petitversailles

Le Petit Versailles is a NYC public community garden in the East Village that presents a season of events including art exhibitions, music, film/video, performance, theater, workshops and community projects from May - October. LPV is a project of Allied Productions, Inc., a non profit arts organization. http://www.alliedproductions.org

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Exquisite Witness and Océan 10/11/08



Le Petit Versailles
presents
Exquisite Witness
and
Océan


In Between Stories of yes, no, maybe or not?

Saturday October 11, 2008 @ 8pm

Le Petit Versailles Garden
346 East Houston St (btwn Avenues B & C)
F/V - Second Avenue & J/M - Delancey/Essex
contact: Peter Cramer 212 529 8815 petitversailles@earthlink.net
www.lpvtv.blogspot.com
Admission is FREE but donations help provide food & refreshments!


Exquisite Witness-
We are the stories we remember, without adherence to fiction or truth. But without a Witness,are some of these stories incomplete? Are we therefore incomplete?

Exquisite Witness is a live theater spectacle involving two performers who blur the boundaries of identity by evoking multiple personas in succession in an attempt to relate previously untold fictional histories. The piece will be a combination of storytelling, theater [monologue & dialog], original soundscape, and inventive costuming made up of about 15 short stories.

The audience will be invited to bear Witness to these histories, thereby completing the cycle of call and response necessary for the affirmation of individual experience through outside acknowledgment or community witness. Each story depicts a discrete and consequential moment in the lives of characters (real or imagined) that lacks completion until told. The performers take it upon themselves to be the catalyst for this exchange and subsequent closure.

The content ranges from the absurd to the mundane to the obscene: a chance encounter, a suicidal poisoning, a failed relationship, a craigslist ad, and so forth. We currently have four completed and several in-progress pieces.
As this work-in-progress unfurls, we are creating a series of vignettes, which when woven together ultimately reveal the human need for validation.

Océan -
Océan was born and raised in France, before living in London and studying in Paris, Oxford and Berlin. First contact with the arts with Music (award-winner of the Madeleine de Valmalète Piano Competition), then Dance (Tanzfabrik Berlin), and underground Theater (Theater Westöstlicher Divan, Berliner Ground Theater), Océan had his/her stage debut as a drag performer at the Go Drag! Festival with Diane Torr and Bridge Markland in 2002. Having taken acting, singing and scriptwriting classes, Océan is famous for his multimedia-performances involving video-clips and dia-show projections, choregraphy, live singing and poetry slam. He was nominated as “most influent personality” at the last Mix! FilmFestival in Brazil, and won in July 2008 the international Kings VILLAGE Contest in Rome, Italy, convincing a professional jury of journalists, film makers, singers and actors. Océan also acts in a few short films in various men or women characters, including “Lost in Generations” and “Fucking Different Tel’Aviv”. Currently on the road, Océan is accompanying the international festival tour of the documentary film "Risk, Stretch or Die" (Saskia Heyden, 2007) about his transgender life.

What Océan says...

Am I simply a drag king? Not sure... I strongly identify as a transgender performer. For me the most important is not the trash and fun factor, but to go to deeper levels and bring some real stuff on stage, issues like the 3rd sex, trans* families, kings eventually turning gay, homo- and transphobia, but also more and more general social issues like war, violence,lookism, and that crazy speed of life...

What the media say about the film Risk, Stretch or Die…

Thought-provoking and intelligent, this poetic documentary dissects gender identity by aiming its lens at an electrifying individual who is a successful businesswoman by day and a popular drag performer by night. Set against the avant-garde backdrop of Berlin, Risk, Stretch or Die is a compelling look into the fascinating life of gender-bending, famed French drag king Océan LeRoy. Transgender identified, Océan refuses to abide strictly by a male or female label. During business hours, the dual-natured dynamo manages a media and technology consulting firm as a woman, finding it easier to play by the rules of business in this prescribed role. But when night arrives, the chameleon emerges full tilt as a suave and dapper male. Hitting the stage as a man and a woman, the innovative entertainer performs a broad range of passion-charged numbers, from poetry slam to hardcore punk rock loaded with political statements, often pushing the audience outside their comfort zone. This documentary is not merely about a drag king; it delves deeply into a different and more fluid perspective that shatters conventional notions of gender. Told in a lyrical tone with a keen visual eye, director Saskia Heyden unveils the core of this fascinating figure and beautifully captures an androgynous person who outwardly defies masculine and feminine constraints.

