had shot him - sands of imperial officials in the same period. self in 1930, signaling the end of artistic Kharms’s work only seems innocent and experiment under the Revolution. The fol - comic—all those freak accidents and all that lowing year, Pasternak mourned “the black slapstick-like violence. Underneath, he knew velvet of his talent” in Safe Conduct and re - something about the murderous impulse, sud - treated from Stalin on the other end of the den and senseless. His stories and poems are wire. Kharms, too, made his retreat, into chil - not overtly oppositional or even coded dren’s literature, he who is said to have de - protest, but his writing is rather like stalks spised children. The disguise didn’t work; his grown up in the cracks of the sidewalk—there, last decade was harassed. If there was war all in spite of everything, starting with the heav - around him when he died, he also had friends iness of human traffic. His stories are brief, in the besieged city. One of them dragged a often mere paragraphs, and what happens in suitcase of his manuscripts from his apart - them can be nonsense, over and over. ment and kept it hidden until the 1960s. In the Everything about them is improvisational in 1920s, when the civil war ended, Kharms had feeling, random, unreliable, as fragile as life it - been a dandy, a young man of small, rapid self. These works are not necessarily portraits flamboyant acts about town. His presence was of the individual deformed by totalitarian a sort of performance art. Kharms came of age rule. They are not Kafka; they don’t have his in that last moment of cultural freedom, when interest in systems. Instead, they speak of the there was still some optimism about the rev - helplessness of being alive, of the properties olution, because although Bolshevik violence of consciousness, of how the mind goes on had been transformed into state power the thinking and willing and living, even in the commissars hadn’t entirely figured out what middle of nightmare. to do with culture. The sheer high spirits of Darryl Pinckney

CAL PERFORMANCES SYNOPSIS

The Old Woman Scen e 1 Hunger poem

Scene 2 An old woman holds a clock that has no hands. The writer asks for the time. The old woman tells him the time.

Scene 3 The writer meets his friend on the street. He tells him about women falling out of the window.

Scene 4 At home, the writer wants to work on a story. The old woman enters his room and orders him around. She sits in his chair and dies.

Scene 5 Dream poem 1

Scene 6 The writer meets a young lady at the bakery. They decide to go to his place.

Scene 7 At his friend’s house, the writer tells him about the young lady. He could n’t bring her home because he remembered he had a dead old woman in his room.

Scene 8 The writer comes home to find the old woman crawling on the floor. He wants to kill her with a mallet.

Scene 9 Dream poem 2

Scene 10 A nightmare about the murder of the old woman. The writer puts the old woman into a suitcase.

Scene 11 The writer gets on a train with the suitcase. The suitcase disappears.

Scene 12 An old woman holds a clock that has no hands. The writer asks for the time. The old woman tells him the time.

