October Next Wave Festival Performances at the BAM Fisher

Oct 7—10: Multidisciplinary artist Miranda July makes her Next Wave debut with New Society, a unique experiment in collaboration

Oct 14—17: All Vows is cutting edge cellist Maya Beiser’s sonic exploration of physical and spiritual duality

Oct 21—24: Theater trailblazer Karin Coonrod draws on Queen Elizabeth I’s own writings to create texts&beheadings/ElizabethR

Oct 28—31: Multimedia narrative The Exalted brings together acclaimed poet and playwright Carl Hancock Rux, legendary director Anne Bogart, and vocalist and composer Theo Bleckmann

Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Season Sponsor

BAM Fisher (Fishman Space, 321 Ashland Pl) All tickets: $25

Brooklyn, NY/Sep 1, 2015—BAM Fisher performances as part of the 2015 Next Wave Festival continue in October with an extraordinary slate of productions and artists including multidisciplinary artist and performer Miranda July; cutting edge cellist Maya Beiser; theater trailblazer Karin Coonrod; and a collaboration from -winning poet and playwright Carl Hancock Rux, legendary director Anne Bogart, and Grammy Award- nominated vocalist and composer Theo Bleckmann. Designed as an intimate and flexible performance space for both emerging and established artists, the BAM Fisher became part of the BAM campus in the fall of 2012. All tickets are $25.

New Society New York Premiere Miranda July

BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl Oct 7—10 at 7:30pm Tickets: $25

Miranda July risks all with a unique experiment in collaboration. This hilarious and moving performance artfully blends fiction and real life to create a startling chronicle of time, love, and group faith. For her debut Next Wave engagement July tests the limits of what is possible given two hours and a room full of strangers. Due to the participatory nature of the event, the artist has requested no further descriptive information be disseminated about the engagement.

Miranda July is a filmmaker, artist, and writer. Her most recent work is The First Bad Man, a novel. July’s collection of stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and has been published in 23 countries. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, and The New Yorker; It Chooses You

was her first book of non-fiction. She wrote, directed, and starred in The Future and Me and You and Everyone We Know—winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at Sundance. July’s participatory art works include the website Learning to Love You More (with artist Harrell Fletcher), Eleven Heavy Things (a sculpture garden created for the 2009 Venice Biennale), New Society (a performance), and Somebody (a messaging app.) Raised in Berkeley, CA, July lives in Los Angeles.

For press information contact Adriana Leshko at [email protected] or 718.724.8021

All Vows New York Premiere Maya Beiser

Films by Sound design by Dave Cook Lighting and scenic design by Aaron Copp Projection design by Matthew Houstle

BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl Oct 14–17 at 7:30pm Tickets: $25

“…Beiser knitted pop and overtly spiritual music together—and found a deep, almost devotional thread running through everything she played.” —The Washington Post

With All Vows, cellist Maya Beiser explores the dichotomy between the physical, external world and the landscape of the inner self. This spellbinding production includes Glenn Kotche’s Three Parts Wisdom, David T. Little’s Hellhound, and Mohammed Fairouz’s Kol Nidrei, plus Michael Harrison’s Just Ancient Loops and Michael Gordon’s All Vows (both with film by Bill Morrison) and re-imagined classic rock from Beiser’s latest album, Uncovered.

The program’s first half features bold new renditions (“uncovers”) of well-known and rock songs by Janis Joplin, Howlin’ Wolf, Nirvana, and Led Zeppelin in arrangements by acclaimed composer . Beiser re-contextualizes classic rock through the lens of her cello—along with Jherek Bischoff on electric bass, Zachary Alford on drums, and a light-show spectacle. Alongside the rock and blues masters, Beiser presents original music from Glenn Kotche (Wilco) and David T. Little—composers both deeply influenced by this vernacular.

