One of the best parts of The Hamptons in the off-season is the Artists-in-Residence Open Rehearsal program at Watermill Center. Each event is unique since artists pull from a variety of areas (both geographic and artistic). The program presented is based on whatever can be accomplished while the artist or artistic team is sequestered on the secluded grounds of Watermill Center. This means the programs are always varied and unpredictable in the best way possible. Open Rehearsals can range from near-polished theater pieces to lectures that describe the work in process to adaptations of works being developed for major theater productions. Each year's line-up is determined by a committee selection based on applications submitted from an international open call or by private invitation.
This year's artists pull heavy from performance and multidisciplinary collaborations. Expect to find performance art, dance, puppetry, music composition and performance, theater, circus arts, visual arts, film, and multidisciplinary projects. From the visual arts, the lineup includes Mary Ellen Bartley, Geoffrey Farmer, Oliver Beer, Matthew Prest, Amy Khoshbin and Tamar Ettun.
Keep scrolling for the complete list of the Watermill Center artist list for its 2015 Artists-in-Residence program in Water Mill, N.Y.
January 5 - 19 & March 13 - 27
Open Rehearsal: Sunday, March 22
Sculptor and performance artist Tamar Ettun will participate in a two-part residency at The Watermill Center. For the first part, from January 5 through 19, she will focus on research and preparation. Ettun will then return in March with her Moving Company to develop a video and a performance piece titled "It's Not a Question of Anxiety" that deals with questions of movement and stillness.
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Tamar Ettun. Courtesy of the artist.
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Catherine Galasso
January 22 - 25
Open Rehearsal: Sunday, January 25 at 3:00 pm
Catherine Galasso is a choreographer and multi-media artist based in Brooklyn. Her residency project is an intergenerational collaboration between Galasso and choreographer Andy deGroat. Galasso recreates a selection of deGroat’s dances from different points of his career, for performances in New York City in December 2015. On January 25 at The Watermill Center, Galasso will present excerpts from Stabat, Swan Lac, and Hiroshima, performed by Rachel I. Berman, John Hoobyar, Anne Lewis, Sarah Sandoval, Austin Selden, and Connor Voss. Click HERE to make a reservation for Catherine Galasso's Open Rehearsal on January 25. Dates for part two of Galasso's residency to be announced soon.
Julian Crouch & Saskia Lane
January 28 - February 3
Workshop: Sunday, February 1 at 1:00 pm
World-renowned theater designer, director and puppet-maker Julian Crouch wowed audiences with Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera and the devilishly delightful Shockheaded Peter (1999) and Wolves in the Walls (2007) at The New Victory. He is currently represented on Broadway with his Tony-nominated scenic design for Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The multi-talented Saskia Lane livened up the New Vic with Dan Zanes & Friends Holiday House Party (2008) and she also rocks with her band, The Lascivious Biddies. Together, Julian and Saskia (who have collaborated several times before) team up to create their first project as duo puppeteers and performers.
Click HERE to make a reservation for the Puppet Workshop on February 1.
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Julian Crouch & Saskia Lane. Courtesy Watermill Center.
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Mary Ellen Bartley
February 3 - 28
Open Studio: Saturday, February 28
Mary Ellen Bartley is an American artist who was born in the Bronx and currently lives and works in Wainscott, NY. Bartley is known for her photographs that explore the tactile and formal qualities of the printed book and their potential for abstraction. During her residency, Bartley will make a set of photographs using books from the Watermill Study Library as subjects. The photographs will be used to create a book of books, whose format and edition are yet to be determined.
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"A Road Divided" by Mary Ellen Bartley. Courtesy Watermill Center.
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Geoffrey Farmer
March 2 - 10
Open Studio: Saturday, March 7
Geoffrey Farmer currently lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia. Farmer’s work is the product of simple yet strategic manipulations. It operates on the same level as everyday experience: simultaneously rational and chaotic, undeniably concrete yet shaped by the imagination. In a voice that combines poetry and social commentary, his work conjures and reactivates a variety of narratives drawn from history, popular culture, art history and social environments. Farmer focuses on particular features of these diverse sources, notably concepts of the work and process, transformation and performance.
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Artwork by Geoffrey Farmer. Courtesy Watermill Center.
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Hélène Patarot
February 10 - March 7
Master Class: Saturday, February 21
Open Rehearsal: Saturday, March 7
Hélène Patarot was born in Haïphong, Vietnam in 1954. Moving to France at age three, she was raised on a farm and received a French education. She lived in London where she worked with Théâtre de Complicité and Simon McBurney, Annie Casteldine, Greg Thomson, James Kerr, Rose English, Vanessa Redgrave, and Avalon TV. Patarot worked in France with Peter Brook, Dan Jemmet, Lucian Pintillier, Karelle Prignaud, and Lilo Baur. She acted in The Bone, The Mahabaratha, Tierno Bokar, and designed costumes for The Magic Flute.