Epilogue

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

CREATIVE TEAM After Einstein , Mr. Wilson increasingly worked with European theaters and houses. His The Times has described Robert Wilson productions were frequently featured at the as “a towering figure in the world of experimental Festival d’Automne in Paris, the Schaubühne in theater and an explorer in the uses of time and Berlin, the Thalia Theater in , and the space on stage. Transcending theatrical convention, Salzburg Festival, among many other venues. At he draws in other performance and graphic arts, the Schaubühne, he created Death Destruction & which coalesce into an integrated tapestry of im - Detroit (1979 ) and Death Destruction & Detroit II ages and sounds.” has said of (1987 ); and at the Thalia he presented four Mr. Wilson’s work, “it has the signature of a major groundbreaking musical works, artistic creation. I can’t think of any body of work as (1991 ), Alice (1992), Time Rocker (1996 ), and large or as influential.” POEtry (2000 ). Bo rn in Waco, Texas, Mr. Wilson was edu - In the early 1980s , Mr. Wilson developed what cated at the University of Texas and ’s still stands as his most ambitious project: the , where he took an interest in ar - multinational epic the CIVIL warS: a tree is best chitecture and design. He studied painting with measured when it is down . Created in collabora - George McNeil in Paris and later worked with tion with an international group of artists, the architect Paolo Solari in Arizona. Moving Mr. Wilson planned this opera as the centerpiece to in the mid-1960s, Mr. Wilson of the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles. found himself drawn to the work of pioneering Although the full epic was never seen in its en - choreographers , Merce tirety, individual parts have been produced in the Cunningham, and , among United States, Europe, and Japan. others artists. By 1968, he had gathered a group Mr. Wilson has designed and directed at of artists known as the Byrd Hoffman School in Milan, the in New of Byrds, and together they worked and per - York, Opéra Bastille in Paris, the , the formed in a loft building at 147 Spring Street in Hamburg State Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, lower Manhattan. Houston Grand Opera, and the Moscow Bolshoi, In 1969, two of Mr. Wil son’s major productions among others. His productions include Salome appeared in New York City: The King of Spain at the (Milan, 1987 ), (Hamburg, 1991 ), The Anderson Theater, and The Life and Times of Magic Flute (Paris, 1991 ), (Zürich, Sigmund Freud , which premièred at the Brooklyn 1991 ), Madame Butterfly (Paris, 1993 ), Bluebeard’s Academy of Music . In 1971, Mr. Wilson received in - Castle and Erwartung (Salzburg, 1995 ), Four Saints ternational acclaim for Deafman Glance (Le Regard in Three Acts (Houston, 1996 ), Pelléas et Mélisande du Sourd ), a silent opera created in collaboration (Salzburg, 1997 ), Orpheus and Eurydice (Paris, with Raymond Andrews, a talented deaf-mute boy 1999 ), (Zürich, 2000– whom Mr. Wilson had adopted. After the Paris pre - 2002 ), (Brussels, 2002 ), Janáček’s Osud mière of the work, French Surrealist Louis Aragon (Prague, 2002 ), Die Frau ohne Schatten (Paris, wrote of Mr. Wilson, “he is what we, from whom 2003 ), Gluck’s (Brussels, 2004 ), Bach’s Surrealism was born, dreamed would come after us Johannes-Passion (Paris, 2007 ), Brecht and Weill’s and go beyond us.” Mr. Wilson then went on to pres - (B erlin, 2007), Gounod’s ent numerous acclaimed productions throughout (Warsaw, 2008), Der Freischütz (Baden- the world, including the seven-day play KA Baden, 2009), Káťa Kabanová (Prague, 2010), MOUNTain and GUARDenia Terrace in Shiraz, Norma (Zürich, 2011), Verdi’s Macbeth (Bologna (1972 ); The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin , a 12-hour and São Paulo, 2013), as well as a Monteverdi tril - silent opera performed in New York, Europe, and ogy consisting of L’Orfeo (2009), Il Ritorno d’Ulisse South America ( 1973 ); and A Letter for Queen in Patria (2011), and L’incoronazione di Poppea Victoria in Europe and New York ( 1974–1975). In (2014) in Milan and Paris. 1976, Mr. Wilson joined with composer He has presented innovative adaptations of in writing the landmark work , works by such writers as ( Orlando , which was presented at the Festival d’Avignon and at Berlin, 1989 ), ( When We Dead New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, and has Awaken , Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991 ; Lady since been revived in three world tours, in 1984, from the Sea , Ferrara, 1998 ; , Oslo, 2005 ), 1992, and 2012–2014. ( Lights the Lights ,

