'CRASH' explores nature of storytelling
The new work “CRASH” will be performed March 25-27 at Arizona State University’s West campus. “CRASH” is a solo stage performance and gallery installation created by New York-based theater artist Will Bond of the internationally renowned theatre company SITI, in collaboration with Judson Dance Theater pioneer Deborah Hay, SITI/Rude Mechanicals company member Brian H. Scott, and Marianne M. Kim, a faculty member in the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies (HArCS) in ASU’s New College.
“‘CRASH’” is as much a meditation on the urge to tell a story as it is a story told,” Kim said.
What began originally as a piece of theater written by Bond to be directed by Hay quickly metamorphosed into a larger dialogue about performance, storytelling, and the nature of the performer/audience relationship. Using text (some invented, some borrowed), movement and light, “CRASH” is a crisis of expression of a man both in the act of telling a story, and inhabiting a story himself.
“‘CRASH’ celebrates the ephemeral nature of performance, and the basic storytelling nature of human beings that binds us together, creates community, preserves memory, conveys wisdom and reminds us that we are not alone,” Kim said. “We share stories in real time and in the same undifferentiated space. ‘CRASH’ addresses the question, ‘What if how I see the space I am in, with you, is a means by which the story arises without my having to look for it?’”
Kim is a Korean-American artist and educator working in dance, theater and video art. Known for her work in Japanese Butoh and highly visual multimedia performance works, she has been produced throughout the United States and abroad. Zendai MOMA in Shanghai, Total Museum in Seoul, University of Alaska Anchorage, Mediations Biennial in Poznon, Poland and Arizona State University have presented her most recent interdisciplinary works. In 2009, she finished a national tour of “Saudade,” the newest work by choreographer David Rousseve. Kim is an assistant professor in the HArCS Division on ASU’s West campus.
Bond is a founding member of SITI Company. He has performed and toured nationally and internationally in numerous SITI productions. Bond also is an associate artist at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Artist-In-Residence in the theater department of Skidmore College.
Hay was one the founding members of the Judson Dance Theater in New York, and is acknowledged by critics and historians as one of the most relevant and influential representatives of post-modern dance. In 2000, she choreographed a duet for herself and Mikhail Baryshnikov, which toured with the Past/Forward project, a series of performances updating the choreographic scores of the Judson Group Theatre, among others.
Scott is a SITI Company member who has designed lighting for “Hotel Cassiopeia,” “systems/layers,” “Death and the Ploughman,” “War of the Worlds - The Radio Play” and “Midsummer Nights Dream” touring production.
“CRASH” is made possible in part by support from HArCS and the Rude Mechs Theater Company of Austin, Texas. The work is inspired by P. Henry Shields, by a previous work entitled “HISTORY OF THE WORLD FROM THE VERY BEGINNING,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, by Wim Wenders, and by Deborah Hay’s interest.
Performances are set for 7:30 p.m., March 25, 26 and 27 in Second Stage West, lower level of the University Center Building. ASU’s West campus is at 4701 W. Thunderbird Road in Phoenix.
Tickets are $10 general admission, $7 for seniors and ASU students and employees. Call (602) 543-ARTS (2787) for ticket information.