連翹奏/RenGyoSoh
Presents
En: 2021
Presents
En: 2021
with
Performers/Filmmakers
Miles Butler, Annie McCoy,
Jorge Luna, Frankie Mulinix,
Rachelle Dart, Zak Ma
Miles Butler, Annie McCoy,
Jorge Luna, Frankie Mulinix,
Rachelle Dart, Zak Ma
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Sound design & Music
Alyssa L. Jackson |
Music
Paul Michael Henry |
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Technical Supervisor
Robin Dill |
Publicist
Jay Michaels |
Production Assistant
Krzy Sien |
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Assistant Director/Graphic Designer
Saki Kawamura |
Associate Producer
Bob Lyness |
Choreographer / Director
Yoshiko Sienkiewicz
Yoshiko Sienkiewicz
ABOUT THE SHOW:
En:2021 explores human connection during the current world pandemic. In an effort to communicate with one another, in spite of the physical limitations, we have been relying on technology to connect with others. Technology, however, can often overwhelm us with choices and information. During these unprecedented times have we been losing our balance just as our world has? This production explores the ways in which we find connection and inspiration within each other, while also exploring how we can evolve and find balance within ourselves. It’s our hope that through these connections and personal transformations that we can create positive change for the world that will live on for future generations.
** In this online production, 6 performers/artists tell their stories through images (Films) combined with live performance.
** In this online production, 6 performers/artists tell their stories through images (Films) combined with live performance.
WHAT IS EN?
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.
Yoshiko Sienkiewicz (AKA Yokko)
CHOREOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR'S NOTES
I have been exploring a Japanese word/concept, En past few years, which is an observation of our connections, opportunities chances, and relationships in life. After we all got hit by this world pandemic, we are limited to connect one another physically, but it has been expanding the time to connect through technology such as zoom, Facebook, and any sort of video chat programs. I, myself spend sometimes over 6 hours zoom/day- since I teach zoom classes, and have meetings between. Slowly I have been observing and realizing that this might be not a temporary situation- it may be a new era for all of us. I started to think- If so, how we can adapt to this new world without harming ourselves? That was the first seed of this show.
I feel so blessed to work with these amazing artists past few months. I have been inspired by their passions, stories and SOULS--. I am thrilled to share their stories with you all. Although we are not in a same room like in person theatre, knowing you/witnesses/audience are there- behind the camera, that brings the show to be transformative. Thank you for being here with us.
I feel so blessed to work with these amazing artists past few months. I have been inspired by their passions, stories and SOULS--. I am thrilled to share their stories with you all. Although we are not in a same room like in person theatre, knowing you/witnesses/audience are there- behind the camera, that brings the show to be transformative. Thank you for being here with us.
-Yoshiko Sienkiewicz (AKA Yokko)
DIGITAL DISCLAIMER
In this current age of connection through technology and finding ways to see, hear, and experience things through the world wide web, there are many things that we must accept as part of the tradeoffs of such miraculous connections. We will be doing everything we can to make sure that the show comes to you in its intended form, as free from glitches and hiccups as we can possibly make it, but this is a live show and like every other live show there is always a chance for things to go wrong or technology to act up. Especially with the limits and difficulties unique to connecting in the digital world, as we’ve all begun to experience more and more during these times, there just things that happen beyond our control and limits to the technology and how it works that can cause sounds to change and distort, or images to freeze, pixelate, blur, or stutter. This is a part of this piece, En:2021 is about human connection in the current moment, the connection with each other over digital waves and all the different ways that changes how we communicate and connect, and the connection and relationship we have with the technology that allows us to reach through the screen to each other. We have all experienced a grainy video call with friends or family or lost words as an internet connection hiccups for a moment while we talk, this is part of the tradeoff we face right now. We hope you can enjoy the show and see any such issues as a part of this piece, and our choice of medium to bring this to you through an imperfect digital lens as a reflection of the current times and what we’re all going through.