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Berlin, 1992 ; Saints and Singing , Berlin, 1997), (1987 ); a Bessie Award for The Knee Plays (1987); Wole Soyinka ( Scourge of Hyacinths , Geneva, two Italian Premio Ubu awards for Alice and 1999 ), Georg Büchner ( , Copenhagen, Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1994 and 1992); 2000), ( Les Fables de la the Golden Lion Award for Sculpture of the Fontaine , Paris, 2004 ), ( Happy for Memory/Loss (1993 ); the Days , Luxembourg, 2008 ; Krapp’s Last Tape , German Theater Critics Award for The Black Spoleto, 2009 ), and Homer ( Odyssey , Athens, Rider (1990 ); a Reumert Prize for Woyzeck 2012 ). His longstanding love of Indonesia led (2001); the Smithsonian National Design Award Mr. Wilson to direct I La Galigo (Singapore, 2004 ), (2001); the French Theater Critics Award for A a play based on a sacred text from Southwest Dream Play (2002 ); an International Design and Sulawesi. He later directed : in the blink of the Communication Award for Mind Gap (2012 ); and eye (Athens, 2007 ), based on Sufi mystic poetry. an Olivier Award for Einstein on the Beach as “Best Mr. Wilson has collaborated with a number of New Opera Production” ( 2013 ). internationally acclaimed artists, writers, and mu - Mr. Wilson was honored with several lifetime sicians. He worked closely with the late German achievement awards, including the Dorothy and playwright Heiner Müller on the Cologne section Lillian Gish Prize (1996), Premio Europa for of the CIVIL warS (1984 ), Hamletmachine (1986 ), Theater (Taormina, 1997), Tadeusz Kantor Prize and Quartet (1987 ). With singer- Tom (Kraków, 1997), Pushkin Prize (Moscow, 1999), Waits, Mr. Wilson created the highly successful Rosa d’Oro (Palermo, 2007), Prix Italian (2012), production The Black Rider: The Casting of the and Fendi Foundation Award (2012). He has Magic Bullets (Hamburg, 1991 ), as well as Alice been named a “Lion of the Performing Arts” by (Hamburg, 1992 ) and Woyzeck (Copenhagen, the New York Public Library (1989) and “Texas 2000 ). With , Mr. Wilson staged The Artist of the Year” by the Art League of Houston Knee Plays from the CIVIL warS (1984 ), and later (1995), received an Institute Honor from the The Forest , in honor of the 750th anniversary of American Institute of Architects in New York the City of Berlin (1988). He worked with poet City (1988) and the Harvard Excellence in on Cosmopolitan Greetings (1988) Design Award (1998), and was elected to the and with performance artist on American Academy of Arts and Letters (2000). Mr. Wilson’s adaptation of ’s France pronounced him Commandeur des Arts (1986). Writer Susan Sontag joined Mr. Wilson et des Lettres in 2003. in creating Alice in Bed (1993 ), and together they Mr. Wilson holds honorary doctoral degrees developed a new work, Lady from the Sea (1998 ), from the Pratt Institute (1991), California based on Ibsen’s classic and since revived in many College of Arts and Crafts (1994), University of different languages. Mr. Wilson’s long association Toro nto (2005), University of Bucharest (2008), with noted opera singer Jessye Norman began American University of Paris (2010), and City with Great Day in the Morning (Paris, 1982 ) and University of New York (2013). In 1997, April 18 continued with a stage and video work based on was declared “Robert Wilson Day” by the legisla - Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise in 2001 . ture in the State of Texas. Other important collaborations include The Since the early 1990s, Mr. Wilson has held of St. Anthony (Duisburg, 2003 ) and workshops for students and experienced creative Zinnias (Montclair, 2013 ) with Dr. Bernice professionals from around the world at the Johnson Reagon; Büchner’s Leonce and Lena International Summer Arts Program at The (Berlin, 2003 ) with Herbert Grönemeyer; The Life Watermill Center in Eastern —an in - and Death of Marina Abramovi ć (Manchester, terdisciplinary laboratory for the Arts and 2011 ) with Antony; and Peter Pan (Berlin, 2013 ) Humanities. Following a successful capital cam - with CocoRosie. paign, construction of a permanent facility was A recipient of two Rockefeller and two completed in summer 2006, enabling the Byrd Guggenheim fellowships, Mr. Wilson has been Hoffman Water Mill Foundation to offer residen - honored with numerous awards for excellence. In cies, lectures, performances, and educational pro - 1986 , Mr. Wilson was the sole nominee for the grams throughout the year. Pulitzer Prize in Drama for the CIVIL warS . He re - ceived two Hewes Design Awards for A Letter to A native of Riga, Latvia, Mikhail Baryshnikov was Queen Victoria (1975 ) and the CIVIL warS Act V born i n 1948 and began studying ballet at the age

