Saturday, June 02, 2007

Commedia dell’Arte becomes Commedia Dell’Artemisia [Gentileschi]

The ANNOTICO Report

 

The Brick Theater, located in the heart of Williamsburg, will kick off its fourth annual summer festival June 1. Titled, "The Pretentious Festival: The Most Important Theatre Festival on Earth," this month-long event boasts existential crises, nudity as art, onsite bloggers, and an egomaniacal run-down of theatre history since the dawn of time.

 

It attempts to offer an "alternative" to Broadway and Off Broadway,bargain ticket prices,and opportunities for aspiring and budding talents.

In one of the productions, 27-year-old director Jon Stancato revives the classic Italian style of Commedia dell 'Arte which uses masked actors and stock characters, and farcically satirizes the controversial rape trial of Italian Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

 

"It's the Most Important Theatre Festival on Earth"

 

24/7 Arts, Dining and Entertainment - Brooklyn,NY,USA

By Jenna Goudreau

May 31, 2007

 

 

The Brick Theater, located in the heart of Williamsburg, will kick off its fourth annual summer festival June 1. Titled, "The Pretentious Festival: The Most Important Theatre Festival on Earth," this month-long event boasts existential crises, nudity as art, onsite bloggers, and an egomaniacal run-down of theatre history since the dawn of time.

"The last thing this city needs is more irony," Brick co-founder and co-artistic director Robert Honeywell said. "How far can a joke with people in black turtlenecks go" I think we're going to take it to the next level. Most theatre we see is pretentious but doesn't know it. We?re acknowledging it.?

The Brick Theatre was founded by Honeywell and Greenpoint resident Michael Gardner after the directors grew fed up with bouncing between overpriced Lower East Side spaces, deciding to settle into the artistically budding Brooklyn neighborhood in 2002. Together they transformed a red brick auto-body shop into a 75-seat performance venue that later became host to summer festivals like 2004's Hell Festival, the Moral Values Festival in 2005, and last year?s highly acclaimed $ellout Festival.

"I hope that we are a platform for the Brooklyn arts scene," Gardner said. "We try to represent as many emerging artists as we can. We keep our ticket prices very low so residents that aren't extremely wealthy can come out."

Tickets for The Pretentious Festival are only $10 each, and in some cases, like Gardner's production "Nothing," they're free of charge. The aptly named show will be presented three times throughout the month of June, and Gardner promises it's the "height of minimalist theatre." People can come into the theatre and experience nothing. "What could be more pretentious?" he asked with a chuckle.

 

Other works, like 27-year-old director Jon Stancatos piece Commedia DellArtemisia, also take jabs at snooty theatrical stereotypes. The production revives the classic Italian style of Commedia dellArte, which uses masked actors and stock characters, and farcically satirizes the controversial rape trial of Italian Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

Audiences will dig it, Stancato assured, because it's a biting and vicious diatribe about history, hypocrisy, rape, romance, art, and artifice all dressed up as a cute little sex comedy. The Stolen Chair theatre company has been performing variations of this piece for over three years and presents it again at The Pretentious Festival as a means of collaborating with The Brick and continuously re-orienting the themes to modern day relevance.

Stancato believes Commedia DellArtemisia, presented on June 17 and 19, holds its own in the festival because its the only piece that has masks, the only piece in rhyming couplets, the only piece based on an obscure trial transcript, and the only piece to wring humor from the horrible real-life experiences of an Italian female painter.

[Also an]  abstracted version of the classic text Macbeth ... Macbeth Without Words...  Weve always felt weird about doing Shakespeare. We wanted to find a way to wrestle with those themes and subjects without doing it straight. The show portrays the classic tale of betrayal and bloodshed visually, without any dialogue......

 

 

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