On May 17th + 18th, 2009, I presented excerpts from Bride of Wildenstein – the Musical at REDCAT.
Have you ever gone too far for love?
In Bride of Wildenstein, an aging socialite grows fur and claws to recapture her philandering game hunter husband’s attention. Using puppets and masks to augment the body, this solo cabaret performance playfully unpacks desire and the contagion of identity with songs that examine the making of a monstrosity.
The weird and tragic love story wildly reimagines tabloid accounts of the real-life “cat woman”, Jocelyn Wildenstein. As the protagonist’s marriage dissolves, she begins to reinvent herself through drastic measures. But biomedical and surgical procedures to become more feline only heighten her sense of estrangement and embolden her quest to find a fiercer sense of self.
PERFORMANCES
Sunday,
May 17, 2009
at 8:30pm
Monday,
May 18, 2009
at 8:30pm
The performances were part of the Spring 2009 edition of Studio, a quarterly series that featured a curated program of six new interdisciplinary experimental works-in-progress by Los Angeles dance, theater, music and multimedia artists.
The Roy + Edna
Disney/CalArts Theater
REDCAT is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts center for innovative visual, performing and media arts located in downtown Los Angeles inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Each season REDCAT presents a far-reaching roster of work by globally renowned artists, inside one of the most versatile and technologically advanced presentation spaces in the world.
CREDITS
Bride of Wildenstein – The Musical
Script
Marsian + P.J. McWhiskers
Performance
Marsian De Lellis
Music Composition
Josh Senick
Direction
Leila Ghaznavi
Dramaturgy
Leila Ghaznavi
Set + Pop-Up Design
EuGean Seo
Costume Design
Rachel Weir
Lighting Design +
Assistant Director
Brandon Stirling Baker
Co-Production
Jennifer Koblosky
Vocal Coach
Sound Assistant
Sarah Ibrahim
Sound
E. Martin Giminez
Technical Direction
Sarah Sowel
Scenic Artist
Amanda Smith
Puppet Builder
Chase Woolner
Pop – Up Assistant
Chi Kyung
Technical Supervisor
Byung Lee
Art Direction
Marsian De Lellis
SPECIAL THANKS
CalArts Circus
in Miniature
CalArts Performing
Objects Lab
Chris Barreca
Curtis Mueller
David Hanbury
Ellen McCartney
Jane Pickett
Janie Geiser
Lynn Rosenfeld
Michael McIntire
Rafael Lopez-Barrantes
Renata De Lellis
Steven Levine
Susan Simpson
The Spring 2009 edition of Studio was curated by Chi-wang Yang and Anna B. Scott, and included the following six original works:
ARIANNE MACBEAN /
THE BIG SHOW C0:
ORBITS
Performed by Genevieve Carson and Brad Culver, this bittersweet dance duet charts the forces of desire that draw people closer and the failures of communication that hold them apart.
BETHANY WARD-LAWE:
COLOR ME PURPLE
Centered on the boundary-blurring sexual appeal of recording artist Prince, Color Me Purple mixes elements of contemporary dance, burlesque, drag and video to examine art and the art of arousal.
JASMINE ORPILLA + CO:
ANNAY PUSO –
HOW TO PRESERVE A DYING TRADITION, PT. 1
Singing in the regional Filipino tradition of tapat, Orpilla’s Annay Puso (My Heart is in Pain) is both a powerful vocalization of a male suitor’s courtship and a haunting homage to a vanishing form.
L’ESPRIT D’AFRIQUE:
AXE URBANO
With exuberant energy and inspiring skill, this Pan-African music and dance ensemble celebrates the common roots and distinctive fruits of African diaspora cultures in the U.S., Cuba and Brazil.
MARSIAN + COMPANY:
BRIDE OF WILDENSTEIN – THE MUSICAL
In a toy theater-inspired musical extravaganza, performer and puppeteer Marsian De Lellis delves into the tabloid headlines to invent the present-day tale of an aging socialite’s dramatic desire and radical reconfiguration.
PEGGY JO PABUSTAN
+ SASHA GRANSJEAN:
PERFORMANCE ART
FOR EVERYDAY LIFE
As personable Life Coaches, Peggy Jo & Sasha demonstrate role playing techniques for more authentic living that rapidly devolve from empowering to violent to degrading in this funny and disturbing work.
SUPPORT
Bride of Wildenstein was developed at CalArts and the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center with funding from The Durfee Foundation and Ibex Puppetry.
