Frontier reading | New York Theatre Workshop

I’ll be reading a draft of Frontier at New York Theatre Workshop on January 9th at 3pm. This is the piece I received a 2012 Rome Prize for and I’ll be at the American Academy in Rome with it for a final creation residency this spring. It’s a solo, based on a 1956 John Ford western, The Searchers. There’ll be a discussion moderated by Linda Chapman following the reading and I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’re able to come.  We’ve done this before and it’s been very helpful. The reading is free, and it’s a very small room.

Previous residencies for the project include the Whitney, Watermill Center, LPAC, and NYU / Gallatin.

untitled (man in room study)

A new video work, untitled (man in room study), can be seen here.

EMPAC Dance Movies Commission

In August, an EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission was received for the creation of In The First Place…

Comprised of ten short films, In The First Place… reframes an Italian pastoral romance published in 1499, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili – the strife of love in a dream, as a series of ten decisive moments in which the protagonist uses classical landmarks to reorient himself while pursuing his beloved. Each of the short films will consist of a single scene, 1.5 – 2 minutes long. Though each will not contain a full narrative, shifts in the characters’ tone will echo the quest through the landscapes, perspectives, and memories found in the original story.

The production will be shot in Rome, and will involve Roman landmarks that reference the dreamscapes illustrated in the Hypnerotomachia. It will premiere in the fall of 2012 as part of the Filament festival at EMPAC.

The EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission 2011-2012, is supported by The Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts. Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.

The Fabulist

A new evening-length solo work, The Fabulist, based on a selection of La Fontaine’s Fables, has been commissioned by the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) in New York, and is currently being created there in residence. It will premiere at FIAF on November 4th. More details to come.

Rome Prize

Colin Gee was awarded a 2011-2012 Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, in the Design category, for the production design of Frontier.

The Watermill Center / New York Theatre Workshop, Ctd.

Following the developmental residency at the Watermill Center in October, a work-in-progress presentation of Frontier took place at New York Theatre Workshop’s 4th St. Theatre on January 31.  An additional creation residency, from January 10-21,  was awarded by NYU/Gallatin.

As mentioned in earlier posts, the locations in which Frontier’s narrative unfolds respond to works in the Whitney’s permanent collection. Below is a video still of Scene 58 from the Jan. 31st work-in-progress showing. The work it responds to is seen below it.

Scene 58 (video still)

Robert Adams, Motel, 1969

I felt I’d been here before

I felt I’d been here before, was reviewed in Artforum.

The Watermill Center / New York Theatre Workshop

The project Frontier was awarded a residency at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, in conjunction with New York Theater Workshop. An open rehearsal will be conducted at the Center on Saturday, October 16. Please contact for details.

I felt I’d been here before

Images and video from I felt I’d been here before, a solo exhibition of installed video works at Belfast Exposed, have been posted here.

Water Clock

A new work in the History Plays series, Water Clock, has been posted on the History Plays page.  Water Clock, responds to Joseph Cornell’s, Celestial Navigation.  Special thanks again to the Americas Society, where this piece was filmed, for their generous cooperation and support.