PERFORMER/FILM MAKERS
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Frankie Mulinix With a career spanning Canada, Australia, and the United States, Frankie is a burlesque, spoken-word, and butoh-based performer. As Vibrance Centre for Voice and Movement, she teaches acting, voice, and movement and is a certified Fitzmaurice Voicework® teacher. Combining her backgrounds in voice, physical theatre performance, and Occupational Therapy (in neurology, chronic pain, mental health, and occupational justice), she specializes in helping actors and other professionals overcome anxiety and other barriers to performance. As the Artistic Director of Burning Bones Physical Theatre, her mission is to contribute to the development of creative communities, creative careers, and creative culture through physical performance and collaborative projects. She is very excited to be working with Yokko and to be continuing to explore connection with an ensemble and performance-building online.
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Zak Ma is a New York based Vietnamese American actor from Southern California. While pursuing his MFA at The Actors Studio Drama School, Zak explored transformational roles such as Prior in Angels in America, Alan in Equus, and Steve in Hope and Gravity. He is also a passionate devised theatre artist, having collaborated in original experimental works such as The Park, Forces, and SHINKA, where he first dove into butoh with Ren Gyo Soh. Zak believes in the healing power of art and aims to explore the human psyche and spirituality in his artistic endeavors.
Zak Ma Official Website |
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Annie McCoy is an actress who started with a focus in Musical Theatre. She moved from Orlando to New York to study at Circle in the Square. Developing a passion for physical theatre she continued to study and work with Danyon Davis. She began working with Yokko in 2015 through the Ume group and then through Ren Gyo Soh. Some past productions include Splitfoot (Piper Theatre) and By Wing, Fin, Hoof or Foot (The Ume Group). As well as Ren Gyo Soh’s Butoh centric Shinka (winner of the IT awards) and En. Her belief is that Butoh is a craft which allows for the opportunity to take accountability and notice of all things past, present and future in our universe. With this awareness it is her goal to use the body to produce art that is truthful, transcendent and engaging.
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Rachelle Dart is delighted to be working with Ren Gyo Sho. She is a performer, traditional storyteller and teaching artist in Phoenix Arizona. She holds Bachelors in Theatre from Arizona State University and is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Previous roles include Benvolio-Romeo and Juliet, Olivia- Twelfth Night (Southwest Shakespeare Company), John Wesley Powell-Men on Boats (Arizona State University). An Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, she is passionate about safe stage combat in education and performance. Fight choreography includes Othello, Richard II, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Southwest Shakespeare Company), Shakespeare Land of the Dead, Kill Will (Scottsdale College). In 2018, she apprenticed in the craft of storytelling with Irish storyteller Liz Weir, MBE. She loves exploring the many ways stories can be shared and experienced to bring us back to connection, compassion and inquiry!
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Jorge Luna At the age of seven he was inspired by a virtuoso circus performance by a troupe called Círcolo. Jorge Luna started off as a dj and loved being smuggled into nightclubs at a young age to spin. FILM: planet b234, The Week Of (Netflix), All The Beautiful Things, (Sundance), The Last Frankenstein, Catching Fireflies, All Is Not Lost, Angelo, Bx3M. TV: Lisey's Story, Elementary, The Blacklist, Power, Law & Order: SVU, The Code, One Life to Live, Basile. THEATRE: Hamlet; Caborca, Deathwatch; The New Ohio Theatre, The Dream Dances; The Ume Group, EN, SHINKA, Yuragi; Ren Gyo Soh, Starry Messenger; Theatre For The New City, Cymbeline; Chashama, Iphigenia at Aulis; Tiyatro Global, The Promise; CBA, FLORIDITA, My Love; INTAR, Barceloneta, de noche; IATI, The Tempest, Julius Caesar; BC. TRAINING: Shakespeare; RADA. MFA Acting; Brooklyn College. @jorgelunadj
Jorge Luna Official Website |
