2013 Ringling International Arts Festival

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE CUR ATORS Historic Asolo Theater

SAT, OCT 12, 1:00 PM Exploring The Contemporary

FRI, OCT 11, 1:00 PM The Artists And Artistry Of RIAF 2013

Join Curators Matthew McLendon and Dwight Currie

Exploring the rich diversity of ideas and forms

for these in-depth explorations of the art and artists

at play on the stages of RIAF 2013.

you will encounter in the galleries and onstage during the NOWHERE experience.

These programs are free for RIAF ticket holders, but ticket reservations are required. 941.360.7399

JAZZ SUNSETS THU, OCT 10, 5:00 PM-8:00 PM F R I , OCT 1 1 , 5:00 PM-8:00 PM Enjoy the jazz sounds and entertainment of Tom Ellison and Hip Pocket as well as renowned jazz bassist John Lamb. Join us under the tent each evening as the sun sets on Sarasota Bay. Free of charge with museum admission or RIAF ticket stub. Food and beverages available for purchase. Bolger Campiello TOM ELLISON & HIP POCKET

JOHN LAMB

WELCOME TO RIAF! ONCE AGAIN, ARTISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

DIRECTION OF THE BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER TO EXPLORE THE RICH DIVERSITY OF IDEAS

CONTENTS 5 RIAF Opening Night 6 Rocío Molina Danzaora y Vinática

AND FORMS AT PLAY IN THE WORLD TODAY.

8 Tere O’Connor Dance

THE FIFTH ANNUAL RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL IS THE RESULT OF A UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE RINGLING AND THE BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER AND REFLECTS OUR MUTUAL COMMITMENT TO PRESENTING CONTEMPORARY, INNOVATIVE WORK BY BOTH EMERGING AND ESTABLISHED ARTIST AT THE

12 Leev Theater Group Hamlet, Prince of Grief 14 Belarus Free Theatre Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker 18 Stephen Prutsman and the Aeolus Quartet Sherlock Jr. 20 RIAF Closing Night Party 22 NEW STAGES 2014: Places in the Sky 24 Sponsors and Supporters

© C.P. SATYAJIT

© VICTORIA HIDALGO

FOREFRONT OF THEIR FIELDS.

© RUS ANSON

© MICHAEL SLOBODIAN

COVER PHOTOS, FROM LEFT: STEPHEN PRUTSMAN AND THE AEOLUS QUARTET, PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; LEEV THEATER GROUP, PHOTO BY MEDHI SHABAN; ROCIO MOLINA, PHOTO BY FELIX VAZQUEZ; TERE O’CONNOR DANCE, PHOTO BY PAULA COURT’; BELARUS FREE THEATER, PHOTO BY NICOLAI KHALEZIN

HAVE COME TOGETHER UNDER THE ARTISTIC

2009 Maria Pagés

2012 Shantala Shivalingappa

2010 Rubberbandance Group

2011 Meklit Hadero RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 1

OCTOBER 9-12, 2013

Friends and Members, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Ringling International Arts Festival. This year marks the 5th year of the festival and our final year of partnership with the Baryshnikov Art Center (BAC). From the beginning, under the artistic direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov, the BAC set the bar high for artistic excellence in the festival.

This year we are proud to present one of the most diverse and challenging schedules yet, with performances by the Belarus Free Theatre and the Iran-based Leev Theater Group we present important work nearly impossible to see elsewhere in the U.S. With the performances by Rocío Molina, Tere O’Connor Dance, and Stephen Prutsman

5401 Bay Shore Road Sarasota, FL 34243 ringling.org Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums

GOVERNOR

with Aeolus Quartet, the festival continues its commitment to present the very best

The Honorable Rick Scott

in contemporary performance in all its forms. My thanks go out to the BAC for their

THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

leadership on the festival these past five years and to all of you, our loyal audience, whose support of new performance at the Ringling makes RIAF possible. It is with excitement and anticipation that we enter a new phase for the festival with next year’s RIAF 2014.

Dr. Eric J. Barron, President OFFICE OF THE PROVOST

Dr. Garnett Stokes, Provost COLLEGE OF VISUAL ARTS, THEATRE & DANCE

Peter Weishar, Dean

I hope you enjoy our 5th Annual Ringling International Arts Festival.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Steven High

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Steven High, Executive Director

Clifford L. Walters III, Chair Michael E. Urette, Vice Chair Michael R. Pender Jr., Treasurer Jane Skogstad, Secretary Martin A. Arch Madeleine H. Berman Thomas J. Charters Daniel J. Denton Rebecca Donelson George R. Ellis Kenneth J. Feld Frances D. Fergusson Casey Gonzmart Priscilla M. Greenfield Patrick J. Hennigan Paul G. Hudson Dorothy C. Jenkins Thomas W. Jennings Jr. Patricia R. Lombard Thomas B. Luzier Nancy J. Parrish Roger C. Pettingell Michéle D. Redwine Ina L. Schnell Linda Streit Howard C. Tibbals James B. Tollerton Helga M. Wall-Apelt EX-OFFICIO BOARD MEMBERS

A special thank you to our many volunteers!

2 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Wilmer I. Pearson, Chair, Volunteer Services Advisory Council Joan T. Uranga, Chair, Docent Advisory Council

Dear Ringling International Arts Festival Audiences and Supporters, Thank you for inviting the Baryshnikov Arts Center to contribute to your community for the past five years. We

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

hope that the artists that we have brought to the Festival

Mikhail Baryshnikov

have challenged, delighted and provoked any of you

Chairman Artistic Director, Baryshnikov Arts Center

who have taken a chance to come see something new or unknown. For the artists you may have seen before, we hope

R. Jarrett Lilien

that their repeated presence in your beautiful theaters has

Treasurer

deepened your appreciation of them.

Frank Cordasco, MD Richard DeScherer

It has been a remarkable journey to grow our own

Diana DiMenna

organization alongside this dynamic Festival and to

James H. Duffy Slavka B. Glaser Roger Hooker Aidan Mooney Steven Pesner Suzanne Weil BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER FESTIVAL STAFF

Mikhail Baryshnikov, Artistic Director

Georgiana Pickett, Executive Director

Pedja Muzijevic, Artistic Administrator

collaborate with the talented, diligent and flexible staff PHOTO BY FRANCIS DZIKOWSKI ESTO, COURTESY OF H3 ARCHITECTURE

Sandra Foschi

at Ringling. We are appreciative of your openness to our ideas and have been inspired by your own work.

BAC has established many friendships here and we hope to return regularly to the Ringling International Arts Festival as eager audience members.

Sincerely,

Georgiana Pickett Executive Director Baryshnikov Arts Center

Baryshnikov Arts Center New York RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 3

ICONS OF STYLE O C T O B E R 4 ­— J A N U A R Y 5

Museum of Art, Searing Wing

Celebrating the interconnected roles of fashion makers, the models who wear their designs, and the media that disseminate those looks to the world.

Drawing on the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s rich collection of costumes, fashion illustration, and photography, Icons of Style explores the process of creating icons of style, from design concept to runway and finished image. Fashion designers express their creative concepts through their runway shows, and the exhibition will feature pieces by John Galliano for Dior, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Olivier Theyskens for Rochas, Arnold Scaasi, and Christian Lacroix.