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS of nine. As a teenager he moved to Leningrad, Patient , Once Upon a Time in Mexico , Clear and where he entered the Vaganova Choreographic Present Danger , White Sands , Mississippi Burning , School, graduating from student to principal Streets of Fire , American Dreamz ) and in inde - dancer of the Kirov Ballet in 1969. pendent cinema in the United States ( The In 1974, he left the Soviet Union to dance with Clearing , Animal Factory , The Boondock Saints , major ballet companies around the world, in - American Psycho ) and abroad (Theo cluding the New York City Ballet, where he Angelopoulos’s The Dust of Time , Yim Ho’s worked with George Balanchine and Jerome Pavilion of Women , Yurek Bogayevicz’s Edges of Robbins. In 1980, he began a ten-year tenure the Lord , ’s Faraway, So Close , as Artistic Director of American Ballet Nobuhiro Suwa’s segment of Paris, je t’aime , , nurturing a new generation of dancers Brian Gilbert’s Tom & Viv , Christian Carion’s and choreographers. From 1990 to 2002, Farewell , Mr. Bean’s Holiday , the Spierig brothers’ Mr. Baryshnikov was directo r and principal Daybreakers , Daniel Nettheim’s The Hunter ). dancer with the White Oak Dance Project, which He has chosen projects for diversity of roles and he co-founded with choreographer Mark Morris. opportunities to work with strong directors. He White Oak was born of Mr. Baryshnikov’s desire has worked in the films of Wes Anderson ( The Life “to be a driving force in the production of art,” Aquatic , Fantastic Mr. Fox , Grand Budapest Hotel ), and, indeed, it ex panded the repertoire and visibil - ( The Aviator , The Last Temptation ity of American modern dance. In theater, he has per - of Christ ), Andrew Stanton ( Finding Nemo , John formed on and off Broadway in Metam orphosis Carter ), Spike Lee ( Inside Man ), Julian Schnabel (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award), (Miral , Basquiat ), ( Auto Focus , Forbidden Christmas, or the Doctor and the Affliction , Light Sleeper , , Adam Patient ( Festival), Beckett Shorts Resurrected ), David Cronenberg ( Existenz ), Abel (New York Theatre Workshop), In Paris (Broad Ferrara ( 444 : The Last Day on Earth , Go Go Tales , Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Spoleto New Rose Hotel ), David Lynch ( Wild at Heart ), Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, international William Friedkin ( To Live and Die in L.A. ), tour), and Man in a Case (U.S. tour). His work in Werner Herzog ( My Son, My Son, What Have Ye film and television includes The Turning Point Done ), Oliver Stone ( Born on the Fourth of July , (Academy Award nomination), White Nights , Platoon ), Giada Colagrande ( A Woman , Before It and various television shows, including three Had a Name ), and Lars von Trier ( Antichrist , Emmy Award-winning specials. Manderlay , Nymphomaniac ). In 2005, he opened the Baryshnikov Arts Mr. Dafoe was nominated twice for the Center (BAC), a creative home for local and in - Academy Award ( Platoon , Shadow of the Vampire ) ternational artists to develop and present work. and once for the Golden Globe. Among other BAC also presents contemporary, innovative work nominations and awards, he received a Los by artists from the worlds of dance, theater, music, Angeles Film Critics Award and an Independent and film at low or no cost to the public. Under his Spirit Award. His recent films include Josh leadership as Artistic Director, BAC programs Boones’s The Fault in Our Stars , Anton Corbjin’s A serve approximately 500 artists and more than Most Wanted Man , Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini , and 20,000 audience members each year. Among David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s John Wick . Mr. Baryshnikov’s many awards are the Kennedy Mr. Dafoe is one of the original members of Center Honors, the National Medal of Honor, the the Wooster Group, the New York-based exper - Commonwealth Award, the Chubb Fellow ship, imental theater collective. He created and per - the Jerome Robbins Award, and the 2012 Vilcek formed in all of the group’s work from 1977 Award. In 2010, he was given the rank of Officer through 2005, both in the United States and in - of the French Legion of Honor. ternationally. Since then, he worked with in Idiot Savant at New York’s Public In 1979 , Willem Dafoe was given a small role in Theater and, most recently, with Robert Wilson Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate from which he in The Life and Death of Marina Abramović and was fired. His first feature role came shortly after The Old Woman . in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Loveless . From there, he went on to perform in over 90 Darryl Pinckney (writer ) is the author of a novel, films, in Hollywood ( Spider-Man , The English High Cotton , published in 1992 , and, in the Alain