The second half of All Vows delves into our inherent desire for ritual and meaning with three spiritual works. Kol Nidrei by Arab-American composer Mohammed Fairouz and All Vows by Michael Gordon both take the Jewish Yom Kippur prayer as a compositional starting point. Beiser’s extensive collaboration with filmmaker Bill Morrison is reflected in the program’s final large-scale work, Michael Harrison’s Just Ancient Loops, a visual and musical tapestry (using the “just intonation” tuning) that unveils every aspect of the cello.

Throughout her adventurous career, renowned cellist Maya Beiser has reimagined the concert experience, commissioning and performing hundreds of new works written for her by today’s leading composers. She has collaborated with artists across a range of musical styles, including , , , , and Evan Ziporyn. Her multimedia productions, including World to Come, Almost Human, Provenance, Elsewhere: A CelloOpera, and All Vows, have consistently been chosen for top critics’ “Best of the Year” lists. Beiser was raised in the Galilee Mountains in Israel, surrounded by the music and rituals of Jews, Muslims, and Christians, while studying classical cello repertoire. She is a graduate of and a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Her discography includes eight solo albums and her latest album, Uncovered, topped the charts on both Amazon and iTunes. www.mayabeiser.com

P

For press information contact David Hsieh at [email protected] or 718.636.4129 x5

Viacom is the BAM 2015 Music Sponsor. texts&beheadings/ElizabethR New York Premiere Compagnia de' Colombari Karin Coonrod

Created and directed by Karin Coonrod Dramaturgy and scenic design by John Conklin Music by Gina Leishman Costume design by Oana Botez Lighting design by Peter Ksander Movement by Adrian Silver

BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl Oct 21—Oct 24 at 7:30pm Tickets: $25

Queen Elizabeth I left an indelible mark on history, inspiring a number of artistic works attempting to capture her extravagant iconography. In texts&beheadings/ElizabethR, director Karin Coonrod constructs a full-length theatrical work from Elizabeth’s own writings—letters, speeches, prayers— as well as those of her contemporaries. Four actresses portray the ever-changing spirit of the queen throughout this four-part work which investigates the great monarch’s as writer, director, designer, and actor of her own “performance” of royalty.

Karin Coonrod is a theater maker whose work has been seen and heard across the country and around the world. Coonrod founded two theater companies—Arden Party (1987—97), in downtown New York which re-imagined the classics—and Compagnia de’ Colombari (2004—present), an international company, based in New York, which began a new tradition of theater in Orvieto, Italy when it presented the medieval mystery plays in public spaces and a music-theater piece More or Less I Am (from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself) performed around . Coonrod is known for her Shakespeare productions including her epic Henry VI (1996) and surprising Love’s Labor’s Lost (2011), both at the Public Theater where she was artist-in-residence from 1995—96; King John (2000), Julius Caesar (2003) and Coriolanus (2005), all with Theatre for a New Audience; Othello at Hartford Stage (2005), and most recently, Tempest at La MaMa (2014). Other seminal productions include Roger Vitrac’s Victor or Children Take Over (1996) at the Ohio Theatre, Coonrod’s own creation for the stage of non-dramatic material: Flannery O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge developed at the University of Iowa, Sundance Theatre Lab, and premiered at New York Theatre Workshop (2001), Anne Sexton’s Transformations with Arden Party (1991—95), and a cabaret adaptation of Lorca’s Poeta en Nueva York with flamenco dancer La Conja at New York University (2002). Coonrod is on the faculty at Yale School of Drama (since 2002).

For press information contact [email protected]

The Exalted New York Premiere Written by Carl Hancock Rux Music by Theo Bleckmann Directed by Anne Bogart

Video design by Onome Ekeh Lighting design by Brian H Scott Scenic and costume design by Maureen Freedman

P

BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl Oct 28—Oct 31 at 7:30pm Tickets: $25

The Exalted sheds light on Carl Einstein, a mostly forgotten 20th-century German-Jewish art historian who was one of the first critics to discuss the importance of African art, thus influencing the works of George Grosz, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque. African American writer and performer Carl Hancock Rux discovered his German heritage while researching his family’s genealogy, and with composer and musician Theo Bleckmann, reimagines the atrocities of occupation and the “discovery” of African art by the West in this multimedia narrative directed by Anne Bogart.