LPV events are made possible by Allied Productions, Inc.,
Citizens for NYC, Green Thumb/NYC Dept. of Parks, Materials for the Arts;
NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, NYC Dept. of Sanitation & NYC Board of Education
Film & Exhibition support from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Additional support, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

MUSIC FOr (F)ALL SEASONS



Le Petit Versailles
presents
MUSIC FOr (F)ALL SEASONS

September 27 Saturday 3 - 11pm
( RAIN OR SHINE.)


6:30pm Radio Wonderland - Joshua Fried

3pm & 8pm - The New York Oratorio - Richard Kostelanetz
Richard Kostelanetz in person at 8pm.


Come enjoy the garden earlier as we will present New York City Oratorio twice @ 3pm & 8pm.

Le Petit Versailles Garden
346 East Houston St (btwn Avenues B & C)
F/V - Second Avenue & J/M - Delancey/Essex
contact: 212 529 8815 petitversailles@earthlink.net
www.lpvtv.blogspot.com
Admission is FREE but donations help provide food & refreshments!


RADIO WONDERLAND is me, Joshua Fried, performing solo live sound
processing controlled by old shoes I drum on with sticks (I'm a
drummer) and a steering wheel (I'm a, er, wheel player).

RADIO WONDERLAND turns live commercial FM radio into recombinant funk.

All the sounds originate from an old boombox, playing radio LIVE.
Nothing is pre-recorded; anything picked up during the
performance is fair game until the end. All the processing is
live custom DSP programmed by me in the MaxMSP programming
environment. But I hardly touch the laptop. My controllers
really are a vintage Buick steering wheel, old shoes mounted on
stands, and some gizmos. You'll hear me build grooves, step by
step, out of recognizable radio, and even UN-wind my grooves back
to the original radio source.

I walk on with a boom box, playing FM radio LIVE. Once onstage,
I plug it into my system and start slicing up radio. I arrange
those slices both rhythmically, and, by playing them at different
speeds, melodically as well, all according to what I hear. I
call this process the RE-SHUFFLER. With another algorithm, which
I call my RE-ESSER, (studio nerds will recognize this as a joke
on de-esser), I isolate the sibilance, so I can compose on the
spot with those S, T, K, Sh, etc. sounds, just like programming a
drum machine. The ANYTHING-KICK uses FFT-based cross synthesis
to morph a bit of radio in the direction of a kick drum.

The sum total is dance music. I ham it up like mad, using the
theatricality of the shoes and wheel. It's great fun, and more
musical than the video suggests. Every show is rather different,
naturally, because the source material is entirely different each
time.

So what's it all about? What is the art-speak that goes with
RADIO WONDERLAND? I want to show that we ALL can interrupt and
interrogate the never-ending flow of commercial media. So my
transformations, taken individually, must be clear and simple--
mostly framing, repeating and changing pitch--although when
everything is put together it does end up complex. My controllers
are simple too: the wheel merely a knob to take things up and
down (frequency, tempo) or play radio loops like a turntable, the
shoes just pads I hit softer or louder. The surreal quality of
using such ordinary objects underscores the absurd disconnect
between digital controller and sound, as well as the congenial
nature of the aural transformations themselves. So, too, my riffs
must be vernacular and not elite. (We need the funk.)