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Locke Lecture Series, Out There: Mavericks of served as Artist in Residence at UCLA Arts at Black Literature (2002 ). A frequent contributor to Royce Hall in the 2 004–2005 season. He has re - The New York Review of Books , he wrote the texts leased one under his own name, Whoops, for Robert Wilson’s productions of The Forest I’m an Indian, which featured audio samples (1988 ) and Time Rocker (1995 ) and made the from 78rpm records from the early and mid-20th adaptation for Mr. Wilson’s production of Virginia ce ntury. Mr. Willner also co-hosted New York Woolf’s Orlando (1989). In 1994 he received the Shuffle , a weekly program with on Harold D. Vursell Award for Distinguished Prose Sirius Radio/XM. from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2013 an Award in Literature, also from the Jacques Reynaud (costumes ) is a French-Italian Academy. He is at work on a history of African- costume designer. Since graduating from New American literature in the 20 th century. York University, he has worked in Europe and in the United States, at the Teatro alla Scala in Hal Willner (music ) is a music producer work - Milano, the Salzburg Festival, the Berliner ing in records, films, television, theater and live Ensemble, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lincoln events. He is best known for having conceived Center, Thalia Theater in Hamburg, La Monnaie and produced many concept beginning Opera in Brussels, and many other venues. His with Amarcord in 1981 and his more début as a costume designer was in 1993 in Peer than three-decade-long stint providing “sketch Gynt directed by Luca Ronconi with whom he music adaptations” for . The also collaborated in 2001 at Nuovo Piccolo Old Woman is the sixth project on which Teatro in Milan. Mr. Reynaud has collaborated Mr. Willner has collaborated with Robert Wilson with Robert Wilson on numerous productions as music adaptor and producer, the others being including Leonce and Lena , The Winter’s Tale , A Night at Koi Pond (Nagoya, Japan), The White Shakespeare’s Sonnets , Lulu , Peter Pan at the Town (Copenhagen), Lulu (Berlin), Homer’s The , L’Orfeo and Il Ritorno di Odyssey (Athens), and The 30th Anniversary of Ulisse in Patria at Teatro all Scala, and The Life Solidarity Celebration (Gdansk, Poland). and Death of Marina Abramović at MIF 2011 . Mr. Willner’s multi-artist tribute records in - clude That’s The Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Based in Rome, American lighting designer A. J. (1984 ), Lost in the Stars: The Weissbard (lighting designer ) has worked world - Music of (1985 ), Stay Awake: Various wide designing for theater, video, exhibition, Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney permanent architectural installation, and special Films (1988 ), Weird Nightmare: Meditations on events. His collaborations include projects with Mingus (1992 ), Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Robert Wilson, Peter Stein, Luca Ronconi, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (2006 ), and Son of Daniele Abbado, Bernard Sobel, Peter Rogue’s Gallery (2013 ). Greenaway, William Kentridge, Fabrizio Plessi, Mr. Willner’s film work as music producer, su - Giorgio Armani, Pierluigi Cerri, Richard pervisor, and composer include Robert Frank and Gluckman, Matteo Thun, Fabio Novembre, Rudy Wurlitzer’s Candy Mountain , Robert Shirin Neshat, David Cronenberg, and the Altman’s Short Cuts and Kansas City , Greg Ford’s Martha Graham Dance Company. His work has Night of the Living Duck , ’s Finding been seen presented in major opera houses, fes - Forrester , Wim Wenders’s Million Dollar Hotel , tivals, theaters, and other sites in more than 40 Abel Ferrara’s Chelsea on the Rocks , Martin countries, including the , Théâtre Scorsese’s , ’s du Châtelet, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro San Carlo, Casa de Mi Padre , Adam McKay’s Talledega Nights , in Oman, Lincoln Center, and John Hillcoat’s Lawless . BAM, the Guggenheim in New York and Bilbao, In addition, Mr. Willner has produced his own Venice Biennale, and Aichi World Expo. He was concept shows at the Sydney Opera House, recently awarded the first IFSArts award for London’s Royal Festival Hall and Barbican lighting design. Centre, Arts at St. Ann’s, Celebrate Brooklyn, Central Park Summerstage, Poetry Project at Annick Lavallée-Benny (associate set designer ) St. Mark’s, Issue Project Room, Carnegie Hall, was born in Québec, where she first studied Lincoln Center, and elsewhere. Mr. Willner also set and costume design. After a few years of