Woman’s evening dress in two parts, designed

by Olivier Theyskens for House of Rochas, 2005, Helen and Alice Colburn Fund, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Woman’s evening dress: Katisha-San, designed

by John Galliano for House of Christian Dior, 2007, Museum purchase with funds donated by the Fashion Council, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Icons of Style was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

PARTIALLY FUNDED BY: Robert G. and Diane S. Roskamp William G. and Marie Selby Foundation

4 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

OPENING NIGHT OF THE FIFTH ANNUAL RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

RIA F INSPIRES

Timeless Style

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL COUNCIL, THE RIAF INSPIRES CO-CHAIR COMMITTEE AND TABLE HOSTS FOR SUPPORTING OPENING NIGHT Ringling Museum of Art EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STEVEN HIGH

Baryshnikov Arts Center ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV

RIAF International Arts Festival Council Dan Denton Cheryl Lee Dupré John McKay Nancy Parrish

Linda Streit Cliff Walters Gil Waters

RIAF INSPIRES: Timeless Style Co-Chair Committee Michael and Kathy Bush

Steven and Cheryl Lee Dupre

Tom and Allison Luzier

Elli and Linda Streit

Table Hosts Michael and Kathy Bush Community Foundation of Sarasota County Dan Denton and Ramses Serrano Rebecca Donelson and Kelly Gettel Steven and Cheryl Lee Dupre

Gulf Coast Community Foundation Tom and Allison Luzier Nancy and Chuck Parrish Sarasota Architectural Foundation Jane and Sam Skogstad Elli and Linda Streit

Art of Our Time programming is supported in part by Gulf Coast Community Foundation

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 5

© Felix Vazquez

MERTZ THEATRE WEDNESDAY, OCT 9: 7:00 OPENING NIGHT: RIAF INSPIRES THURSDAY THURSDAY

OCT 10 1:00 OCT 10 9:00

RO CÍO

MOLINA Danzaora y Vinática ROCÍO MOLINA, dancer JOSÉ ÁNGEL CARMONA, “CARMONA,” singer and mandola EDUARDO TRASSIERRA, guitar JOSÉ MANUEL RAMOS, “EL ORUCO,” hand clapping and beat Original Concept and Choreography: ROCÍO MOLINA Dramaturgical Advisor: ROBERTO FRATINI Musical Direction: ROCÍO MOLINA with ROSARIO LA TREMENDITA Original Music: EDUARDO TRASSIERRA Musical Consultant: ROSARIO LA TREMENDITA Percussion Advisor: ALVARO GARRIDO Lighting Design: RUBÉN CAMACHO Costumes: MAI CANTO Properties: ISRAEL ROMERO TECHNICAL CREW FOR INTERNATIONAL TOUR: Road Manager: CLARA CASTRO Sound and Technical Coordinator: JAVIER ALVAREZ Lighting: JOSÉ CHAVES

Danzaora Y Vinática premiered on April 7, 2011 at the Herreros Breatón´s Theater of Logrono.

The program is approximately 75-minutes in duration and is performed without an intermission.

6 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

One of the most brilliant bailaoras of our time, Spain’s Rocío Molina received her nation’s most coveted National Prize for Dance in 2010 – an extraordinary achievement for such a young artist.

The story of her meteoric rise to international fame began in 2001 when Rocío joined the international tour of the legendry Maria Pagés Company. The following year she graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Dance in Madrid, and one year later appeared as a solo artist in the USA Flamenco Festival, with Manuela Carrasco, Chocolate, and performed a duo with Israel Galván.

Her first show, Entre Paredes (Behind Walls) premiered in 2005, and this same year the Andalusian Agency for Flamenco commissioned her to create a show for the first edition of the Flamenco Festival in her native Málaga. The Madrid premiere of Turquesa como el limon (Turquoise as a lemon) in 2006 prompted Juan Vergillos of Deflamenco to observe that the artist possessed the “ability to dance each sound and each silence. Every idea and every sensation. The ability, obviously the fruit of many hours of study, to say what she pleases … In many ways she is the most important dancer today.”

ROCÍO MOLINA

In 2009, she appeared in Flamenco Hoy and in the film Flamenco, Flamenco, both directed by Carlos Saura, and in October of that same year, she premiered Cuando las Piedras Vuelen (When Stones Fly), in La Laboral, Gijón – a work for which she served as both choreographer and stage designer, working in collaboration with director Carlos Marquerie.

In 2010, when the New York Flamenco Festival presented Oro Viejo, Rocío Molina was firmly established as an artist in the eyes of the British and North American critics. She went on to present new productions in the Madrid Festival de Otoño en Primavera and at the Seville Flamenco Biennial, and starred at the Queen Sofía National Center for Art in Pedro G. Romero’s ¿La Guerra ha terminado? Arte en un mundo dividido 19451968 (Is the War Over? Art in a divided world).

It was during this triumphant season that the 26-year-old artist received the highest distinction awarded in the world of art, dance and culture in Spain. Citing “her contribution to the renovation of Flamenco Art and for her versatility and strength as a performer able to handle very differing styles, freely and with courage,” the Ministry of Culture honored Rocío Molina with the National Prize for Dance, in the category for Performing Arts.

the Spanish National Ballet. Prior to her appearance at the Ringling International Arts Festival, the artist toured France, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Romania, and the United Kingdom.

In addition to Spain’s National Prize for Dance, Rocío Molina is the recipient of the following honors: • Best Outstanding Dancer at the XI Danza de Madrid (Madrid Dance) Choreography and Dance Contest (2002) • The Madroño y Venencia Flamenca el Mistela Prize for Best Dancer (2006) • Flamenco de Hoy Critic’s Choice Prize for Best Dancer Revelation (2006) • Canal Sur Radio El Público Revelation Prize, for Best Show, for Turquesa como el Limón (2007) • Flamenco de Hoy Critic’s Choice Prize for Best Dancer (2007) • deflamenco.com Prize for Best Dancer (2007) • Jerez Prize for Best Female Show, with Merche Esmeralda and Belén Maya (2007) • Málaga Joven (Youth of Malaga) Award, for promotion of Malaga abroad (2008) • Best Dancer Award in the 2008 Seville Biennial (2008) • Giraldillo Award for Best Choreography in Oro Viejo (2008) • Critics Choice Prize for Oro Viejo, awarded by the Cátedra de Flamencología (Chair for Flamenco Studies), Jerez (2009) • Escudo de Oro (Gold Crest), in Vélez-Málaga (2011) • Gold Medal awarded by the Province of Malaga (2011) • Canal Sur El Público (Audience) Prize, for her contribution to Flamenco (2012)

© Felix Vazquez

She has appeared in the Seville Flamenco Biennial, the Jerez Festival, and the Málaga Flamenco Biennial in 2007 where she premiered Por el decir de la gente (As people say), a commission

by José Luis Ortiz for which she created both choreography and artistic direction for her original concept. For the 2008 season, she shared billing with Merche Esmeralda and Belén Maya for the tour of Mujeres, and performed with Carmen Linares, Fernando Terremoto, Miguel Poveda and Israel Galván in Pedro G. Romero’s Goyescas at the Albéniz Theater, Madrid. Her performance in the premiere of Oro Viejo (Old Gold) in the XV Seville Flamenco Biennial was hailed by Carole Eldrich of BALLET MAGAZINE as “one of the most tremendous expressions of contemporary flamenco that I’ve ever had the good fortune to see. This is an evolved form of flamenco, completely true to its origins. Expressive, confident and exuberant it’s a tribute to Rocio’s talent and an exciting indicator of the adventures she’ll be leading us through in years to come.”

In 2011, she premiered Vinática in Seville and launched the international tour that has taken her to some of the most prestigious theaters in the world, including collaboration with

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 7

© Paula Court

MERTZ THEATRE THURSDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

OCT 10 OCT 11 OCT 11 OCT 12

5:00 1:00 9:00 1:00

TERE

O ’ CONNOR Dance

poem

Sister

Choreographer: TERE O’CONNOR

Choreographer: TERE O’CONNOR

Performers: NATALIE GREEN, MICHAEL INGLE, OISÍN MONAGHAN, HEATHER OLSON, SILAS RIENER

Performers: CYNTHIA OLIVER, DAVID THOMSON

Costume Design: JAMES KIDD Sound Design/Composition: JAMES BAKER Musicians: CHRIS GROSS, cello; SCOTT KUNEY, guitar; JAMES BAKER, all other instruments

Costume Design: SUSAN BECKER Music collage: TERE O’CONNOR (Excerpts from Dialogues Des Carmelites, Francis Poulenc; John Moran; Liquid, Liquid ) Lighting: MICHAEL O’CONNOR

Lighting: MICHAEL O’CONNOR

poem was commissioned by New York Live Arts and made possible, in part,

Sister was commissioned by The Krannert Art Museum at the University of

by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is given by

Illinois in Urbana Champaign for the Open Studio series.

contributors to the Dance Theater Workshop Commissioning Fund at New York Live Arts.

