Janis Brenner Comes to United Solo

Acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Janis Brenner will appear in the world premiere of the full-length dance/voice/theatre solo work, Inheritance: A Litany presented by the acclaimed United Solo Theatre Festival, October 4 & 11, 2018 at 7:30pm Off-Broadway at Theater Row, Off- NYC, at 410 W. 42nd St. Tickets are $45 in advance or at the door, and are available at 212-239-6200, at the theater, or at www.unitedsolo.org/us/inheritance-2018.

In November, 2017 Janis Brenner received the "Best Choreography" Award from the United Solo Theatre Festival, for her work on eden, transplanted by performance/installation artist Eva Petric. The producers of the festival subsequently invited Ms. Brenner to present her own work, thus beginning a nine-month journey into the creation of her first full-length solo in a forty-year performance and choreographic career. Having a long tenure as a "triple threat", this solo, based on lists, or litanies Ms. Brenner began making after the passing of both of her parents, is a personal narrative and an honoring of the parent/child relationship, its psychologies and its histories, both comic and deeply intimate.

"How do we define ourselves in relation to our biology, DNA, history, and our aging? Inheritance: A Litany is a journey into the myriad ways a daughter has "become" her late parents. She inherited "her father's wavy hair, her mother's singing voice, her father's sarcasm, her mother's fragile bones"...but also a lifetime of their objects, belongings, their thoughts and ways of being in the world that all seem to reveal moments of a family's story and a daughter's path. The work is a poetic narrative, a dance, a non-linear play, an opera, a comic drama. In the last ten years, my work has taken a more narrative turn within the company's projects. After several decades of making work, including numerous solos, Inheritance: A Litany is actually the first full- length solo project I have created for myself. As a mature interdisciplinary artist/performer, this is the right moment for me to venture into explicitly personal-narrative territory, to take the risk of performing a 'one-woman show' and to share the subject matter."

The Artistic Team:
Concept, Direction, Choreography, Text, Vocals, Performance: Janis Brenner
Composer: Jerome Begin
Rehearsal/Performance Coaching: Risa Steinberg
Dramaturgical Support: Jill Sigman
Lighting: Mitchell Bogard
Sound: Lawrence Schober

Janis Brenner is an acclaimed, award-winning dancer/choreographer/singer, and Artistic Director of Janis Brenner & Dancers in New York. Known for her "meticulous artistry" (D. Jowitt, The Village Voice), she has toured in 36 countries and is acclaimed as a "singular performer" with a multifaceted artistic range. Honors include: "Bessie" Award in Meredith Monk's The Politics of Quiet, Lester Horton Award in L.A., Fund for US Artists at International Festivals, U.S. State Department, Asian Cultural Council, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, US Embassies in Moscow, Bosnia, Jakarta and Dakar, O'Donnell Green Music and Dance Foundation (multiple grants) and a comission form the Whitney Museum of American Art for The Memory Project. Her work has been commissioned/restaged on more than 50 companies and colleges worldwide. Brenner worked closely for years with Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble (recording on ECM Records), Michael Moschen (including PBS' Great Performances), Annabelle Gamson, and with Murray Louis Dance Company working with Rudolf Nureyev, Placido Domingo, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Joseph Papp, Bat Sheva Dance Company and Alwin Nikolais. She is on the faculty of The Juilliard School, serving as Choreographic Mentor for the Choreographers & Composers course. JB&D has toured throughout the world since 1989 and been presented by leading NY and US organizations and festivals. For more information, visit www.janisbrenner.com.

UNITED SOLO THEATRE FESTIVAL is an annual international festival for solo performances held at the Theatre Row in the heart of the New York City theatre district on 42nd Street, currently in its 9th season. Fiona Shaw called United Solo "the mecca of the solo shows in the world." Over 130 participants from six continents will present their shows every day from September 13 until November 18, 2018. Numerous performances are already sold out. Through its mission, United Solo presents renowned artists as well as new talents, discovers original stories, connects artists with their audiences, exchanges diverse perspectives, fosters a dialogue for change, entertains, and now also educates through its professional training program led by distinguished artists and cultural icons. More info at: www.unitedsolo.org