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS practice in Montréal, she engaged into contem - Threepenny Opera , The Dead , Goose and Tomtom, porary performance making at the Norwegian La Belle et la Bête, and new plays by Francis Theatre Academy, where she completed a degree Cowhig, Kimber Lee, Steven Haworth, Rick in scenography. Pagano, Steven Dietz, and John Bishop. Mr. Otte Ms. Lavallée-Benny was awarded the Gold has worked on numerous productions assisting Medal for Most Promising Talent at the Prague Robert Wilson, including The Knee Plays , The Quadrennial 2011 in recognition of a site specific Golden Windows , Monsters of Grace , and most large scale installation project. Now alternating recently as Directing Associate for the world tour basis between Montréal and Berlin, she works as of Einstein on the Beach . He is honored to be a freelancer at the meeting point of architecture, working with the amazing artists involved with visual arts, and theater. The Old Woman . He plays the violin and is mar - She has collaborated on several productions ried to Christine Sang. with Robert Wilson in recent years, including the Monteverdi cycle at La Scala and Opéra National Lynsey Peisinger (assistant director ) is a Paris- de Paris, Verdi’s Macbeth in S ão Paolo and based choreographer and performer. She has cast Bologna, and The Life and Death of Marina and trained performers for Marina Abramović in Abramović in New York. Moscow, Los Angeles, and Basel, and she helps Ms. Abramović coordinate and facilitate the Sound designer and composer Marco Olivieri Abramović Method. She has worked on The Life (sound design ) has collaborated with many musi - and Death of Marina Abramović and Zinnias: The cians and artists for both the live stage and studio Life of Clementine Hunter , both directed by recordings. He has worked with Patti Smith, Lou Robert Wilson, as prompter and assistant direc - Reed, Goran Bregović, Modena City Ramblers, tor respectively. She presented performance Noa, Eugenio Finardi, and Elio e le Storie Tese, works at Mr. Wilson’s second Annual Berlin among others. In theater he has collaborated in Benefit (2011), Hyeres Fashion and Photography several multimedia projects with such artists as Festival (2012), and Kunstfest Weimar (2012). Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Eimuntas Nekrosius, She received her M .F.A. in choreography from Pippo Delbono, Alvis Hermanis, Cesare Lievi, the Dance Conservatory at Purchase College. Roberto Andò, and Elio De Capitani. Tilman Hecker (dramaturg ) was born in Charles Otte (assistant director ) is a multimedia di - Karlsburg, Germany, in 1980 and studied archi - rector and designer whose work crosses multiple tecture and scenography in Berlin and Paris. platforms. He is currently a senior creative director During his studies he started working with Robert with Thinkwell Group in Los Angeles. An M.F.A. Wilson and Achim Freyer as assistant director and graduate of U.S.C. film school, he received the John collaborator. His recent work with Mr. Wilson in - Huston award for directing excellence and recently cludes The Odyssey at the National Theatre of founded the integrated media design program for Greece and Lecture on Nothing at the Ruhtriennale theater at the University of Texas at Austin. His Festival. Mr. Hecker made his directorial d ébut productions have been seen at BAM, Lincoln with the Mozart opera project Mandy’s Baby at Center, Seville Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Carnegie Berlin’s Radial System V in July 2009 . His theater Hall, Ohio Theatre, the Sundance Institute, directing credits include Narcissus and Echo by Jay Odyssey Theatre, Open Fist Theatre, Stella Adler Schwartz (Salzburg State Theater and Musicadhoy Theatre, A &E TV, HDTV, and Universal Studios Festival, Madrid), La Finta Giardiniera by Mozart Hollywood, and can currently be seen at the (Wuppertal Opera), The Masque of Alfred by Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, the Texas Thomas Arne (Pocket Opera Company State History Museum, Universal Studios Nuremberg), Songbooks by Cage (Berlin State Singapore, Lotte World, the Louisiana State Capitol Opera Werkstatt), and The Secret Marriage by Museum, and elsewhere. Mr. Otte produced the Cimarosa (Nordhausen opera). In 2014 , he di - CD-ROM game Monty Python and the Quest for rected a new work for the Tischlerei Deutsche the Holy Grail . Select theater productions include Oper Berlin, based on texts of Jean Genet com - Bulgakov’s Flight , This Is a Test , Travesties , The posed by Birke Berteilsmeier.