The New York Oratorio - Richard Kostelanetz
---statement excerpt---
As a native New Yorker, who has
lived here my entire adult life (and dislikes
leaving it, even for an afternoon in “the coun-
try”), I have always treasured and even writ-
ten about the literature and art of my home
town, most recently in SoHo: The Rise and
Fall of an Artistsʼ Colony (Routledge, 2003).
Nonetheless, it seems to me that though the
greatest books appear to capture much of
New York City, the place still evaded as well
as exceeded the capacities of either authorsʼ
imaginations or their medium. Not only was
too much left out, but one recurring problem
apparent to me is a failure to acknowledge
how unprecedented and how extraordinary
this City was--how it has become a kind
of second nature that had all the coherence
and comprehensiveness of primary nature
and yet was completely apart and different
from it. Too many authors in writing about
New York seemed too eager to connect it to
something old, such as birds and trees--to
see the old in the new--rather than accept the
city as a wholly unprecedented environment.
Appreciative of this New York literature,
yet aware of its inadequacies, I had come
to regard New York City as one of the most
fertile and challenging subjects for art.

My first thought, which seems ever
more odd in retrospect, was to write out of
my own head a New York replica of Dylan
Thomasʼs Under Milk Wood (1953), which
survives in my memory as a model warm
evocation of oneʼs home town. I conceived
of indigenous characters and outlined char-
acteristics of their speech; but once I tried to
write their lines, I realized the futility of this
approach. The trouble was not just that the
languages of New York are not as univer-
sally appealing as Welsh English; I cannot
write like Dylan Thomas and, though awed,
would not want to. Moreover, the more I
thought about Under Milk Wood, I realized
that it represented the climax of a certain
period of creative radio, when most shows
were done live (or initially in live time, even
if they were recorded for later broadcast),
because the only recording technology
available at the time was wire that, though
it could but cut, could not be reconnected
without leaving an audible noise. Working
thirty years after Thomas, I had necessar-
ily become familiar with audiotape editing
and multitracking; so I decided that instead
of writing my New York City on sheets of
paper, it would be more appropriate for me
collect the materials of my piece--to gather
those sounds that make New York City
audibly so different from everywhere else
in the world. From the elements of this col-
lection I would then compose, along certain
principles suggested not only by the mate-
rial but by my knowledge and experience of
the city, a kind of symphony that would, like
Under Milk Wood, be a warm radio portrait
of oneʼs home town.

LPV events are made possible by Allied Productions, Inc.,
Citizens for NYC, Green Thumb/NYC Dept. of Parks, Materials for the Arts;
NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, NYC Dept. of Sanitation & NYC Board of Education
Film & Exhibition support from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Additional support, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Isle of Klezbos! Klezmer for Kweens!


Isle of Klezbos sextet plays one final outdoor show this summer:
Tuesday, September 16
7:30pm - rain or shine!
Le Petit Versailles Garden
346 East Houston St (btwn Avenues B & C)
East Village, NYC
http://lpvtv.blogspot.com
Admission is FREE but donations help provide food & refreshments!


Isle of Klezbos will regale hometown fans at this farewell to summer
show, making the band's debut at Le Petit Versailles' lush garden
stage in the East Villlage.
Following this year's outdoor concerts from KlezBiGay Pride at El Sol
Brilliante Garden to the dancing throngs at Michigan Womyn's Music
Festival, our fun-loving powerhouse sextet plays one final open-air
season celebration.
This LPV Isle of Klezbos appearance features:

PAM FLEMING (Hazmat Modine, Burning Spear, Natalie Merchant) - trumpet
MELISSA FOGARTY (Coronation of Poppea, Mark Morris' King Arthur) - vocals
DEBRA KREISBERG (Los Mas Valientes, Metropolitan Klezmer) - clarinet + alto sax
EVE SICULAR (J. Edgar Klezmer: Songs from My Grandmother's FBI Files) - drums
and special guest klezbians <<
PATRICK FARRELL (Staggerback Brass, Romashka) - accordion
DAVID HOFSTRA (Microscopic Septet, Metropolitan Klezmer) - bass

