t1AIVlblll Brooklyn Academy of Music 1996 Next Wave Festival

Jim Dine, The Heart of BAM, 1996, Woodcut, 26-1/4" x 19-3/8" The Seven Strea ms of the River Ota

BAM 1996 Next Wave Festival and 135th Anniversary Season are sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. The Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Chairman of the Board

Harvey Lichtenstein President & Executive Producer

presents The Seven Streams of the River Ota

Directed by Robert Lepage

BAM Majestic Theater Part I: December 1, 7, & 14, 1996 at 3pm December 3, 5, 10 & 12 at 8pm Part II: December 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 13 & 14 at 8pm

Running time: Conceived by Eric Bernier, Normand Bissonnette, Rebecca Blankenship, Marie Brassard, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Normand Daneau, Richard Frechette, Part I: approximately Marie Gignac, Patrick Goyette, Ghislaine Vincent, Macha Limonchik, three and one half Gerard Bibeau, Robert Lepage hours, including inter­ missions Performed by Patrick Goyette, Rebecca Blankenship, Marie Brassard Normand Daneau, Richard Frechette, Marie Gignac, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Part II: approximately Eric Bernier, Ghislaine Vincent three hours, including intermission Music composed and performed by Michel F. Cote

Complete show: approximately eight Dramaturg Lighting hours, including Gerard Bibeau Sonoyo Nish ikawa dinner break and Assistants to the director Images intermissions Bruno Bazin, Normand Daneau, Jacques Collin, Eric Fauque Philippe Soldevila Images-Moving Pictures Assistant-translation The McGovern Fund of the Karen Fricker Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Set Puppets Carl Fillion Le Theatre de Sable Costumes and wigs Additional music Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt, Robert Caux, F. Poulenc, M. Yvan Gaudin Miyagi, G. Puccini, A. Dvorak assisted by Sylvie Courbron Musical score-piano Claude Soucy

Special support provided by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Greater Montreal Convention and Tourism Bureau, Canadian Tourism Commission, Tourisme Quebec, Quebec Government House in New York and the Canadian Consulate General. Photo: Claudel Huot

Properties ProductionlTour Manager Catherine Chagnon, Sylvie Courbron, Lou ise Roussel Cathy Lachance Produced by Model Design Ex Machina Stephane Caron in coproduction with Set Building Edinburgh International Festival, Manchester 94 Marc Chateauvert, Mario Cote, Carl Fillion, -City of Drama, La Maison des Arts de Creteil, Richard Gravel, Michel Le Breton, Gaetan Noel, Wiener Festwochen, Theaterformen 95 Jacquelyn Noel, Marco Olivier, Michel Paquet Braunschweig, Change Performing Arts-Milan, Set Painting IMBE Barcelona, Prasidialabteilung Der Stadt Cathy Lachance, Isabelle Lariviere, Zurich-Zurcher Theater Spektakel, Arhus Festuge, Marie-France Lariviere, Helene Pearson, Bunkamura-Tokyo, Harbourfront Centre-Toronto, Marco Poulin, Pierre Robitaille Kampnagel-Hamburg, Les Productions d'Albert, Stage Manager Le Centre culturel de Drummondville, Le Centre Eric Fauque culturel de l'Universite de Sherbrooke, Les American Stage Manager Productions Specta, Staatsschauspiel Dresden­ Kim Beringer Theater der Welt 96, K0benhavn '96, Ludwigsburger Sound Manager Schlol3festspiele, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Luc Desilets Stockholms Stadsteater, Carrefour international Lighting Manager de theatre-Quebec Christian Gagnon Associate Producers Chief Stagehand Richard Castelli (Europe), Michael Morris (UK), Marc Provencher Menno Plukker (USA) Costumes/Props Manager Producer Catherine Chagnon Michel Bernatchez Assistant, Costumes/Props Cathy Lachance Ex Machina is funded by The Canadian Stagehands Department of Foreign Affairs and International Marco Olivier, Martin Levesque Trade: The Canada Council; The Canada Technical Director Council-The Touring Office; The Japan­ Richard Gravel Canada Fund; Le Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec; La Ville de Quebec Prologue 5-Words Jana Capek-Ghislaine Vincent Sophie Maltais & Mome Crevette-Anne-Marie Cadieux I-Moving Pictures Walter Lapointe, Diplomat-Richard Frechette Patricia Hebert, Diplomat's Wife-Marie Gignac Luke O'Connor-Patrick Goyette Frangois-Xavier & Mr Petypon-Eric Bernier Nozomi Yamashita-Anne-Marie Cadieux Mrs Petypon-Ghislaine Vincent Nozomi's Mother-in-Iaw-Marie Brassard The servant-Patrick Goyette Hanako Nishikawa-Marie Brassard Jeffrey Yamashita-Normand Daneau 2-Two Jeffreys English Translator-Patrick Goyette