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jane Rosenbaum (stage manager ) is a freelance Baryshnikov Productions is designed to bring stage manager who has worked with Mr. Wilson the distinctive voices of innovative directors, cho - on Snow on the Mesa , The Life and Death of reographers, and artists to the world’s most well Marina Abramović , Einstein on the Beach , and respected stages. Under this umbrella, Zinnias: The Life of Clementine Hunter . Baryshnikov Productions has produced and Previously she served as production manager for toured the White Oak Dance Project (1990– the Martha Graham Dance Company and Island 2002), Forbidden Christmas, or The Doctor Moving Company. She received her M.F.A. in and the Patient (2004–2006 ), Beckett Shorts theater practice from the University of Exeter. (2007), In Paris (2010–2012 ), and Man in a Case (2013 –2014 ). Reinhard Bichsel (technical director )’s collabo - rations with Robert Wilson include The Knee Théâtre de la Ville-Paris is dedicated to the cul - Plays , “America” from The CIVIL warS , The tures of the world and its artistic achievements Forest by Mr. Wilson and David Byrne, in theater, dance, and music. Under the direction Persephone with music by Philip Glass, Relative of Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota since 2008, it has Lights , Three Sisters at Stockholm City Theatre, developed a wide array of programs for young Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape , and Shakespeare’s people, conceived a new festival (Chantiers Sonnets , The Threepenny Opera , and Lulu with d’Europe) dedicated to young artists, created an the Berliner Ensemble. His production credits international competition (Danse Élargie), and also include Sarafina by Mbongeni Ngema and built a network of local, national, and interna - Magic at 4am with Committed Artists of South tional partnerships. Its goal is to promote the idea Africa. He also works steadily with Groupe F py - of a great popular theater in its multi-artistic and rotechnics and realizes shows worldwide. its international dimension—a great theater of Additional credits include work for Vivace, the world. Leichtsinn and Schwerkraft, Trillion Dollar Company Berlin, Tricodex by Philippe Decouflé The Spoleto Festival dei 2Mondi is an annual at Festival La Fête, Bangkok, and technical su - summer music and opera festival held each June pervision for Un Opera du Sahel , commissioned to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by the Prince Claus Fund, Holland. by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958 . It fea - tures a vast array of concerts, opera, dance, COMMISSIONERS AND CO -PRODUCERS drama, visual arts, and roundtable discussions on science. Recently revived by the new artistic Established in 1989 , Change Performing Arts is director Giorgio Ferrara, the Spoleto Festival is an independent production company based in the most prominent Italian summer festival, pro - Milan, and active worldwide in the fields of live ducing and hosting international projects. performance, including theater, dance, opera, traditional performing arts, and classical and At deSingel International Arts Campus, deSingel contemporary music, and in the visual arts, in - Antwerp presents and produces theater, dance, cluding installations, exhibitions, and cultural music, and architecture, and make it available to events. Constantly devoting its efforts to creat - a broad, art-loving public. As a contemporary ing new relationships with established and and internationally oriented arts campus, young artists, the company explores and en - deSingel is concerned with permanent education courages the way the various arts forms can be in the arts. Its large-scale infrastructure com - combined to create new and original means of prises a medium-size concert hall (966 seats), a expression in realizing provocative events of the large hall for theater and dance (803 seats), an highest quality. exhibition space, a music studio (150 seats), and a theater studio (270 seats).

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