Formed in 1998, the NYC-based Isle of Klezbos has toured from Vienna
to Vancouver. This soulful six-piece group performs a gorgeous range
of traditional and original sounds, from vibrant Yiddish folk and
dance tunes, retro swing and tango, to brand new genre-defying grooves
and instant classics such as klezmer cumbia. Their music has been
heard on Showtime's "The L Word," CNN "Worldbeat," and PBS "In The
Life," and well over 100 radio stations worldwide. Isle of Klezbos
drummer/bandleader Eve Sicular is also founder of Metropolitan Klezmer
octet, and shares both these adventures in wide-ranging neo-trad
klezmer with the versatile and virtuosic Pam, Debra, and Missy,
approaching this artistic heritage with both irreverence and respect.
We are thrilled to be curated at LPV by our friend and East Village
legend/camp heritage diva Peter (Pierre) Cramer.

http://metropolitanklezmer.com
http://myspace.com/klezbos
http://lpvtv.blogspot.com


LPV events are made possible by Allied Productions, Inc.,
Citizens for NYC, Green Thumb/NYC Dept. of Parks, Materials for the Arts;
NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, NYC Dept. of Sanitation & NYC Board of Education
Film & Exhibition support from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Additional support, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Monday, September 08, 2008

TOM CHOMONT- VIDEO WIZARD




Le Petit Versailles
presents

TOM CHOMONT -
New Works from the Video Wizard.
A Birthday Celebration!

September 13
Saturday @ 3pm.



Fluctuations by Samay Jain – 2005, 7 min.
Oblivion – 1969, 4 min.
Jabbok (tinted version) - 1967, 3 min.
Razor Head – 1985, 6 min.
A Faustian Knot - 1994, 8 min.
Ring of Fire – 2001, 1 min.
Scott’s Studio – 2003, 7 min.
Wizard of Light – 2006, 1 min.
Mother’s Day – 2006, 10 min. (This consists of 7 short films — Mother’s Day, Bathed in Light, Going for a Ride, The Mother Garden, Robert’s Mother’s Flowers, Time Taken and Brief Visit)

Le Petit Versailles
346 East Houston (btwn B & C)
Subway : F/V - Second Avenue & J/M - Delancey/Essex
contact: 212 529 8815 petitversailles@earthlink.net www.lpvtv.blogspot.com
Admission is FREE but donations help provide food & refreshments!

LPV events are made possible by Allied Productions, Inc.,
Citizens for NYC, Green Thumb/NYC Dept. of Parks, Materials for the Arts;
NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, NYC Dept. of Sanitation & NYC Board of Education
Film & Exhibition support from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Additional support, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Monday, September 01, 2008

SALOME - A Veiled Threat.



Le Petit Versailles 
presents
Salome! A Veiled Threat
An evening of dance, theatre, music, and film.
September 5th FRIDAY @ 8PM

Performances by Ryan Lawrence and Bizzy
Directed by Jeremy Gender
Lighting by Peter Cramer
Costumes by Luc Goodhart and Rommie Ampil
Plus! Nazimova in the 1923 film Salome based on Oscar Wilde's play, with sets and costumes by Aubrey Beardsley- projected in 16mm by Stephen Kent Jusick with original score by Hayes Smith and John Swartz. Special appearance by the head of Jack Waters.

Salome! A Veiled Threat is an evening of live theatre, music, dance , and film dedicated to and inspired by one of the Bible's favorite femme fatales. The evening includes dance and theatre performances directed by Jeremy Gender and featuring Ryan Lawrence and Bizzy with work inspired by the Bible, the writings of Charles L. Mee and the music of Richard Strauss and other contemporary artists.

Le Petit Versailles
346 East Houston (btwn B & C)
Subway : F/V - Second Avenue & J/M - Delancey/Essex
contact: 212 529 8815 petitversailles@earthlink.net www.lpvtv.blogspot.com
Admission is FREE but donations help provide food & refreshments!

LPV events are made possible by Allied Productions, Inc.,
Citizens for NYC, Green Thumb/NYC Dept. of Parks, Materials for the Arts;
NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, NYC Dept. of Sanitation & NYC Board of Education
Film & Exhibition support from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Additional support, in part, by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.