Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents Virtual Works & Process: American Repertory Theater’s Ocean Filibuster by PearlDamour

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, presents a Virtual Works & Process: American Repertory Theater’s Ocean Filibuster by PearlDamour on Monday, June 8, 2020 at 7:30pm. The event is free, but space is limited and RSVP is required at  www.worksandprocess.org; a Zoom link and password will be emailed the day of the performance.

Prior to the American Repertory Theater’s world premiere production, writer Lisa D’Amour, director Katie Pearl, and composer Sxip Shirey discuss their newest music theater experience created by the Obie Award-winning company PearlDamour, moderated by sound designer Mikaal Sulaiman. Actor Jenn Kidwell, who plays both roles, performs highlights.

Inside the Senate chamber of a global governing body, Mr. Majority introduces the “End of Ocean Bill,” designed to shrink Earth’s oceans into a more manageable (and marketable) collection of inland seas and lagoons. When the floor is opened for debate, the Ocean arrives to speak in its own defense, and so begins the Human-Ocean showdown. Ocean Filibuster draws from myth, stand-up, and science to explore the vast depths crucial to our daily survival.

Commissioned and developed through a collaboration between the American Repertory Theater and Harvard University Center for the Environment. In lieu of the originally planned live Works & Process program, this program will take place on Zoom. Audience members should have access to a computer with an internet connection. Free, but space is limited. RSVP is required; a Zoom link and password will be emailed the day of the performance. Suggested donation: $20

All donations will be devoted to Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions, with every dollar going directly to an artist.

Jennifer Kidwell is a performing artist. Recent projects – Underground Railroad Game (2017 Obie Award for Best New American Theatre Work; 2018 Edinburgh Fringe First Award; Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes nominations), Adrienne Truscott’s Still Asking for It (Joe’s Pub), Home (Geoff Sobelle, Bessie Award for Outstanding Production), Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed (Dan Hurlin), I Understand Everything Better (David Neumann/advanced beginner group, Bessie Award for Outstanding Production), Antigone (The Wilma Theater), A Hard Time, Superterranean, Fire Burns Hot: Little Reno!, I Promised Myself to Live Faster and 99 Break-Ups (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Dick’s Last Stand (Whitney Biennial 2014, as Donelle Woolford), Zinnias: the Life of Clementine Hunter (Robert Wilson/Toshi Reagon/Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon). Company member PITC and Lightning Rod Special, Wilma Theater Associated Artist, co-founder of JACK. Her writing has been published in movement research Performance Journal #45 and at hyperallergic.com. 2013 TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship (with PITC), 2015 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant, 2016 Pew Fellow, 2017 Independence Fellowship.

PearlDamour, the collaborative team of Lisa D’Amour and Katie Pearl, has been making award-winning interdisciplinary and site-specific theater for 22 years, with partners such as The Walker, The Kitchen, PS122, The Whitney, Duke University, The Contemporary Arts Center, and Fusebox Festival. Their recent experimental music theater piece, Milton, was created through visits to small towns named Milton over 5 years. Alongside collaborative community art projects, PearlDamour presented the show in 3 of the Miltons. Funded by MAP Fund, NEA Our Town, NYSCA, and local foundations, a book on the Milton project is available from 53rd Street Press. PearlDamour’s large- scale work includes Lost in the Meadow, created with set designer Mimi Lien for the 40-acre Meadow Garden at Longwood Botanical Gardens, and How to Build a Forest, in which they assembled and disassembled a fantastic, simulated forest over 8 hours as audiences passed through. How to Build a Forest was developed in New Orleans, premiered at The Kitchen, and toured to many locations including the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. PearlDamour’s early work was more intimate, performed in living rooms, galleries and black boxes theaters. Their Obie-winning Nita & Zita, brought two sisters/New Orleans dance legends lusciously back from the grave. Ocean Filibuster is a commission from A.R.T. Theater with support from the Harvard Center for the Environment. It will premiere at A.R.T. before touring to the Mitchell Center for the Arts/University of Houston and other theaters.

AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATER (A.R.T.) at Harvard University is a leading force in the American theater. Led by Terrie and Bradley Bloom Artistic Director Diane Paulus and Executive Producer Diane Borger, A.R.T. expands the boundaries of theater by producing groundbreaking and transformative theatrical experiences where the audience is a central partner. The A.R.T. has been honored the Tony Award for Best New Play for All the Way (2014); consecutive Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical for Pippin (2013) and The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess(2012), both of which Paulus directed, and sixteen other Tony Awards since 2012; a Pulitzer Prize; a Jujamcyn Prize for outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent; and the Regional Theater Tony Award. Additional Broadway productions include Jagged Little Pill; Waitress (also US National Tour and in London’s West End); Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; and Finding Neverland. As the professional theater on the campus of Harvard University, A.R.T. is committed to playing a central role in the cognitive life of the University, catalyzing discourse, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative exchange around the most pressing issues of our day.

Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions, a direct response to the pandemic, was launched to financially support artists and nurture their creative process during these challenging times. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, is granting more than $150,000 in commissioning funds to artists who have been or were supposed to be featured at Works & Process. Artists from a wide variety of genres have been commissioned to create new works, less than 5 minutes long, while social distancing, that will premiere on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube (@worksandprocess) every Sunday and Monday at 7:30pm and can be viewed any time after.

WPA Virtual Commissions Playlist

Upcoming Schedule of Premieres:
May 31 – Dance HeginbothamJune 1 – Click Clock – Tick Tock by Anthony Roth Costanzo, Adam Charlap Hyman, Dick Hyman, and Zack Winokur

Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions(as of May 19)
Evita Arce * Ephrat Asherie * Brandon Stirling Baker * LaTasha Barnes * Reid Bartelme * Joshua Bergasse * Hope Boykin * Brian Brooks * Nora Brown * Tony Buck * Nathan Bugh * Rena Butler * Chris Celiz * Alejandro Cerrudo * Gaby Cook * Anthony Roth Costanzo * Dylan Crossman * Adrian Danchig-Waring * Machine Dazzle * Viva DeConcini * Simone Dinnerstein Michelle Dorrance * Silas Farley * Jack Ferver * Tom Gold * Joseph Gordon * John Heginbotham * HIPS * Adam Charlap Hyman * Dick Hyman * Michael R. Jackson * Jeremy Jacob * Colin Jacobsen Michael Jagger * John Jarboe * Harriet Jung * Larry Keigwin * Gabrielle Lamb * Ashley Laracey Pontus Lidberg * Ana Lopez * Dave Malloy * Missy Mazzoli * Ryan McNamara * Sara Mearns Andrea Miller * Isaac Mizrahi * Nico Muhly * Carson Murphy * Michael Novak * Josh Prince * Caili Quan * Jamar Roberts * Anthony Rodriguez * Kamala Sankaram * Zoe Sarnak * Penny Saunders Claudia Schreier * Troy Schumacher * Margo Seibert * Dan Siegler * Dawn Sinkowski * Gus Solomons Jr. * Karma Stylz * Pam Tanowitz * Conrad Tao * Caleb Teicher * Adam Tendler Charles Turner * Nicholas Van Young * Preeti Vasudevan * Eyal Vilner * David Watson * Omari Wiles * Zack Winokur * Nicole Wolcott and more
  
Lead funding for Works & Process is provided by the Ford Foundation, the Christian Humann Foundation, Leon Levy Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Evelyn Sharp Foundation, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. Works & Process has received support from the U.S. Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program and NYC Employee Retention Grant Program.

Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions has been supported by Stuart Coleman, Antonio Convit and Tim McGraw, Lucy Dobrin, Adam Flatto, Bart Friedman, Bond Koga, Jayne Lipman, Cynthia Hazen Polsky, Stephen Kroll Reidy, Denise Saul, Annalyn Swan, Shelby White and many others.  Virtual video design support for WPA Virtual Commissions provided by Anupam and Rajika Puri. New music for dance for WPA Virtual Commissions provided by The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.

Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Described by The New York Times as “an exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process,” for 35 years, New Yorkers have been able to see, hear, and meet the most acclaimed artists in the world, in an intimate setting unlike any other. Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to generations of leading creators and performers. Most performances take place in the Guggenheim’s intimate Frank Lloyd Wright-designed 273-seat Peter B. Lewis Theater. In 2017, Works & Process established a new residency and commissioning program, inviting artists to create new works, made in and for the iconic Guggenheim rotunda. In 2020, Works & Process Artists (WPA) Virtual Commissions was created to financially support artists and nurture their creative process during the pandemic. worksandprocess.org.