The Open Program of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (Pontedera, Italy) performs the newest version of I AM AMERICA @ nancy manocherian's the cell.
A city, a crowd of passers-by. We see them, we seem to recognize, remember. Strangers calling to joy, to the century, for the illumination of America. Fireworks of visions flow out in speech and song. It is a multiple-million-eyed monster. Each eye speaks the story of a coming from somewhere. Desire, fight and fail, rise. What is it all about? America?
Directed by Mario Biagini (Associate Director of the Workcenter) and premiered in 2009 in Italy, to date I AM AMERICA has lived several incarnations and has been performed throughout the world. The current ensemble hails from three different continents, from countries including Brazil, Colombia, France, Italy, Poland, Canada, and Argentina.
In I AM AMERICA Allen Ginsberg’s poetry is braided together with shouts and traditional songs from the South of the United States in a dynamic flux of poems, songs, and actions. Original compositions by members of the Open Program dialogue with these sources, creating in confrontation with them a piece that questions our place and function within the transforming contemporary landscape, and our being alive – intentionally.
Directed by Mario Biagini.
With: Mario Biagini, Robin Gentien, Tabby Johnson, Agnieszka Kazimierska, Felicita Marcelli, Ophelie Maxo, Alejandro Tomás Rodriguez, Jorge Romero Mora, Graziele Sena.
Music by Open Program of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards.
Poetic texts by Allen Ginsberg; For the Allen Ginsberg texts, Copyright © by the Allen Ginsberg Trust, used with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
Admission by suggested donation of $20 at the door.
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