Karen, the landlady-Anne-Marie Cadieux Jeffrey Yamashita-Normand Daneau 6-The Interview Nozomi's Mother-in-Iaw-Marie Brassard Jeffrey O'Connor-Patrick Goyette Walter Lapointe-Richard Frechette Old Luke O'Connor-Richard Frechette Jana Capek-Ghislaine Vincent Ada Weber-Rebecca Blankenship Patricia Hebert-Marie Gignac The Sphynx-Richard Frechette The Camerawoman-Anne-Marie Cadieux Luke OIConnor-Patrick Goyette The Soundman-Eric Bernier The band, Kevin & Tony-Eric Bernier Michel F. Cote 7-Thunder

3-A Wedding Walter Lapointe-Richard Frechette Pierre Maltais-Eric Bernier Ada Weber-Rebecca Blankenship Hanako Nishikawa-Marie Brassard The Librarian-Richard Frechette David Yamashita-Normand Daneau The Doctor-Marie Gignac Ada Weber-Rebecca Blankenship Jeffrey OIConnor-Patrick Goyette Jana Capek-Ghislaine Vincent The Waiter-Eric Bernier Sophie Maltais-Anne-Marie Cadieux Jeffrey Yamashita-Normand Daneau Hanako Nishikawa-Marie Brassard Tourists-Richard Frechette, Ghislaine Vincent Epilogue-The Torii of Miyajima Marie Brassard, Anne-Marie Cadieux Jana Capek-Ghislaine Vincent Hanako Nishikawa-Marie Brassard 4-The Mirror Luke O'Connor-Patrick Goyette Rower-Normand Daneau Jana Capek-Ghislaine Vincent Young Jana Capek-Marie Brassard Sarah Weber-Rebecca Blankenship Maurice Zimmermann-Richard Frechette Rachel Goldberg-Marie Gignac The ACTORS in The Seven Streams of the River The German Soldier-Patrick Goyette Ota appear with the permission of Actors' Equity Association. The American Stage Manager is a member of Actors' Equity Association. I Prologue The Seven Streams of the River Ota tells the story of Westerners who arrive in Hiroshima and come face to face with themselves, in devastation as in illumination. For, if Hiroshima is a symbol of death and destruction, it is also a place of rebirth and survival.

I-Moving Pictures Hiroshima, 1945. A photographer in the American army, Luke O'Connor, is in Japan to cover a story on the physical damage caused by the bomb, while a team of Gis is making a documentary on the reconstruction of the country. Luke meets Nozomi, a Hibakusha victim of the bomb ...

2-Two Jeffreys New York, 1965. Jeffrey Yamashita, the son of Nozomi and Luke O'Connor, has come to study music in New York. Jeffrey O'Connor, the American son of Luke O'Connor, also lives in New York where he is looking after his ailing father...

intermission

3-A Wedding Amsterdam, 1985. Jeffrey O'Connor has AIOS. For legal reasons, he travels to Amsterdam where Ada now lives, who has become an opera singer just like her mother. Jeffrey doesn't want to accept the degeneration that his illness will sooner or later bring. He decides to die in dignity, surrounded by people he loves ...

intermission

4-The Mirror Hiroshima, 1985-Terezin, 1943. Ada Weber, who is temporarily living in Jeffrey Yamashita's house, writes to Jana Capek and invites her to Hiroshima. From the other side of the mirror, Jana relives the end of her childhood years in the ghetto of Terezin where she met Ada's mother, Sarah Weber, an opera singer, and Maurice Zimmermann, a magician, to whom she was the assistant. ..