8 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

TERE O’CONNER

TERE O’CONNOR has been making dances since 1982 and has created over 36 works for his company. The company has performed throughout the US and in Europe, Canada, and South America. Tere O’Connor is a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award recipient, a 2009 United States Artist Rockefeller Fellow and is a recipient of a 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship, a Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Award, Arts International’s DNA Project Award, and a Creative Capital Award. He has received three New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards - one for Heaven Up North in 1988, another in 1999 for Sustained Achievement, and most recently for his work Frozen Mommy (2005). He is also a recipient of repeated grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NEFA/National Dance Project, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The MAP Fund, Jerome Foundation, Altria Group, Inc., The Harkness Foundation for Dance, and Mid Atlantic-US Artists awards.

© Ian Douglas

He is the 2013 chair of the Chime Without Borders mentorship program initiated by Margie Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco. A much sought after teacher, O’Connor has taught at the Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, Colorado Dance Festival, Ohio State University, University of Minnesota, Arizona State University, at the School for New Dance Development (The Netherlands), and ImPulsTanz (Austria), among many others. He is currently a Center for Advanced Study Professor in Dance at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. This spring, he was awarded a Faculty Award for Excellence in Research from the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois.

THE DANCERS

NATALIE GREEN has danced for RoseAnne Spradlin, Anna Sperber, Levi Gonzalez, Juliette Mapp, and Daniel Linehan.

Green’s own choreography has been presented at Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project’s “Food for Thought,” Catch, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Movement Research at the Judson Church “About Town.”

MICHAEL INGLE was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas. He began dancing at the University of Kansas while earning his BFA in Art History. Since moving to New York City in 2007, he has performed with Hilary Easton + Company, Tere O’Connor Dance, Laura Peterson Choreography, Deganit Shemy & Company, Megan Sprenger/mvworks, Makiko Tamura/small apple co., Christopher Williams Dances, and Miriam Wolf, among others.

Michael is also a freelance lighting designer and stage-manager.

Anytime he isn’t doing something else, he creates work with his own group Michael and the Go-Getters.

OISÍN MONAGHAN received his BFA in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College. Trained in both classical ballet and modern, Oisín began studying movement at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance at the age of 14. He has performed the works of José Limón, Anna Sokolow, Geoffrey Holder, Sophie Maslow, and Chet Walker. Oisín has also been photographed by distinguished photographers Peter Lindbergh, Mario Testino, Terry Tsiolis, Ryan McGinley, Kenneth Willardt, John Rusnak, and has appeared in numerous fashion magazines and campaigns. Currently, he is dancing with Tere O’Connor Dance, SENSEDANCE, and Robin Becker Dance. Oisín’s first performance with Tere O’Connor Dance was in Cover Boy at Danspace Project (2011). In the summer of 2010, he performed with John-Mark Owen at Jacob’s Pillow. He has also performed with Christopher Caines Dance at St. John the Divine Cathedral, SENSEDANCE at Joyce SoHo, and Manhattan Movement Arts Center and Robin Becker Dance at The 92nd St Y. Oisín lives in Chelsea with his cat, Tyco.

These works are also made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Boeing Company Charitable Trust; The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The National Endowment for the Arts; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and Big Tree Productions. Inc.

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 9

CYNTHIA OLIVER comes from a childhood steeped in the everyday sounds of black voices and bodies moving in time and space in the US Virgin Islands. She experienced the incongruous mixture of Afro Caribbean dancing and the legacy of Kurt Jooss’ European dance dramas and site-specific improvisational performance via the tutelage of Atti van den Berg, a former Jooss dancer/performer. Moving in this way led her to a career in NYC and abroad in the world of performance art and experimental dancing with folks like David Gordon/Pick Up Company, Ronald Kevin Brown/EVIDENCE, and Bebe Miller and the black avant garde theatre world in the works of Laurie Carlos and Ntozake Shange. Her own work, a mélange of dance, theatre, and the spoken word, incorporates the textures of Caribbean performance with African, and American sensibilities. Named “Outstanding Young Choreographer” by reviewer Frank Werner in German Magazine Ballet Tanz early in her career, Cynthia has since received numerous grants and awards including a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) for her work Death’s Door, an Illinois Arts Council Choreography Fellowship, a Creative Capital award, a Rockefeller Multi-Arts Production grant, a CalArts Alpert Award nomination, and most recently a University Scholar Award from the University of Illinois, UrbanaChampaign, where she is Professor of Dance. Cynthia holds a PhD in performance studies from New York University and is the author of Queen of the Virgins: Pageantry and Black Womanhood in the Caribbean. She is thrilled and honored to be dancing with Tere.

HEATHER OLSON is a dancer and choreographer based in New York City since 1997. Her choreography has been has been commissioned by The Chocolate Factory (Shy showoff, 2011), the Olga Zitluhinas Dejas Kompanija in Riga, Latvia (Your Experience Here, 2010), Sugar Salon (in the river, 2009), and Dance Theater Workshop (Curious awake not possible, 2008). Her work has also been presented by Aunts, Danspace Project, Galapagos Art Space, La Mama, Movement Research at Judson Church, Catch!, Solonova Arts Festival (at P.S. 122), the International Computer Music Conference, Gorillafest and LIT at 100 Grand, and Creature Feature in Berlin, Germany. She was the recipient of a 2011 BAX Space Grant and was one of three artists selected for the 2008/2009 Sugar Salon; a creative residency, performance, and mentoring program created by Wax in partnership with the Barnard College Dance Department of Colombia University. As a performer, Olson has worked with Tere O’Connor Dance since 1997 and appeared in nine works with the company. She also served as rehearsal director for Day, a solo O’Connor created for Jean Butler. Olson worked closely with Yanira Castro + Company (renamed: acanarytorsi) from 2000-2009, appearing in seven dance-installations, and has also appeared in the work of Jennifer Allen, Ivy Baldwin, Faye Driscoll, Levi Gonzalez, Stacy Grossfield, Ashley Smith Steele

10 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

(Red Dive), and Larissa Velez-Jackson. Olson has received two New York Dance and Performance Awards (Bessies), one for her performance in Castro’s Dark Horse/Black Forest, and the other for her body of work with Tere O’Connor.

SILAS RIENER grew up in Washington DC. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing. He has worked with Chantal Yzermans, Takehiro Ueyama, Christopher Williams, Jonah Bokaer, and Rebecca Lazier’s TERRAIN. In 2010, he premiered NOX, a collaboration with poet Anne Carson and choreographer Rashaun Mitchell, with whom he continues to develop new projects. In 2011, he collaborated with the Harrison Atelier on a sitespecific performance at the Storefront for Art and Architecture, and will premiere a new work in February 2012 at The Invisible Dog. He was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from November 2007 until its closure at the end of 2011. While performing with MCDC, Riener completed his MFA in Dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. This is his first project with Tere O’Connor.

DAVID THOMSON has worked since the early 80s as a collaborative artist in the fields of music, dance, theater and performance with a wide range of companies and artists including Mel Wong, Jane Comfort, Remy Charlip, Trisha Brown (‘87-‘93), Susan Rethorst, David Roussève, Ralph Lemon, Muna Tseng, and Dean Moss/Layla Ali among many others.

