Bride of Wildenstein, REDCAT, L.A.

brideweb
Photo: Nick Shoob

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.

photo: Nic Schoob

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

Lions Fuck, 2008, 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

Lions Fuck, 2008, Marsian De Lellis

PROGRAM

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.