Carl Hancock Rux is an American poet, novelist, OBIE award-winning playwright, interdisciplinary performative artist, and recording artist. His albums include Rux Revue (Sony), Apothecary Rx (Giant Step), Good Bread Alley (Thirsty Ear), and Homeostasis (CD Baby). Rux is the author of the OBIE award-winning play Talk, and the critically acclaimed novel Asphalt. His work has been published in numerous journals, anthologies, and magazines including Interview, , A Rude Magazine, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, and American Theatre magazine. Rux will be involved in Steel Hammer (2015 Next Wave), a staged incarnation of ’s oratorio, also directed by Bogart.

Theo Bleckmann is a Grammy-nominated and ECHO award-winning vocalist and composer whose work spans concerts, installations, theater, cabaret, and performance art. For over a decade he has performed with guitarist Ben Monder and in Meredith Monk's ensemble, and is a longtime student and mentee of vocalist and NEA Master Sheila Jordan. He has collaborated with artists such as Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Uri Caine, Julia Wolfe, John Zorn, and the Bang on a Can All-stars, among others. Bleckmann has garnered praise from The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, and the Village Voice. His uniquely flexible and colorful voice has also inspired compositions by, among others, Michael Gordon, , Ikue Mori, Kirk Nurock, Julia Wolfe, and, prominently, Phil Kline, who wrote three major song cycles for Bleckmann: Out Cold/Zippo Songs (2012 Next Wave), and Locus Solus.

Anne Bogart is the artistic director of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a professor at and runs the graduate directing program. Bogart’s works with SITI include Café Variations; Trojan Women (2012 Next Wave); American Document; Antigone; Freshwater; Who Do You Think You Are; Radio Macbeth; Hotel Cassiopeia (2007 Next Wave); Death and the Ploughman; bobrauschenbergamerica (2003 Next Wave); War of the Worlds (2000 Next Wave); Cabin Pressure; Alice’s Adventures; Culture of Desire; Small Lives/Big Dreams; The Medium; Noel Coward’s Hay Fever and Private Lives; August Strindberg’s Miss Julie; and Charles Mee’s Orestes. Bogart is the author of A Director Prepares; The Viewpoints Book; And The; You Act; and Conversations with Anne.

For press information contact Baha Ebrahimzadeh at [email protected] or 718.636.4129 x8

Commissioned by BAM

Credits

Bloomberg Philanthropies is the Season Sponsor.

Viacom is the BAM 2015 Music Sponsor. Leadership support for music at BAM provided by Frances Bermanzohn & Alan Roseman

Support for new dance presentations in the BAM Fisher provided by the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Programming in the BAM Fisher by New York City artists provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

P

BAM 2015 Next Wave Festival supporters: brigitte nyc; Frances Bermanzohn & Alan Roseman; Booth Ferris Foundation; William I. Campbell & Christine Wächter-Campbell; Charina Endowment Fund; Jeanne Donovan Fisher; Judith R. & Alan H. Fishman; The Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust; Stephanie & Timothy Ingrassia; Suzie & Bruce Kovner; Diane & Adam E. Max; McKinsey & Company, Inc.; Barbara & Richard Moore; Donald R. Mullen Jr.; The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund ;The SHS Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; David & Jane Walentas; The Winston Foundation, Inc.

Delta is the Official Airline of BAM. Pepsi is the official beverage of BAM. Santander is the BAM Marquee sponsor. Yamaha is the official piano for BAM. Your tax dollars make BAM programs possible through funding from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York and benefit from public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from Mayor Bill de Blasio; Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Finkelpearl; the New York City Council including Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Finance Committee Chair Julissa Ferreras, Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer, the Brooklyn Delegation of the Council, and Council Member Laurie Cumbo; and Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams. BAM would like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the New York State Assembly, Joseph R. Lentol, Delegation Leader; and New York Senate, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Delegation Leader.

General Information BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, offers a dinner menu prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a bar menu available starting at 6pm.

Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal – Barclays Center Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM

For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

###

P