Kristen Foote
April 13 - 19
Open Rehearsal: Saturday, April 18
New York City–based dancer, performer, teacher, Limón reconstructor and coach Kristen Foote is originally from Toronto, Canada, and joined the Limón Dance Company in 2000 and Dance Heginbotham in 2011. A principal dancer in each of these companies, she has performed as a soloist in roles by many noted choreographers.
Natacha Mankowski
March 31 - May 1
Natacha Mankowski was born in 1986 in Paris. In 2011 she received her MA in Architecture from the École Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. She received the Tony Garnier Prize in 2012. Coming from an architectural background, Natacha Mankowski aims to blur the traditional categories of representation of space. Her work, adapted into the diverse media of painting, installation and architecture, considers virtual and real space in terms of science and experience.
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From the "Kdk series" by Natacha Mankowski. Oil on canvas, 2014. Courtesy Watermill Center.
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Tomek Jeziorski, Adam Lenz, Shane Weeks & Karolina Zielińska
May 19 - June 16
Open Rehearsal: Saturday, June 13
Tomek Jeziorski, working in theatre as a video designer, earned a degree in Culture Studies from the University of Warsaw and studied film direction at the National Film School in Lodz. Adam Lenz is a composer and interdisciplinary artist currently pursuing a M.M. in Composition from the Hartt School of Music in Hartford. Shane Weeks is a member of the Shinnecock nation and will serve as a cultural consultant to the project. Karolina Zielińska works as a cinematographer.
Oliver Beer
September 7 - 28
Oliver Beer was born in 1985 in the United Kingdom. He studied music before attending the Ruskin School of Fine Art, University of Oxford. His personality and his background in both music and fine art led to an early interest in the relationship between sound and space, particularly the voice and architecture. He has translated his research into fascinating performances in which spectators take part by the mere fact of their presence, and he makes sculptures and videos that embody, literally or metaphorically, the plastic expression of this subtle relationship and the way the human body experiences it.
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Artwork by Oliver Beer. Courtesy Watermill Center.
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Matthew Prest & Clare Britton
September 8 - 30
Performance and installation artist Matthew Prest makes work that exists in the space between theatre and performance art. He holds a BFA in Sculpture, Performance and Installation from the College of Fine Arts, UNSW and has trained at Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Paris in Bouffon and Clown. Since 2003, Clare Britton has developed work as Co-Artistic Director of acclaimed performance collective My Darling Patricia. A founding member of the company, Claire has collaborated to create My Darling Patricia’s unique process and body of work.
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"Room Noise" by Matthew Prest and Claire Britton. Courtesy Watermill Center.
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Amy Khoshbin & Sarah Dahnke
October 1 - 23
Brooklyn-based artist Amy Khoshbin creates hybrid works using performance, video, and interactive media to explore the production and transmission of narratives both personal and cultural. Sarah Dahnke, who earned a Bachelor's in Dance Performance from Oklahoma City University and a Master's in New Media and Performance from New York University, is a Brooklyn-based choreographer, multimedia artist, and arts educator. During their residency, Amy Khoshbin and Sarah Dahnke will develop and perform the final scene of The Myth of Layla.
Cirkus Cirkör
October 27 - November 7
Tilde Björfors founded Cirkus Cirkör in 1995 and has been the driving force in establishing contemporary circus as an art form in Sweden. Björfors's research project, combined with Cirkör's visionary, educational, entrepreneurial and philosophical efforts, as well as its work with cultural policy, have had an influence far beyond the realm of circus. Björfors has been creative director for all of Cirkör's productions and directed the majority of them, most recently Knitting Peace, 99% Unknown, Inside Out and Wear It Like a Crown, which has toured all over the world to wide acclaim.
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Tilde Björfors. Photo by Emilia Bergmark-Jiminez.
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Manuela Infante with Teatro de Chile
November 11 - 20
Manuela Infante, born in 1980 in Santiago, Chile, holds a BA in Arts from the University of Chile and a MA in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam. Working as a director and playwright with her stable group Teatro de Chile, Manuela Infante has staged plays such as Prat (2001), Juana (2003), Rey Planta (2006), Ernesto (2010), and Loros Negros (2011). Teatro de Chile is one of the most highly regarded young theatre groups in Chile. They began working together in 2001 moved by the desire to develop creative processes driven by experimentation and investigation.
Carlos Soto
December 6 - 23
Carlos Soto has worked with Robert Wilson since 1997 as a performer, designer, and assistant on numerous productions in the U.S. and Europe, most recently in The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic. Throughout the last decade, Soto has collaborated with Richard Foreman, Dan Graham, The Hotel Savant, Terence Koh, Andrey Bartenev, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, among others.
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Performance of "Everything Alright." Courtesy Watermill Center.
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BASIC FACTS: The Watermill Center is located at 39 Watermill Towd Road, Water Mill, NY 11976. Reservations are recommended for open rehearsals as space is limited. Free. www.watermillcenter.org.
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