Mr. Thomson has performed downtown, Off Broadway, and in London with the acclaimed a cappella performance group Hot Mouth, of which he was a founding member. Other projects have included work as choreographer and performer in Tracie Morris’ Afrofuturistic, Sekou Sundiata’s final project the 51st (dream) state, Meg Stuart’s Auf Den Tisch, and as a re-performer in Marina Abramović’s MoMA retrospective, The Artist is Present.

His work has been presented by The Kitchen, Danspace Project at St Mark’s Church, Dance Theater Workshop, and Movement Research at Judson Church. He has been a resident artist with Joyce SoHo, Dance Theater Workshop, Movement Research, and is an inaugural Gibney DiP Residency Artist. Present and future projects include touring Alain Buffard’s latest work, Baron Samedi, Deborah Hay’s The Blues, and work with Tere O’Connor. In 2001, he was honored with a New York Dance and Performance award (Bessie) for Sustained Achievement, in 2006 as part of the creative team for Bebe Miller’s Landing/ Place, and nominated in 2011 for his leading role performance in Muna Tseng’s Stella. An ongoing advocate for dance and the empowerment of artists, he was one of the founding members of Dancer’s Forum and has served on the boards of Bebe Miller/ Gotham Dance, Dance Theater Workshop and presently New York Live Arts.

TERE O’CONNER

COLLABORATORS

SUSAN BECKER works as a designer, artist, and educator in the field of fashion and dress. Since graduating from Rhode Island School of Design, she has designed for traditional and experimental settings, from the fashion industry to collaborations on stage, film, and site-specific projects. In addition to her design work, Susan has also taught courses on fashion and dress for RISD and is currently a lecturer at the University of Illinois. Her solo work centers around explorations of the social psychology of dress and culture.

JAMES KIDD is a self-taught choreographic and costume designer, classically trained in ballet and modern dance. She has a deep kinship with Free Jazz, Surrealism, Beat Poetry, and Ruth St. Denis. She strives for the simply revolutionary.

MICHAEL O’CONNOR has designed over four hundred professional productions across the globe. He has extensive experience in theater, dance, opera, concerts, events, television and film. Outside of New York, Michael’s work has been seen in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Orlando, as well as numerous other cities. Michael is the resident Lighting Designer for The American Academy of Dramatic Arts NYC. He has also been the Lighting Supervisor for Tere O’Connor Dance since 1997 and has designed Tere’s four most recent works.

© Paula Court

JAMES BAKER is Principal Percussionist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra. He is Music Director and Conductor of the Composers Conference at Wellesley College and Director of the Percussion Ensemble at the Mannes College of Music. Mr. Baker is currently Guest Conductor of the Slee Sinfonietta at the Institute for 21st Century Music in Buffalo and conductor of the New York New Music Ensemble. He has frequently led Speculum Musicae in concerts in NY and around the U.S. Recently he has led the Cygnus Ensemble in concerts in New York and California, Ensemble 21 in a Composers’ Portrait concert at Miller Theater and the Tactus Ensemble at the Manhattan School of Music.

He has conducted the New York New Music Ensemble in many concerts around the US as well as in Beijing, Tokyo and at the Transit festival in Belgium. This past season he conducted the Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie Hall and Talea in concerts in NY and at Harvard University and was a featured conductor at this year’s June in Buffalo festival. An active composer of electro-acoustic music, Mr. Baker won a Bessie award for composition for Tere O’Connor Dance with whom he has an ongoing collaboration. He has written extensively for the theater and for various ensembles with electronics. Recent commissions (with O’Connor) included the Opera Ballet de Lyon, The Dublin Dance Festival and the Abbey Theater. His compositions for O’Connor have been heard in performance in France, Italy, the Netherlands, around the US, and in NY at Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen and Danspace Project, among others.

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 11

©Medhi Shaban

COOK THEATRE THURSDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

OCT 10 OCT 11 OCT 11 OCT 12

COOK THEATRE

5:00 1:00 THURSDAY, 9:00 FRIDAY 5:00 FRIDAY SATURDAY

OCT 11 OCT 12 OCT 12 OCT 13

8:00 2:00 8:00 5:00

LEEV

T HE AT ER GRO U P Hamlet, Pr ince of Gr ief

Writer: MOHAMMAD CHARMSHIR Director: MOHAMMAD AGHEBATI Actor: AFSHIN HASHEMI (The guest of Parchin & Khaneh Theatre Group) Music: PARTS OF “SILENT CITY” BY KAYHAN KALHOR Assistants Directors: MEHDI SHAHOSEINI, ELHAM GOL JAMAL, EHSAN SAFARZADEH Graphic Designer: SALEH TASBIHI Photographers: REZA GHAZIANI and EHSAN MATOORI English Translator: ESSAN NORUZI Film: RAD IMAGE HOUSE

12 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Hamlet, Prince of Grief was first performed in June 2011 as part of the Mono Leev Festival at the Entezami Hall- Iranian Artists Forum. Mono Leev Festival is conducted by the Leev Theater Group as a workshop for artists and playwrights to present monologues and monodramas. After its performance at the Mono Leev Festival, it transferred to the City Theater in Tehran in July 2011 and was then presented at the Fadjr International Festival in February 2012.

LEEV THEATER GROUP

LEEV THEATER GROUP is an Iranian non-profit theater company. Leev started its performance activities in 2001 and has staged more than 30 plays in different venues of Iran.

At present, Leev Theater Group is known as one of the most active theater groups in Iran, and its activities are not limited to performing. Leev Theater Group also seeks new ways of exchanging knowledge and experience and expanding a more enriched understanding of the art of theater in Iran through activities such as holding workshops, conducting research projects such as Introducing World’s Contemporary Theater Directors, translating theoretic texts into Farsi, and publishing special magazines about theater.

Mono Leev Festival is another research activity of Leev Theater Group, founded in 2008 in the form of “Leev’s research settings on Monologue.” Mono Leev has created a forum for artists and playwrights to work with each other in the form of Monologue and Monodrama and to exchange their experiences and creative ideas.

In the past few years, Leev Theater Group has been trying to expand the concept of the Theater Group in Iran. Shadow Leev Theater Group is a young company of talented young artists who are experiencing collaborative theater under the support and guidance of Leev Theater Group.

MOHAMMAD AGHEBATI was born in 1975 in Mashhad, a city in northeastern Iran. He studied Theater Directing at the Tehran Arts University and founded Leev Theater Group with his classmates. He has managed different research projects with Leev Theater Group, such as the Monologue Project, in which the company staged different plays based on classical and modern dramatic literature.

In 2003, Aghebati received the best directing award at the International Theater Fadjr Festival, and a medal from President Khatami as Iran’s successful Young Theater Artist for his direction of I Kiss You and Tears based on Václav Havel’s life.

The play continues to be performed internationally.

He worked with Leev Theater Group until he moved to the United States, where he is a student at Yale School of Drama as an SRF. He now works as a freelance artist with his colleagues at Yale and continues his work with playwright Mohammad Charmshir to focus on new experiences of text and performance. He directed Only God has the Right to Wake Me Up for the opening of The Freiburg International Theater Festival in Germany in 2005.

Iranian dramaturge. His latest staged performance was The Sky of Snowy Days, a new narration of Bonnie and Clyde, Skellig, and Children of Fly. Aghebati believes that Iran’s contemporary theater reflects Iranian society as an art combined with bravery, experience, novelty and freshness. He believes that theater is one of the elements of breaking the borders, the differences, and paradoxes. To that end, he is a founder of First Day Theater Company.

MOHAMMAD CHARMSHIR, playwright, dramaturge and university professor, has about 55 published plays. His works have been translated into English, German, and French and performed in different countries such as Iran, Germany, England, France, Italy, the U.S., India and Bangladesh.