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Miles Butler is an Actor, Physical Theatre Artist from D.C. He has been working with Ren Gyo Soh since 2017. NYC Credits: Peter and the Starcatcher (EPIC), Caveman Play (Third Space), SHINKA (RenGyoSoh), Loudmouth (Rebel Playhouse), Naked Hamlet (Torn Out Theater), Anthropomorphic (Puppetry Arts), Ariel in The Tempest (Stag and Lion), Alexander Who's Not Going To Move (Two Beans, National Tour), enter a garden (Motor Company), in the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey (Beck Lyrics) DC: Studio Theatre, Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Wolf Trap, Ford's Theater, Folger Theater and various. Former company member of Synetic Theater and the Flea Theatre. He is a teaching artist with EPIC Players, a neuro-inclusive theatre company. BFA in Theatre (Brooklyn College) www.milesbutler.com
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PRODUCTION TEAM
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Yoshiko Sienkiewicz (Choreographer & Director, AKA Yokko) is an award-winning Japanese artist, whose work has been presented across the USA and Europe. (List of Awards) She has acted in, devised, and choreographed a variety of local and international shows, music videos and films. Her major work: Butoh Medea, Hide of Fires, SHINKA and BALDY. Her choreographed work, SHINKA received Outstanding premier production of a play and Outstanding Choreography & Movement at New York Innovative Theatre Award Season 2018-2019. Most recently, her Butoh work has been seen in several music videos, including I Don’t Know Where We Went Wrong (HOKO, 2020) and Ready To Let Go (Cage The Elephant, 2019). She is the artistic director of the Butoh Theatre Group, Ren Gyo Soh. B.A in Theatre (UAlbany), MFA in Acting (The Actors Studio).
YOKKO (Actor, Butoh & Theatre Artist, Movement Couch) FULL BIO |
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Paul Michael Henry (Music) is a Scottish performance artist, dancer, and musician. His work is informed by Butoh dance, punk rock, and ritual, and is performed all over the world. Recent projects include SHRIMP DANCE (a multimedia dance work exploring the links between anti-depressants, ecological crisis, and late capitalism), a tour of the United States with Laughter at Being Crushed, touring as a Butoh dancer in France and Japan, the premiere of new performance Mammy at CCA Glasgow, and a new film exploring high rates of male suicide in Scotland and globally called SMITE ME NOW. Michael’s themes are political, social & spiritual, dealing with love, neglect of the body, destruction of the environment, and atrophy of the soul in a consumerist society.
Paul Michael Henry UNFIX |
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Alyssa Jackson (Music/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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Saki Kawamura (Assistant Director / Graphic Designer) is a NY-based director, actor and dancer, originally from Japan.She is delighted to be a part of Ren Gyo Soh! Her passion for theatre has led her to move to NYC in 2019. She currently pursues her MFA in Directing at the Actors Studio Drama School. BA in Sociology and Media Studies from International Christian University in Tokyo. She puts her value on the process of collaboration. She loves to hear the stories of her collaborators and put them into the works, which she believes is the important chemistry to make a unique art.
Saki Kawamura Official Website |
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Robin Dill (Tech Supervisor) A Lighting, Scenic and Sound Designer/Technician from Walnut Creek, CA. Robin has designed and teched shows for a number of groups around NYC like The Ume Group and the Void Theatre Company, for independent artists like Yokko, and for collaborative projects like UNFIX NYC. He also works various projects ranging from Production managing NY Fashion week shows to working trade shows and other events all around NYC.
Lighting Designer/Technical Director UNFIX NYC 2015-2019 SHINKA at Captal Fringe 2017 SHINKA at Planet Connection 2018 Butoh Medea Tour Technician /Company Manager |
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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 has been supporting Ren Gyo Soh since the start. He is one of Board of advisors of Ren Gyo Soh.
Associate Producer SHINKA at Capital Fringe 2017 SHINKA at Planet Connection 2018 En at Triskelion Arts 2019 Performer Butoh Mini Fest 2015, UNFIX NYC 2016, 2019 |