Dinner break II 5-Words Osaka, 1970. As part of the universal exposition, Walter Lapointe, a Canadian diplomat and his wife, Patricia Hebert, attend a play by Feydeau, La Dame de chez Maxime, put on by a Canadian theater company...

intermission

6-The Interview Hiroshima, 1995. (I - Puppet scene) Jana Capek, having retreated to a zen monastery in Hiroshima, describes how, in the 15th century, by a strange irony of fate, the search for an aphrodisiac for the lovers of the Emperor of China led herbalists to invent what was to become gunpowder. (II-Puppets and actors) Patricia produces a report on Jana for TV. Jana explains how she came to choose Hiroshima as her adoptive city and what she has found there...

7-Thunder Hiroshima, 1997. Hanako is living alone in Nozomi's house in Hiroshima. Pierre, the son of actress Sophie Maltais, a Butoh dance student, rents a room there with the help of Walter Lapointe. David, Hanako's son living in Paris, comes to visit his mother for her birthday... Pierre discovers the mean­ ing of what he has been searching for in the Butoh dances by observing the movements and gestures of the blind Hanako.

Epilogue- During a ritual, Jana Capek, standing before the Torii of Miyajima in The Torii of Miyajima Hiroshima Bay, receives from Hanako the ashes of Jeffrey Yamashita. She sprinkles them into the River Ota. Eric Bernier given to the best foreign actress, as well as the After leaving the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique Jan-Doat Award, given by the members of the de Montreal, Eric worked in television and then Association des Anciens du Conservatoire. In the in theater with a smattering of directors. He per­ film medium, she wrote the script for a handful formed the role of Isamu in The Tropical Tree by of shorts and produced video clips for singer­ Yukio Mishima and, after joining the team of the songwriters. She worked on the script of the film Montreal troupe Momentum, he had a hand in Le Polygraphe, where she played the role of Lucie. creating Helter Skelter (inspired by the Charles She also produced that play in Tokyo with a Manson story); he then took part in Les Nuits Japanese cast. Blanches, a show put on by a group of authors, presented in Montreal and then at the 1992 Anne-Marie Cadieux Festival de Theatre de Maubeuge. Under the In theater, Anne-Marie has appeared in many direction of Robert Lepage, in the Shakespearean roles, such as Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, trilogy, he played Ferdinand in The Tempest, Volumnia in Coriolanus and Caliban in The Malcolm in Macbeth and Sicinius in Coriolanus. Tempest under the direction of Robert Lepage; He occasionally works as a dance performer. Silia Gala in The Rules of the Game by Pirandello at the Stratford Festival, Solange in Michel F. Cote Les Bonnes by Genet and Lise Paquette in Les A percussionist, composer/improviser and pro­ Belles-Soeurs by Michel Tremblay at the National ducer, Michel has conducted the Bruire ensemble Arts Centre under the direction of Andre Brassard, since 1989. Four discs attest to the musical as well as the Marquise de Merteuil in Quartet activity of the ensemble, including the 1990 by Heiner Muller under the direction of Brigitte Horspeil Muss Muss Hic!, jointly commissioned Haentjens. Her play, entitled La Nuit, which she by WDR Koln and Montreal's Radio Canada, and also produced and acted alongside Gerald Gagnon, more recently the 1995 disc/concert CAme de was presented at the Carrefour International de I'objet. A member of the group Ambiances Quebec, at the Theatre 140 in Brussels and at Magnetiques, Cote has recorded a dozen discs. the last Festival des Ameriques in Montreal. In In theater, he collaborated with the company cinematography, her interpretation of Manon in Carbone 14 (Krieg, 1993); in dance, with the Le Confessionnal earned her the Luce-Guilbeault company Brouhaha Danse (La Galerie des Award of the Rendez-vous du Cinema Quebecois Horribles, 1993). He is a permanent member 96, as well as a nomination for a Genie Award. of several musical Montreal ensembles, suqh as Klaxon Gueule, Les Craquons, Flameches and Normand Daneau l'Oreille aVincent. Upon leaving