Among his plays are It’s not Raining in Egypt, Ravaneh and the Yoke, I Kiss You and Tears, A Sudden Dove, Beautiful Life of Kind Tal’at, Day of Resurrection, The Monastery, and Kaligula, Poet of Violence.

AFSHIN HASHEMI is an actor, playwright, musician, and director. He holds a Masters in Directing and Acting from the Tehran Arts University. He has been nominated for many awards in Iran, including Best Actor in a Theatrical Role, Best Actor in a TV Drama, and Best Supporting Actor.

Most recently, he wrote and directed The Prince of Spring and The Song of the Far Land with Iranian and Korean actors, and wrote The Anniversary Present, which was chosen as one of the ten best published plays of 2011 by the 5th Drama Celebration.

Recent theatrical credits include But Now Human, Hamed Behdad; My Love, A-Seyed-Kazem, and Here is Tehran. Recent film credits include Laboratory, Without Farewell, Migraine, and Amorous of Tajrish.

Special Thanks: James Bundy, Liz Diamond, Victoria Nolan, Joan Channick, Ethan Heard, and friends at the Yale Cabaret for supporting this performance at Yale

Aghebati also directed a new interpretation of Oedipus Rex called Jocasta; God’s Dead Words, an international collaboration with Japan Foundation, with the help of Reza Soroor, a young

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 13

THURSDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

OCT 10 OCT 10 OCT 11 OCT 12

1:00 9:00 5:00 1:00

© Nicolai Khalezin

COOK THEATRE

BELARUS FREE T HE AT RE

Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker

Concept, direction, and adaption by VLADIMIR SHCHERBAN Originally co-produced by NATALIA KALIADA, NICOLAI KHALEZIN, and FUEL THEATRE COMPANY (UK)

English adaptation by CHRIS THORPE

Devised by Belarus Free Theatre, texts written and performed by authors/actors

Stage Manager, SVETLANA SUGAKO

PAVEL RADAK-HARADNITSKI YANA RUSAKEVICH ALEH SIDORCHYK DZIANIS TARASENKA MARYNA YUREVICH YULIYA SHAUCHUK SIARHEI KVACHONAK VIKTORYIA BIRAN KIRYL KANSTANTSINAU Additional contribution in writing by VLADIMIR SHCHERBAN, NIKITA VOLODZKO, RYMA USHKEVICH Text Belarus is not sexy written by NATALIA KALIADA in collaboration with NICOLAI KHALEZIN Original translation by YURI KALIADA and NATALIA KALIADA 14 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Production Manager, TOM COTTERILL Tour Manager and Subtitles, NADIA BRODSKAYA General Management of International Touring by YURI KALIADA in collaboration with FENELLA DAWNAY Minsk, 2011 was first presented at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe, where it was awarded The Scotsman Fringe First 2011 for innovation and outstanding new writing and The Very Weighty Topics Award by The Guardian. The work was developed in residence at the Dartington Space with the support of the Dartington Hall Trust and was funded by Arts Council England.

Performed in Russian and Belarusian with projected subtitles Belarus Free Theatre needs support to continue their theatre and creative campaigning. Your support of the fundamental human right of freedom of expression would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to be a part of the future of the BFT, please donate to www.belarusfreetheatre.com

“It is easy to forget that there are still parts of the world where putting on a play represents an act of political courage.”

– The Telegraph, London 2011

“Ironfisted authorities in Belarus have responded to a burst of creative modes of protest by young protesters with a rather surreal innovation of their own: a law that prohibits people from standing together and doing nothing. Plain clothes police officers have detained nearly 2,000 people since the so-called clapping protests began in June, in many cases because they were seen clapping or standing near people who were.”

© Nicolai Khalezin

BELARUS FREE THEATRE

– The New York Times, June 2011

BELARUS FREE THEATRE (BFT) was founded on March 30, 2005 by husband-and-wife team Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, who were joined shortly afterwards by Vladimir Shcherban. Together, they formed the unique aesthetics of BFT. In Belarus, performances are held secretly in small private apartments, the location of which, due to the risk of persecution, must constantly be changed. As the only independent theatre of its kind in Europe, BFT is a collaborative company of 25 members and 9 students that uses the experience and expertise of all members as an artistic resource.

Working in Europe’s last surviving dictatorship, the entire company of BFT has, at one time or another, been imprisoned, threatened and mistreated by the authorities, or they live in fear for their safety. They have all lost their jobs. In retaliation, they defiantly produce, devise and perform plays, which highlight repression in Belarus and educate others through BFT’s laboratory, Fortinbras. Their work diminishes discrimination and fear, incites resistance, and encourages long-term social change. BFT targets EU and U.S. politicians, high profile international artists and the media to influence an improvement in international relations with Belarus. Productions are devised to encourage global awareness of life under the Belarusian regime, to educate the Belarusian population, and to influence positive changes in Belarus. Besides being professional theater makers, BFT members support victims of human rights abuses through workshops, activities, and projects. They also act as equality activists, human rights defenders, and supporters of indigenous and minority groups.

In regards to their influence on political process in Belarus, this is the only theatre in the world that acts at such high political levels by working together with international artists.

Consequently, two co-artistic directors, an associate director, and one member of the company are political refugees in the UK.

Under impossible conditions, BFT continues to produce great theatre that is recognized internationally. For the 2011 production of Being Harold Pinter, BFT was nominated for the Unique Theatrical Experience Drama Desk Award and received the prestigious off-Broadway OBIE award for Being Harold Pinter, Discover Love, and Zone of Silence. BFT performed an acclaimed King Lear in the Critics’ Circle Award-winning Globe to Globe 2012 season in London, and at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, BFT was awarded the “Total Impact” Award from the Italian Cultural Institute in collaboration with the prestigious La Mama Spoleto Open Festival and the City of Spoleto for its production of Trash Cuisine.

“Right rib, left rib, sternum and the rest of the ribs. In 1996, at a rally on Chernobyl Way, I was seized by riot policemen and brought to the KGB inner courtyard. I spent three hours being stretched wide open against the wall.

Scars adorn a man. Many girls find it sexy. In this regard, Minsk is a beautiful and very sexy city. Welcome to Minsk!

The sexiest city in the world!”

– Dzianis Tarasenka “In Minsk, you cannot look people straight in the eyes for more than three seconds. After December 19, 2010, a look in Minsk became even shorter.”

– Yana Rusakevich “Belarus is not sexy. The sexuality of a country is its oil, gas, diamonds, and access to sea and mountains. Belarus is the only country in Europe where is there is no sea and no mountains. Belarus is flat.”

– Natalia Kaliada

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 15

Minsk 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker is a creative exploration of sexuality and asexuality in the capital city of Belarus, a totalitarian state situated between Poland and Russia. It reveals the scars in a culture where protests are violently suppressed and underground nightclubs are routinely raided by special forces. Brutal, powerful, by turns very funny and extremely moving, the play shows Minsk as a “sexy city,” where irrepressible urges to perform, party, love, kiss, touch, look and celebrate human sexuality are met with government bureaucracy, repression, and violence. The most recent Gay Pride march in Belarus came under attack from both police and skinheads, and now all gay clubs in Minsk have been closed. Yet strip clubs, underground raves, and gay-pride pulse beneath the surface of a city where sexuality is twisted by oppression.

As a radical feminist and a crucial figure in the Punk movement, the late American writer, Kathy Acker created original postmodernist works entitled Great Expectations, Blood and Guts in High School, Don Quixote, and New York City 1979, wherein she investigated identity and the development of society through the prism of sexuality. Minsk 2001 is a reply to Acker’s work and a love letter to a home from exiles who are willing to fight for it. It is both a celebration and mourning for a land that has lost its way.

