DISPATCH - NOV 19, 2012 (8:45 p.m.)
Water Mill, NY
The Watermill Center doesn't disappear when the summer does. The colder months offer the chance for intimate tours of the creative lab and the study library. Presentations of works in process by international artists take place on occasional evenings from November through June. Plus, everything is free (reservations are required).
There are two tours of the building and all it contains on Tuesday (Nov 20) at 4:30 p.m. and on Saturday, Dec 15, at 12:30 p.m. For tour reservations, click here.
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Views from The Watermill Center. Photo by Lucie Jansch (top and bottom right) and Lovis Dengler (bottom left).
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Also upcoming are presentations of projects in process by artists in the winter residency program at Watermill Center. Presentations are open rehearsals of cross-disciplinary theatrical pieces. Artists can incorporate video, audience participatory, film, music, dance, projections, soundscapes and more into creative works in development.
Here’s a sample of what’s planned:
Dec 19, 2012: “Ideogenetic Machine” by Nova Jiang.
Nova Jiang is designing a series of costumes and props to be used by participants while interacting with “Ideogenetic Machine,” an installation that transforms participants into the protagonists of an algorithmically-generated comic book. The comic is created on-the-spot by using custom software. Unique characters will spring to live by combining portraits of participants made with a camera with selections from a database of drawings Jiang has been compiling since 2011. The drawings portray “speculative narratives based on current events,” according to The Watermill Center.
Feb 9, 2013: “Echo in Camera” by Roman Paska.
Roman Paska's residency will be used to develop his puppet play "Echo in Camera." The piece recasts the Orpheus legend as a puppet play-within-a-play. The open rehearsal will unveil new performance techniques and dramatic sections created for the work during the residency.
Paska is a writer, director, filmmaker and puppeteer whose projects have appeared internationally. His magical-realist documentary feature, Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy premiered at the 2009 Venice Film Festival and subsequently screened at the Hamptons Film Festival, Lincoln Center and BAM.
Feb 23, 2013: “Fall of the Rebel Angels” by Catherine Galass.
“All of the Rebel Angels” is an evening-length multimedia performance inspired by the work of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens. The piece will employ dance, multi-channel video projections, and pre-recorded Baroque music mixed with contemporary electronic soundscapes, in order to investigate visceral physicality, sensuality, and the spectacular.
The open rehearsal will feature a live excerpt from the works developed during the residency. Project themes will also be discussed.
Rubens was a European royal court painter in the early 17th century. His paintings, and their core ideas, are the inspiration for Galass's abstract performance piece, according to The Watermill Center.
March 16, 2013: “Conversations” by Outspoken Bean.
Outspoken Bean will perform excerpts from an upcoming book of poems and memoirs.
May 4, 2013: Open Rehearsal by Dictophone Group.
Dictophone Group plans to develop a lecture performance on the idea of borders, according to The Watermill Center. The Arab world will be the centerpiece and themes will be revealed through oral histories, old photographs, mapping and other research tools.
June 8, 2013: “Thumbprint” by Kamala Sankaram and Susan Yankowitz.
The residency will focus on ways to weave a community chorus into "Thumbprint." The Open Rehearsal expects to present an experiment staging with new parts written for a community chorus made up of area singers. The vocal piece will become an important part of the narrative arc of the story.
June 8, 2013: Open Rehearsal by John Atwood.
Atwood is interested in expanding the space between the time a photograph is made and the moment it is developed. To do this, Atwood will use graphite sketches to recall the composition of photographs before developing the images. The sketches will be combined with still and projected images of the photographs taken in a two-week period in three locations.
BASIC FACTS: Programs planned for Open Rehearsals can shift based upon the work created during the residency. Residencies are awarded based upon the strength of the project-in-process and the artist's expectation of new work that will be developed during the residency. Creative interaction with The Watermill Center environment and within the group can cause project directions to turn.
The Open Rehearsal dates and artists-in-residency may be subject to change. Check The Watermill Center's website for updates and details. Reservations are requested for all open rehearsals. Admission is free.
The Watermill Center is located at 39 Watermill Towd Rd, Water Mill, NY 11976. watermillcenter.org.
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The Watermill Center. Photo by Lucie Jansch.
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© 2012 Pat Rogers and Hamptons Art Hub. All rights reserved.