the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique de Quebec in 1992, Normand founded, with Marie Brassard other actors in his class, the Theatre des Moutons Si nce leavi ng the Conservatoi re de Quebec in Noirs, of which he is the artistic director and where 1985, Marie has worked mainly in theater under he both acts and produces. Under the direction the direction of several directors in Quebec City, of Robert Lepage, he plays Malcolm (Macbeth), Montreal and Toronto. Under the direction of Sicinius (Coriolanus) and Gonzalve (The Tempest) Robert Lepage, she played the roles of Eliza Riddle in the Shakespearean trilogy. He plays the young in Alanienouidet, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, abbey Massicotte in Le Confessionnal. He is also Ariel in The Tempest; she also co-authored and a singer and bass player in the group Les performed in The Dragons' Trilogy (Yukali) and Standardistes. Polygraph (Lucie Champagne), a role for which she received the 1990 Barcelona Critic's Award, Richard Frechette Ghislaine Vincent A grad uate from the Conservatoi re d'Art A graduate of the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique Dramatique de Quebec in 1978, Richard has de Quebec in 1983, Ghislaine has performed on taken part in more than forty theatrical produc­ all the stages of Quebec City, in works as varied tions in Quebec. Recently, he played the role of as Les Belles-Soeurs by Michel Tremblay, Le Frangois in La Cite Interdite by Dominique Dialogue des Carmelites by Bernados and Les Champagne, and played Monsieur Bolduc in a Femmes Savantes by Moliere. She also took part one-man show produced by the Theatre Repere in creations both as author and actress at the that he wrote single-handedly as well as produced. Theatre de la Bordee. She taught diction and With Robert Lepage, among others, he played the poetry at the Quebec City conservatory for three deaf mute in En Attendant, the barber Morin in years and performance in an intensive program at The Dragons' Trilogy and Antoine in Tectonic Plates. the Theatre Art-Etudes. This is her second collab­ Richard is also part of the distribution team of oration with Robert Lepage. the films Le Confessionnal and Le Polygraphe. Rebecca Blankenship Patrick Goyette The American-born singer was raised in Vienna After leaving the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique and later on studied voice and acting in New York. de Montreal in 1990, Patrick performed in a Her most frequently performed roles are Marie in variety of plays, such as: Tenessee Williams' Glass Wozzeck (Vienna State Opera, Tokyo and la Fenice, Menagerie, Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Venice), Katarina in Lady Macbeth of Mzensk Elms, and Maxime Gorki's Les Bas-Fonds. He (Vienna Volks-Opera, Basel Theater) and Sieglinde played the role of Ovide in the extremely popular in Die Walkure (San Francisco Opera, Vienna State television series Emily/Les Filles de Caleb, pro­ Opera). She portrays lithe woman" in Schoenberg's duced by Jean Beaudin, with whom he is busy monodrama Erwartung. This award winning this year making Ces Enfants d'Ailleurs, also for Canadian Opera Production directed by Robert television. Under the direction of Robert Lepage, Lepage (in a doublebill with Bluebeard's Castle) he plays the role of Marc in Le Confessionnal and has, since its opening in Toronto 1993, been Frangois in Le Polygraphe. invited to New York (BAM), Edinburgh, Melbourne, Geneva and most recently to the Hong Kong Arts Marie Gignac Festival 1996. Mrs. Blankenship also sings in Marie studied at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique Robert Lepage's movie Le Polygraphe. de Quebec. She helped create The Dragons' Trilogy, in which she appeared in the role of Frangoise, Robert Lepage a part which earned her the Prix d'lnterpretation Born in Quebec City in 1957, Robert Lepage Feminine at the Festival de Theatre des Ameriques studied at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Montreal in 1987, as well as the Jan-Doat de Quebec from 1975 to 1978. He then studied Award in 1988. She went on to play the role of in Paris with Alain Knapp, whose approach to Madeleine in Tectonic Plates, a