NICOLAI KHALEZIN is a co-artistic director of BFT, playwright, and journalist. Nicolai has been arrested four times for participation in peaceful political protest rallies and theatrical activities. He was taken to trial for organizing a peaceful political street rally. His plays are forbidden to be staged in Belarus. In the summer of 2010, he was attacked outside his house. The criminal investigation case on the attack was closed down. Nicolai is the author of 14 plays including Generation Jeans and Here I Am, and has won numerous awards recognizing his contribution to humanitarian theatre. Along with his wife, Natalia Kaliada, he is the co-producer for all BFT productions. He also directed and adapted Trash Cuisine, dedicated to the international issue of the death penalty, which premiered at Stadsshouwburg, Amsterdam, on October 5, 2012.

VLADIMIR SHCHERBAN is an associate director and deviser for the majority of BFT productions. He became a director at the Yanka Kupala National Academic Theatre in 1999 but was dismissed in 2006 for his cooperation with BFT. Various performances

by Shcherban in Belarus have been cancelled, and he has been detained for his professional activities. In 2008, together with Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, he helped found Fortinbras, the only underground arts school in Belarus. Productions directed for BFT include: 4.48. Psychosis; We.Self-Indentification; We.Belliwood; Technique of Breezing in a Vacuum; Zone of Silence; Being Harold Pinter; A Flower for Pina Bausch; New York ’79; Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker, as well as King Lear for the Globe to Globe Festival for the Cultural Olympics in London, which premiered

© Nicolai Khalezin

at The Globe Shakespeare’s Theatre on May 17-18, 2012. He also directed BFT’s 2012 production of One’s Nearest and Dearest via Skype from London with actors underground in Belarus, along with their most recent 2013 production of Merry Christmas, Miss Meadows, dedicated to the complex issue of gender identity, developed in residence at Dartington Place, England.

NATALIA KALIADA is a co-artistic director and producer of BFT alongside her husband Nicolai. Natalia has been detained three times for participation in peaceful political and theatrical activities.

She was the first person to be detained at a street protest against enforced disappearances in Belarus. She was convicted for publishing the Monitoring of Human Rights on the Internet. Her father, Professor Andrei Kaliada, was dismissed from the Academy of the Arts for cooperation with BFT and was physically attacked as a result; the criminal investigation of the case was closed down.

She is the co-producer with Nicolai Khalezin of all BFT productions, including the latest King Lear for the Globe to Globe Festival for the Cultural Olympics in London, Trash Cuisine, and Merry Christmas Miss Meadows.

16 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

YURI KALIADA serves as a general director and international coordinator of the BFT and provided initial monetary aid in the forming of the company. He has also served as translator for such BFT productions as Generation Jeans, Discover Love, Zone of Silence (part Others), Minsk, 2011: A Reply to Kathy Acker, and Merry Christmas, Miss Meadows, working in collaboration with the award-winning British playwrights and translators Chris Thorpe and Rory Mullarkey, NYU professor Catherine Coray, and Erik Ehn of Brown University. He is an associate member of Free Belarus NOW! and the We Remember Foundation, with a primary focus to draw attention worldwide to politically motivated disappearances and killings that have occurred in recent years in countries such as Belarus and around the world. He lives in exile as a political refugee in the USA since 2001.

CHRIS THORPE is a writer and performer from Manchester, England. He devises work and writes plays for the stage and radio.

He is currently writing Twelve Proposals… with Nicolai Khalezin for the West Yorkshire Playhouse. He is a core member of Unlimited Theatre, artistic associate of Third Angel and also performs solo pieces.

BELARUS FREE THEATRE

ALEH SIDORCHYK joined the Belarusian Army Theatre in 2004 and BFT in 2005. In 2006, he was dismissed from the former for his cooperation with the latter and detained for his professional activities. Between 1985 and 2004, he worked at the Belarusian Young Spectator Theatre.

DZIANIS TARASENKA joined BFT in 2005. He has been attacked during peaceful political street rallies, detained for his professional activities, and he lost his job at the state theatre due to his involvement with BFT. In 2004, Dzianis formed the band RSP, which tours in Russia, Lithuania, Belarus and other European countries.

MARYNA YUREVICH joined BFT in 2006 and was consequently dismissed from the Belarusian Army Theatre in 2008 and ordered to pay $12,500 to the state for denying work in a role dictated to her.

The payment was cancelled after BFT and actresses Diana Quick and Kim Cattrall launched the “Free the Actress from Slavery” campaign.

TOM COTTERILL read English at Goldsmiths, University of London.

His production credits with Fuel include Electric Hotel, Love Letters Straight From Your Heart by Uninvited Guests, and The Receipt by Will Adamsdale. Tom has international production experience with Hoipolloi, Kaos Theatre, Stan Won’t Dance, Theatre Alibi, The David Glass Ensemble, Cois Ceim, and Frantic Assembly. He has supported individual artists such as Guy Dartnell, David Gale, Pete Edwards and Mat Fraser. His production credits with BFT include Minsk, 2011:

A Reply to Kathy Acker, King Lear, and Trash Cuisine.

PAVEL RADAK-HARADNITSKI joined BFT in 2005. He is now unable to apply for jobs in Belarus because of this association and has been detained for his professional activities. He performs in the band RSP (vocals and flute).

SVETLANA SUGAKO joined BFT in 2005 as an administrator and assistant director, but she also occasionally performs onstage. She is a musician and songwriter, formerly in the band Tarpach. In 2006 she was jailed for seven days for shouting the anti-state slogan “Long Live Belarus” after the presidential election.

YANA RUSAKEVICH joined BFT in 2005, leading to her dismissal from the Yanka Kupala National Academic Theatre. She has been arrested twice for professional activities and participation in peaceful political street rallies.

NADIA BRODSKAYA graduated as a manager/economist from the Belarusian National Technical University in 2009 and worked as a private tutor in the subject until September 2011 when she joined the BFT as stage manager and financial manager.

YULIYA SHAUCHUK studied at the Belarusian State University of Arts and Culture, graduating in 2007. From 2008 to 2011, she worked at the National Theatre of Belarusian Drama but was fired for an interview in the “free news” called “non-free theater begins with a tower.”

FENELLA DAWNAY worked with Shakespeare Schools Festival and at The Print Room before joining BFT in 2012. She has helped to produce various BFT productions including Minsk 2011, which toured the UK in 2012, and the acclaimed King Lear which was presented at the 2012 Globe to Globe Festival and which returned to Shakespeare’s Globe in September 2013. In November 2012, she independently produced The Seagull at Southwark Playhouse with Jagged Fence. She worked with BFT as a volunteer for six

VIKTORYIA BIRAN trained as a journalist at the Institute of Journalism BSU in Minsk and worked for the cultural website bydzma.org before joining BFT in 2010.

SIARHEI KVACHONAK studied at the Belarusian State Technological University. During his studies, he was a member of the student theatre company Kolokol, and in 2010, he was accepted as a student in Fortinbras. This is his fourth show performing with BFT.

© Nicolai Khalezin

KIRYL KANSTANTSINAU graduated from art school and from the College of Law of the Belarusian State University. For two years, he studied in the theater studio Paradox. He came to BFT drama school/laboratory Fortinbras in 2012 and was arrested along with the audience during a screening of the documentary Europe’s Last Dictator at an underground location of BFT in Minsk.

months in 2011 and became General Manager and Producer of BFT in 2012.

FUEL THEATRE COMPANY produces fresh work for adventurous people by inspiring artists. Founded in 2004 and led by Louise Blackwell and Kate McGrath, Fuel is a producing organization working in partnership with some of the most exciting theatre artists in the UK to develop, create, and present new work for all.

Fuel is currently producing projects with Will Adamsdale, Belarus Free Theatre, Clod Ensemble, Inua Ellams, Fevered Sleep, David Rosenberg, Sound&Fury, Uninvited Guests, and Melanie Wilson. In partnership with higher education organizations, Fuel runs a rolling internship scheme. The current producing intern is Hannah Myers from Central School of Speech and Drama. For further information on Fuel, our artists, our team, and our internships, please visit www. fueltheatre.com.

