Photography by Krzy Sien
En is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).
REVIEW 1 Butoh-ful! by Anthony J. Piccione (A 5 star arts journal, OUTER-STAGE
REVIEW 2 Robert Viagas says Yokko is EN-chanting by Robert Viagas (ARTS INDEPENDENTS)
REVIEW 2 Robert Viagas says Yokko is EN-chanting by Robert Viagas (ARTS INDEPENDENTS)
WORLD PREMIER!
En September 13-15, 2019 Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn
106 Calyer Street, Brooklyn ABOUT THE SHOW
We encounter several deep connections in our lives, intentionally and unintentionally. Some connections are brief, while others last a lifetime. This is called En/縁 in Japanese. En/縁 can be both positive and negative, and can grow into a relationship. We can create En /縁 with people, locations, objects, and all living beings. When we feel such connections, what will we do? Our production, En explores the relationship between Nature and all living beings through Butoh dance and Physical Theatre. It explores whether human beings are capable of creating a relationship with something we’ve so often taken for granted and so carelessly contaminated - the Ocean and Sea Creatures who inhabit it. Is it possible to build bridges instead of burning them? Can we truly care for one another?
PRODUCTION TEAM
Choreographer & Director: Yoshiko Usami (AKA Yokko)
Performers: Miles Butler, Annie McCoy, Efrén Olson-Sánchez, Laura Aristovulos (Solo pieces are created by each performars.) Sound designe by Alyssa L. Jackson Costume Designer: Deepsikha Chatterjee Lighting Designer: Rachel Zimmerman Installation Artist : Pei-Ling Ho Associate Sound Design by Jorge Olivo Production Photographer/Graphic Design: Krzy Sien Production Videographer: Mathew Kohn Stage Manaegr : Rui Dun Associate Producer: Bob Lyness |
TICKET
FINISHED PERFORMANCES September 13 @ 8pm September 14 @ 8pm September 15 @ 3pm RUN TIME 75 minutes VENUE Triskelion Arts TICKET INFO $18- for Limited Advanced Sale till 8/31! $20 General Group Tickets ! On Sale Now! $80- Students & Artists - 5 (including Fee) |
TEAM
Miles Butler (Performer) is super stoked to work with the entire Ren Gyo Soh team (especially Rui). You can catch him in an upcoming production, Expansion of Inward Spiral with Japan Performing Arts, Inc. Proud EPIC Players member and Brooklyn College Alumnus. Love to my family, Amy, and Magnus Midtbo. www.milesbutler.com
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Annie McCoy (Performer) is a graduate of Circle in the Square. After graduating she continued to train in various types of physical theatre. This lead to Piper Theatre’s production of Splitfoot, premiering at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. After that she began to devise work with the Ume Group as well as train in the art of Butoh with Yokko. She appeared in Ren Gyo Soh’s production of SHINKA at Planet Connections.
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EFRÉN OLSON-SÁNCHEZ (Perfomer) work has been seen internationally in México, Cuba, Canada, Venezuela, United States, England, Colombia and Spain, winning awards for his directing and performing. He is trained in Acting, Aereal Dance, Contact Improv, Tap, Pantomime, Contemporary Dance, Classic Dance, Jazz, View Points, Suzuki, Biomechanics, Cyr Wheel, Trapeze, Vertical Dance (Wall Harness), Fabric/Sling/Cocoon, Lighting Design, Aereal Yoga, Butoh Dance, Art-Therapy, Music-Therapy and Theater-Therapy. He has also worked with several theater, dance and physical theater companies such as Indie-Viduo Company (MEX), Nadieshda (MEX), Donaldson Dance Company (SPAIN), Bumblefly Theater (UK), TodoArt13 Ltd (UK), and currently performs with LA, BOS and NYC based companies and choreographers/directors such as Theater Jazzo Gruppa, Kelley Donovan Dancers, Nicole Colbert Dance/Theatre, The Ume Group, Ren Gyo Soh, Daniel Flores Dance Company, Nocturne Productions, The Family Repertory Company, The Dark Night Productions, A24 Resistance Theater, Trinity Movement Choir, Kay N Collective, En Grade Arts, E. Wray, Rui Dun, Eunjin Choi, David Appel among others.