role she also acting, direction and writing as inextricably linked performed in the movie version of the play pro­ components had an important influence on Mr. duced by Peter Mettler. In addition to her work Lepage's work. It was this experience that sparked with Robert Lepage, which has been ongoing for his interest in the processes of collective creation over a decade, she has performed Brecht, lonesco, and theatrical exploration. Returning to Quebec, Genet as well as Michel Tremblay, Anne Legault Mr. Lepage became well known to audiences and Marc Dore. She played the leading female through his work with the Ligue Nationale role in the film Le Confessionnal, for which she d'improvisation, whose competitions were televised. walked away with a Genie in 1996. In 1982, Mr. Lepage joi ned Theatre Repere, the Quebec City-based company that had been In 1993 he directed Peter Gabriel's rock concert founded in 1980 by Bernard Bonnier and tour, and in 1994, August Strinberg's A Dream Jacques Lessard. His first major directing success Play for the Royal Dramaten in Stockholm. That was in 1984 with Circulations, for which he won same year, Ex Machina was founded and the the prize for best Canadian production at the company is now building a technological research Quinzaine Internationale de Theatre de Quebec. and creation center in the former Caserne Dalhousie The play was subsequently performed in Montreal, in Quebec City. Mr. Lepage and his collaborators Toronto and Vancouver. From 1990 to 1993, at Ex Machina also embarked on the process of Mr. Lepage was the artistic director of the French creating The Seven Streams of the River Ota, Theatre at The National Arts Center in Ottawa. commemorating the 50th anniversary of the During his tenure at the NAC, he directed La visite bombing of Hiroshima. Mr. Lepage directed his de la vieille dame by Friedrich Durenmatt (1990), first film, Le Confessional, which was premiered at Alanienouidet by Marianne Ackerman (1992) and the 1995 Cannes Festival and opened the 1995 Capita Ie Nationale, by Vivienne Laxdal (1993). Toronto International Film Festival and won Best An outstanding actor, director and theatrical Movie, Best Director and Best Artistic Direction innovator, Mr. Lepage became one of Canada's Genie Awards in 1996. His second film, Le foremost cultural ambassadors during the decade Polygraphe, adapted from his theater play, was 1985-1995. Arnong his international successes released earlier this year, and he is currently are Vinci (Best production, Festival de Nyon and touring his third one-man show, Elsinore, based Prix Coup de Pouce, Festival d'Avignon 1987); on Hamlet by Shakespeare. Polygraph (Time Out Award for Direction, London Mr. Lepage has been given numerous awards 1989 and Chalrners Award, Toronto 1991); The including the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts Dragon's Trilogy, performed in 24 countries in six et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture years (Grand Prize of the Festival of the Americas in 1990 and the Governor General's Award for in 1987); 1989's Tectonic Plates, hailed as a Performing Arts in 1994. He is also an honorary production "of hallucinating beauty" by the Times doctor of the Quebec's Universite Laval. of London and awarded best production of the year by The Observer. Tectonic Plates was also nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in the category of exceptional performance. Mr. Lepage's 1991 production, Needles and Opium, was an outstanding success. In 1992 this play won the Prix de la Critique Frangaise as well as Polygraph and the Shakespearean trilogy Macbeth, Coriolanus, The Tempest. The same year, 1992, Mr. Lepage directed Bela Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle and Arnold Schoenberg's Erwartung for the Canadian Opera Company. This double bill was subsequently presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, at the Edinburgh Festival, at the Melbourne Festival, at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and at the Opera de Geneve. The same year he directed a provocative version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal National Theatre in London.

photo, Claudel Huol