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 17

Photos Courtesy of the Artist

HISTORIC ASOLO THEATER THURSDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

OCT 10 OCT 11 OCT 11 OCT 12

9:00 5:00 9:00 5:00

STEPHEN

PRUTSMAN AND THE

AEOLUS

QUARTET

L to R: Gregory Luce, viola; Rachel Shapiro, violin; Alan Richardson, cello; Nicholas Tavani, violin

Sherlock Jr. STEPHEN PRUTSMAN, piano THE AEOLUS QUARTET NICHOLAS TAVANI, violin RACHEL SHAPIRO, violin GREGORY LUCE, viola ALAN RICHARDSON, cello Musical Score to Sherlock Jr. for String Quartet and Piano by STEPHEN PRUTSMAN Commissioned by Bay Chamber Concerts Sherlock Jr. (1924) Directed by Buster Keaton Written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, Joseph Mitchell Produced by Joseph M. Schenck Starring Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Ward Crane, Joe Keaton Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, USA Film Synopsis: Buster plays a movie projectionist who daydreams himself into the movies he is showing and merges with the figures and the backgrounds on the screen. While dreaming he is Conan Doyle’s master detective, he snoops out brilliant discoveries.

18 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

A cardinal rule for anyone attempting to score any kind of movie is that the music must never garner attention at the expense of the visual element. Certainly, there have been wonderful composers who have learned this basic tenet the hard way, discovering to their dismay that large parts of their efforts were cut out or left barely audible in the final print. Taking this rule to heart in composing the original score to the silent classic Sherlock Jr., I intended nothing too complex, too dense, or too far removed from a tonal and metric center. Instead, the music consists of simple reappearing themes, occasional harmonic ‘padding,’ and imitative allusions to some of the popular music of the time (think Charleston or the beginnings of swing, the end of ragtime).

Also, Buster Keaton’s character displays an endearing mix of sadness, sweetness and humor, reminiscent to me of the works of Erik Satie, whose influence can be heard.

It may be worth noting that the performers for this score have no auditory cues, (such as a metronomic click) which would guide tempos and hence coordinate the musical changes with the visual. As a result, much is left to the spontaneity and flexibility of the quartet musicians.

There are periods when some repetition may be required to elongate the accompaniment, other periods whereby a quick jump may needed to catch a scene change. Slapstick, being a vital element of the film, is mirrored on occasion with instrumental effects, hopefully only to shadow and not take away any attention from genius that is so poignant already without sound.

– Stephen Prutsman

THE AEOLUS QUARTET

STEPHEN PRUTSMAN moves easily from classical to jazz to world music as pianist, composer, conductor and curator, continuing to explore and seek common ground in music of all cultures and languages. In his early twenties, Stephen was the keyboard player for several art rock ensembles, worked extensively as a jazz pianist, and was the music arranger for a nationally syndicated televangelist program. In the 90’s, he was a medal winner at the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elizabeth piano competitions, and went on to perform as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras on international concert stages. From 2004-2007, Stephen was Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra where he led concertos from the keyboard, conducted works of living composers, arranged music for world music collaborations, and composed several new works for the orchestra. Stephen has written and arranged over 40 works for the Kronos Quartet in addition to having written for many of the world’s leading classical and popular artists and ensembles. He was the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Music Festival, South America’s largest festival of its kind, and now curates the new music Evolution series of Mainly Mozart in San Diego and Tijuana. Other passions of his include working for causes benefiting children with autism.

THE AEOLUS QUARTET has won numerous international competitions and is currently based in New York City as the Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School.

Highlights of the 2013-14 season include a summer teaching residency at the Austin Chamber Music Center, performances with Michael Tree, an educational residency/tour of the Midwest in conjunction with the Fischoff Competition, and collaborations on the rare instrument collection at the Smithsonian Institute.

Formed in 2008 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Aeolus Quartet has been praised by Strad Magazine for their “highoctane” performances and by the Dallas Morning News for their “Sophisticated and committed” music-making. Luke Quinton of the Austin-American Statesman writes, “The Aeolus Quartet is a powerful and thoughtful group of young musicians who are plotting an ascending course…this vibrant group shows great promise.”

Born in Reading, PA, violinist RACHEL SHAPIRO has been a member of The Aeolus Quartet since its inception in 2006.

Presently pursuing a Doctor of Music degree as part of the graduate quartet-in-residence at the University of Maryland at College Park, Ms. Shapiro studies with David Salness, formerly of the Audubon Quartet. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2009 under the tutelage of Linda Cerone and David Russell, and her Master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin, studying with Sandy Yamamoto of the Miró Quartet.

GREG LUCE, viola, has performed at festivals in Austria, England, Hungary, Germany, Canada, and the United States, and has premiered dozens of pieces in varied ensembles across the United States, with concert venues including the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Severance Hall and the Meyerhoff Concert Hall in Baltimore. As an educator, he is also in demand, having been invited to coach, teach privately, and perform at numerous festivals such as the Interlochen Summer Arts Academy and the Austin Chamber Music Center’s Summer Workshop. Following the Aeolus Quartet’s performance in Trondheim’s International Chamber Music Competition of 2009, they were praised by Strad magazine for their “highoctane performance,” with Mr. Luce receiving particular note as being “especially enjoyable.”

A founding member of the Aeolus Quartet, cellist ALAN RICHARDSON is a student in the Doctor of Music program at the University of Maryland at College Park, where he studies with Evelyn Elsing of the Left Bank Quartet. Mr. Richardson is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree and studied with Melissa Kraut and Richard Aaron. As a member of the Aeolus Quartet, Mr. Richardson has premiered works by Evan Premo, Alexandra Bryant, and Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin.

Lauded by the Washington Post for his “brilliant musicianship,” violinist NICHOLAS TAVANI debuted in Washington, D.C.’s Gaston Hall at the age of eight. Since then, he has performed extensively in the United States and around the world, including at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Constitution Hall, Strathmore Hall, the State Department, and the National Gallery of Art; given concerts in London, Germany, Italy, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Denver, Austin, and Albuquerque; and toured Bolivia, Peru, Austria, and Hungary.

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 19

RIAF CLOSING NIGHT PARTY

SAT, OCT 12, 6:30–10:00 PM

[ BE A RI NG L I N G I C ON ! ] Come walk the red carpet and celebrate your STYLE at the RIAF Closing Night Party! Held in the Museum of Art Courtyard on OCTOBER 12 FROM 6:30PM – 10PM, enjoy a beautiful sunset, a special viewing of Icons of Style, then dancing to live music from NEW YORK MINUTE. Be a star under the stars in your favorite fashions!

TICKETS $40 CLOSING NIGHT ICON: Complimentary soft drinks Libations & food available for purchase $75 CLOSING NIGHT LEGEND (VIP): Complimentary Speciality Cocktails & Hors d’oeuvres

20 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Visit us on the Mezzanine for all your favorite selections!

Experience Morton’s Café Eat, Drink, Meet, Relax, & Enjoy

Sandwiches & Wraps Salads & Soups Snacks Desserts Coffee Beer, Wine, Liquor & More

VISIT OUR GOURMET MARKET Southside Village • 1924 S. Osprey Avenue Sarasota (941) 955-9856

www.MortonsMarket.com 2012 Edible Communities Local Hero Winner BEST FOOD SHOP

Sarasota Magazine Best of 2012 BEST GOURMET GROCERY BEST CATERER BEST BAKERY BEST COFFEE SHOP

2012 Best of SRQ Local Finalist BEST CATERING SERVICES

Herald-Tribune 2011 Sarasota Readers’ Choice Finalist BEST CARRY-OUT RESTAURANT BEST CATERER BEST BUTCHER SHOP BEST BAKERY

NEWSTAGES CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE AT THE RINGLING JANUARY–MARCH, 2014

PLAN NOW TO JOIN US FOR THIS EXCITING FIVE-PART SERIES

CELEBRATING THE ART OF PERFORMANCE AT THE RINGLING

MEKLIT HADERO, PLACES IN THE SKY THURSDAY-SATURDAY, JANUARY 23-25, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater The extraordinary cabaret artist – and overwhelming “hit” of RIAF 2011 – Meklit Hadero returns to The Ringling in a performance hailed as, “Soulful, tremulous and strangely cinematic … Close your eyes, listen and dream.”

