Theatre and Dance and Broadway Bank Present The Cohen New Works Festival April 13-17

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February 25, 2015

The Cohen New Works Festival, the largest collegiate festival of its kind, returns to The University of Texas at Austin April 13-17. Presented by the university’s Department of Theatre and Dance and new sponsor Broadway Bank, the biennial Festival will showcase 38 original, student-produced works in five days on the university campus.

The Festival exists as an incubator for innovative and original forms of theatre, dance, music, film, design, visual art, architecture and a wide variety of alternative mediums. It provides a nurturing environment and practical resources for the creation, development, production, and discussion of new and interdisciplinary work by students, faculty, guest artists, and scholars who come together in the spirit of collaboration and critical inquiry. The variety of ideas and forms explored in these pieces provides a glimpse into what an emerging generation of artists-scholars consider important and relevant.

The following projects highlight the range in diversity of both topics and genres in the 2015 Festival. For more information about the Festival lineup and events, please visit newworksfestival.org. Thanks to the support of Broadway Bank, admission to Festival events is free.


Apocalypse Radio

Inspired by the catwalk system in the university’s Oscar G. Brockett Theatre, Apocalypse Radio aims to disrupt the typical theatergoing experience by providing audience members with a place to nest on-stage, complete with blankets, sleeping bags and pillows. Set in Chicagolandia, one of the major mega-cities left in this particular retro-future America, this piece, rather than being guided by a traditional narrative, relies heavily on the atmosphere, tone and experiences. “We are building secrets into our show. We might kidnap certain audience members. There may be hidden codes,” share project leads Katie Van Winkle and Lydia Blaisdell. “We want to surprise and delight and terrify.”

Eye See… I Forget

Eye See… I Forget combines documentary storytelling and visual art to create an experiential piece that is a reflection and dedication to life and memory. Representing the seven stages of Alzheimer’s, this installation resembles the structure of a brain with audiences crawling inside to hear and experience the life and memories of an actual Alzheimer’s patient. As the Festival progresses, so will this disease. Each day brings new changes to the “brain”: lights becoming tangled and dim, pictures torn, props displaced and corners emptied. By the end of the Festival, the brain will be an organ that is no longer functioning.

RE/CONNECT

Investigating loneliness, community and intimacy through projections, music and text, RE/CONNECT asks what is a “right” relationship to technology? In an era of intense interfacing with i-devices and avatar identities, this interdisciplinary performance prioritizes what the performing arts contribute to understanding the relationship of humans to each other, both on screen and off. These vignettes and narratives of music, movement and media address concepts of human-to-technology relationships, communication and our understanding of how humans connect.

Shrines to Childhood

Shrines to Childhood is an experiential site-specific art installation and performance that examines how sharing stories in, around and through ensemble-created shrines to childhood may make meaning from our own childhood experiences while examining the memories that physical objects can hold. Led on a pilgrimage to these shrines, the audience experiences stories of childhood and may interact with the performers and spaces in different ways. They might be offered food, write a note and add it to the shrine, play a game, or listen to an audio installation.

The DJ is My Griot

To be aware of the vast scope of America, one must comprehend the full extent of its cultural contributors. The DJ is My Griot is a dance theatre piece exploring the notion of how the way we dance as a culture reveals who we are and where we’ve been. Led, guided and taught by the DJ Griot, “Generation Now” will discover their shared history through dance movements derived from popular social dance forms that showcase influence from Africanist Aesthetic and emphasize the cultural debate surrounding concepts of power, survival, misappropriation and diaspora.

Welcome, Home

Welcome, Home considers how the complexities of language and communication, and how it has influenced the study of dance, art and life. As the pioneers of a new international, collegiate exchange program, four dance students were fully submerged into the culture of Angers, France to study the art of dance. Through a series of choreographed vignettes, these dancers bring home a taste of their international experience while sharing their evolving thoughts, amazements, frustrations and unexplainable impulses. The movement elements combine with surround-sight media to create an interactive, living blog. Set in the scene shop of the F. Loren Winship Drama Building, the audience is invited to find a seat wherever to become one with this multi-sensory immersive dance experience.