THEATREMUSIC

TRADITIONAL ARTISTIC PERCEPTION (AP) ® CLASSICAL CREATIVE EXPRESSION (CE) Artsource CONTEMPORARY HISTORICAL & CULTURAL CONTEXT (H/C) The Music Center’s Study Guide to the Performing Arts EXPERIMENTAL AESTHETIC VALUING (AV) MULTI-MEDIA CONNECT, RELATE & APPLY (CRA)

ENDURING FREEDOM & THE POWER THE HUMAN TRANSFORMATION VALUES OPPRESSION OF NATURE FAMILY

assuming the character expressed in each face. A variety Title of Work: “The Mask Messenger” of characters springs to life, including some who speak, wearing Commedia dell’Arte style half-masks. Full Creator: masks are sometimes worn on the top or back of the Producer: Faustwork Mask Theater Artistic Director: Robert Faust b. 1950 head, transforming the performer into creatures on all fours or creating distortions that baffle the eyes and Background Information: tickle the funny bone. Through the parade of almost Robert Faust, actor, athlete, dancer, choreographer and twenty characters, the audience will also glimpse mask-maker, is the founder and Artistic Director of human nature at its silliest and most poignant. Faustwork Mask Theater. Born and raised in New Orleans, he experienced the color and pageantry of Creative Process of the Artist or Culture: Mardi Gras throughout his childhood, youth and college Robert Faust is interested in the emotional content years. Through his studies he discovered mask-making and movement possibilities inherent in a mask. His and came to realize that the carnival characters that mask-making evolves from one of two processes. He annually paraded the streets of his hometown were actually may begin improvising in clay, forming the structure of works of art rooted in theatrical traditions. In 1980, a face. A certain feature or feeling emerges, and he he joined Pilobolus Dance Theater as a performer and follows it to complete the mask. Or he might have an choreographer, later serving in these capacities for the idea for a specific character and try to capture the renowned Martha Clarke Company. He founded character’s tension and emotion using line and shape. Faustwork Mask Theater in 1983, creating and producing Once the mask is finished, he must ‘listen’ to the mask, The Mask Man, The Mask Messenger, Faustwork In allowing the visual image to translate into body movement. Concert, and Cello Man. Mr. Faust makes all the masks Mr. Faust begins his rehearsals with a mirror. After he used in Faustwork’s performances. He has also created has a grasp of the physical look of the mask, he turns masks for The Opera Ensemble of New York, A.C.T., away from the mirror and Pilobolus, Momix and Kirk Company’s Miss Spider’s works from inside himself, Wedding. using his memory of the image to evoke the inner life of the About The Artwork: character. The Mask Messenger is a solo performance about masks Connecticut that simultaneously entertains and educates. The set is a wall of masks exhibited at the center of the stage. After Photo: Gary Gunderson a brief introduction about masks throughout the world, “A mask is a megaphone to the the performer begins to demonstrate his power by soul, to the emotions, amplifying removing the masks from the wall one by one, and what is going on inside.” New Orleans, LA Robert Faust