It is music that “paints pictures in your head as you MEKLIT HADERO BY RUS ANSON

listen” (NPR).

LOSTWAX MULTIMEDIA DANCE THEATRE, PARTICULAR THURSDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6-8, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater A compelling exploration of sight, sound, and movement explodes on the stage of the Historic Asolo Theater imagination in our increasingly digitized world.

Here: New Stages: Places in the Sky is part of The Ringling’s 2013-14 Art of Our Time season, supported in part by a grant from Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

22 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

LOSTWAX BY STEW MILNE

in a production extolling the resiliency of the human

Thursday-Friday, February 20-21, 7:30 PM and Saturday, February 22 2:00 and 7:30 PM

THE FOUNDRY BY ALEX KETLEY

ROBERT MIRABAL BY KATE RUSSELL

ETHEL & Robert Mirabal, Music of the Sun With a choral ensemble created in partnership with New Music New College

THE FOUNDRY, NO HERO THURSDAY-SATURDAY, MARCH 6-8, 7:30 PM Historic Asolo Theater The rich breadth of human experience is

Historic Asolo Theater

celebrated in this intimate, yet expansive, dance

In a performance filled with passion and poetry, the

experience by Alex Ketley; a choreographed and

pioneering string quartet, ETHEL joins forces with Native American musician and storyteller, Robert Mirabal to present The Music of the Sun; “informed

filmed affirmation that beauty is found in loss and frailty as well as in the myths of the heroic and triumphant.

by the ceremonial music that I’ve heard all my life, a desire to take care of the spirits of the earth” (Robert Mirabal).

TICKETS INUKSUIT: IN THE CAPACITY OF THE HUMAN

$30 / $25 for Ringling Members

BY JOHN LUTHER ADAMS ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY

$10 for students with valid ID

$45 for students Historic Asolo Box Office: 941.360.7399 or online: www.ringling.org

Ringling Museum of Art Courtyard JOHN LUTHER ADAMS BY EVAN HURD

Attend all five performances and save 10%: $135 / $112.50 for Members

SATURDAY, MARCH 22 AT 6:30 PM Do not miss this rare opportunity to be immersed in John Luther Adams’ monumental ecological composition for “nine to ninety-nine” percussionists. “An essay in pure sound, a study of how the mind responds to an overwhelming variety of sonic information ... an engulfing, complexly layered noise.” (The New Yorker)

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 23

THANK YOU TO OUR 2013 SPONSORS!

ART OF OUR TIME SUPPORTER

Gulf Coast Community Foundation

PATRON

Nancy and Chuck Parrish Community Foundation of Sarasota County • Charlotte and Charles Perret & Family Fund • Harry Leopold Foundation • Thomas and Lola Seligman Fund

PRODUCER

Publix Super Markets Charities

ASSOCIATE

Blalock Walters, P.A. Cumberland Advisors Dan Denton and Ramses Serrano Guest Services, Inc. dba Treviso Home Resource Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen & Ginsberg, P.A. Macy’s Lisa Reese Ina Schnell Stephen and Judith Shank

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR IN-KIND SPONSORS

Courtyard by Marriott Sarasota Airport Hampton Inn & Suites Sarasota/Bradenton Airport Herald Tribune Media Group Hyatt Place Sarasota

Sarasota Magazine SRQ Magazine US Tent WEDU

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR THEIR DONATIONS TO RIAF 2013

Celebration Uplighting

The Cowles Charitable Foundation

Gulf Coast Destinations, Inc.

Thomas and Ann Charters

Flowers by Fudgie

Mrs. Dorothy Jenkins

24 RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

OCTOBER 9-12, 2013 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE WEDNESDAY, OCT 9

THURSDAY, OCT 10

FRIDAY, OCT 11

1:00 Rocío Molina

LEEV Belarus Free Theatre Theater Group

Tere O’Connor

Conversations with the Curator

SATURDAY, OCT 12

Belarus Free Theatre

Tere O’Connor

Conversations with the Curator

5:00 5:30

R I A F I N S P I R ES

RECEPTION

LEEV Theater Group

Tere O’Connor

Belarus Free Theatre

Aeolus Quartet

LEEV Theater Group

Aeolus Quartet

6:00 6:30

7:00

8:00

Rocío Molina

Jazz Sunsets 5:00 - 8:00 PM

Jazz Sunsets 5:00 - 8:00 PM

Performance followed by dinner in the Museum Galleries

Museum of Art open until 9:00 PM

Museum of Art Searing Wing open until 9:00 PM

9:00 Rocío Molina

FESTIVAL THEATERS Harold E. and Esther M. Mertz Theatre Built in 1903 as an opera house in Dunfermline, Scotland.

Historic Asolo Theater America’s only 18thcentury European theater from Asolo, Italy.

Jane B. Cook Theatre A contemporary space designed for audience/ actor intimacy.

Belarus Free Theatre

Aeolus Quartet

LEEV Theater Group

Tere O’Connor

Aeolus Quartet

FESTIVAL BOX OFFICE Historic Asolo Theater John M. McKay Visitors Pavilion

RIAF STAGE PRODUCTION PERSONNEL

Phone: 941.360.7399 or online: www.ringlingartsfestival.org Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat,

Oct 9, 10:00 am – 5:30 pm Oct 10, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm Oct 11, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm Oct 12, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

FSU Center for the Performing Arts Box Office is open 1 hour before performances Lee Linkous, Box Office & Patron Services Manager Christina Carter-Halla, House Manager Box Office Staff: Roberta Button, Debbie Croke, Naomi Linkous, Mary Ann Toal, Don Skinner, Ida Varadian

❚ All performances begin promptly. There are no refunds for late comers. ❚ Cameras and tape or video recorders are not permitted in the theaters.

Please turn off cell phones, beepers, wristwatch alarms and PDAs. ❚ Wheelchair seating is available in all theaters, must be requested in advance. ❚ All theaters are equipped with hearing assistance systems.

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY 6:30 - 10:00 PM

AARON MUHL, Managing Director MICHAEL KOHLMANN, Guest Artist Manager ROBERT HALLA, Assistant Technical Director JOHN M. WILSON, RIAF Technical Director for Mertz Theatre JEFF DILLON, RIAF Technical Director for Cook Theatre Festival productions employ I.A.T.S.E. Local 412 Stagehand and Technicians

RINGLING INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 25

Treviso

A full-service restaurant inside the Visitor Pavilion of the museaum – serving lunch and dinner 10/10/13 Thursday 11:00AM–9:00PM 10/11/13 Friday 11:00AM–9:00PM 10/12/13 Saturday 11:00AM–4:00PM

Banyan Café

A grab-n-go café serving sandwiches, burgers, fish and chips, etc. across from the Circus Museum 10/10/13 Thursday 11:00AM–4:00PM 10/11/13 Friday 11:00AM–4:00PM 10/12/13 Saturday 11:00AM–4:00PM

Starbucks

Proudly serving Starbucks coffee, pastries and sandwiches above the museum store 10/10/13 Thursday 10:00AM–8:00PM 10/11/13 Friday 10:00AM–8:00PM 10/12/13 Saturday 10:00AM–5:30PM