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Yoshiko Usami / Yokko (Choreographer, Director / Performer) is an actor, a Butoh & Theatre artist from Japan. She has acted in, devised and choreographed a variety of local and international shows, having won several awards, including “Best One-Woman Show” for Butoh Medea (United Solo 2014 at Theatre Row). Butoh Medea was selected to perform in Warsaw, Poland. (United Solo Europe 2015, Teatre Syrena), toured Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015, nominated The Asian Arts Award. She has been touring Butoh Medea nationally and internationally, which includes Atelier Teatro Fisico (Turin, Italy), MONOFEST’17 (Izmir, Turkey), Thespis Festival 2018 (Kiel, Germany), and Up Next: Cheb Monodrama Festival 2019 (Oct. 1-7, Prague, Czech) Other solo show:Hide Your Fires: Butoh Lady Macbeth (Winner of Best International at Hollwood Fringe Festival 2019, Best Physical Theatre at United Solo 2017). It has been touring since 2017. BALDY (United Solo 2013, HFF2013, FringeNYC 2012). Her choreographed work, SHINKA has been toured and received several awards (Capital Fringe 2017, Planet Connections 2018). Yokko acted in several of local and international films, one of which is the Student Academy Winner film, Cloud-Kumo (2016). Recently she has been appearing several music videos including Cage The Elephant-Ready To Let Go (2019), NOIA- AUSENCIAS (2019), POW!-Dream Decay (2019) and Automatic- Too Much Money (2019). She is the artistic director of Ren Gyo Soh, a Butoh & Physical Theatre Company in NYC. Winner of Best Physical Theatre, Best Choreography (Butoh Medea, United Solo 2015, 2014). Outstanding Production & Outstanding Choreography (SHINKA, Planet Connections Festival 2018) A recipient of 2019 Brooklyn Arts Fund for her new project, EN. B.A in Theatre (UAlbany), MFA in Acting (The Actors Studio). www.yokko-online.com
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Deepshika Chatterjee (Costume Designer) is a tenured faculty of Theatre at Hunter College CUNY where she enjoys teaching a diverse student body. She received her undergraduate degrees from University of Madras and National Institute of Fashion Technology before moving to the US for her MFA in Costume Design from Florida State University.Her costume design for Butoh Medea and Hide Your Fires received the Best Costume Design award at United Solo in 2014 and in 2017 respectively. Her designs have been seen recently at Barnard College, Mabou Mines, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Women’s Project, New York Musical Festival, Drive East, United Solo, Pan Asia Repertory, and Capital Fringe. She researches costumes and masks for Indian performance and has received notable grants for this work. Her presentations have been seen at conferences including USITT, Costume Society of America, and Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. She has published articles on Indian and Asian theatre, and Indian fashion. Since 2017 she has served as the dance director for Indo-American Arts Council’s Erasing Borders Dance Festival bringing international dancers to the New York stage.
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Rachel Alexis Zimmerman (Lighting Designer) is a Multidisciplinary Artist, Designer and Writer. Rachel’s most recent credits include Lighting Design for Love/Love the Musical (Under St. Marks 2019), Light/Sound Design for Retreat (NY Winterfest 2019) /Set/Lighting Design for Anne Frank Lives! (NY Summerfest 2018), Set Design for By Jacqueline Wright (LadyFest 2018, The Tank), Lighting Design for Serving Brûlée (NY Fringe Festival 2018), and Assistant Lighting for Actor's Studio 2018 Rep Season. Chickens are everywhere.
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Jorge Olivo (Associate Sound Designer) is an NYC based sound designer. Credits include "The Signature Project" at The Sheen Center, "Nu Works" with Pan Asian Rep and American Captives at Dixon Place. Associate Sound Design Credits include Sea Wall/Ah Life at the Public and Todd Solondz's Emma and Max at the Flea. He won Best Sound Design 2017 at United Solo for "Hide Your Fires" with Ren Gyo Soh. He can also be found mixing shows, recently "Teenage Dick" with Ma Yi and "A lovely Sunday at Crever Couer" with La Femme Productions and Mojada at the Public.
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Alyssa Jackson (Associate Sound Designer) is currently a student at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College with an interest in media scoring. She graduated with a degree in Music Performance for Cello also from Brooklyn College. Alyssa enjoys applying her classically trained background into unconventional performance mediums for cello. She has performed and collaborated with puppet theatre productions, japanese butoh dance cabarets, classical theatre underscoring and improvisation with jazz big band concerts. In addition to exploring the performance mediums, Alyssa hopes to continue her studies in music composition, sound design and audio engineering in the evolving enthusiastic world of music and technology. Her passion for the arts also extends to her hobby in graphic design where she can collaborate with fellow classmates and musicians to create visual media and art with music.
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PEI LING HO (Installation Artist) is a multidisciplinary artist and performer from Taipei, Taiwan. She received her MFA from School of Visual Arts, New York. Through performance, video, and mixed media, she explores questions of gender identity and perception within various contexts, and drawing from her experience growing up in Taiwan.
Her art have appeared in Hyperallergic, PERFORMANCE IS ALIVE, MARIETTA Magazine, FAKfulness Magazine, and others. She has performed at Art in Odd Places, ITINERANT: the annual Performance Art Festival, SATELLITE ART SHOW, Center for Performance Research, Dixon Place, Geary Gallery, The Museum of Human Achievement, Movement Research, Westbeth Gallery, and others. |
Rui Dun (Assistant Director) is a theater artist from China, based in Brooklyn. She creates/ directs/ manages/ performs theatrical content combining disciplines such as theatre, movement, dance, puppetry and physical comedy. She believes in the power of art for social/environmental justice. Her work has been seen in China, London, New York and across United States. MFA: Actors Studio Drama School.
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Bob Lyness (Associate Producer) comes from a theater background, but has primarily studied and performed butoh for the past twelve years, studying with Yoshito Ohno, Diego Pinon, Vangeline, Joan Laage, and others, and really considers Yoshito Ohno as his main mentor and inspiration. He is thrilled to be working with Erika Hassan again.
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