Lili Taylor to Lead 'FARMHOUSE/WHOREHOUSE' Artist Lecture at BAM

BAM presents "Farmhouse/Whorehouse: an Artist Lecture" by Suzanne Bocanegra, starring Lili Taylor, December 12-16, 2017 at BAM Fisher (Fishman Space, 321 Ashland Place). Directed by Lee Sunday Evans. Tickets: $25.

Suzanne Bocanegra's latest artist lecture, Farmhouse/Whorehouse, calls upon memories of her Texas childhood, where her grandparents' farm sat across the highway from the infamous Chicken Ranch (aka the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas).

Featuring acclaimed actress Lili Taylor, the production-presented in its New York premiere-also includes video projections, text, and an original song by Shara Nova (with lyrics by Bocanegra's grandmother). Farmhouse/Whorehouse made its world premiere in April as part of Houston's CounterCurrent Festival.

Bocanegra's artist lectures theatricalize the familiar "artist talk." Part performance and part essay, the form allows Bocanegra to explore how and why she became an artist. The lecture is a sequel of sorts to her piece When a Priest Marries a Witch, which used a similar approach to explore her Texas upbringing and which premiered at MoMA in 2010. BAM previously presented Bodycast: an Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra starring Frances McDormand, directed by Paul Lazar (2013 Next Wave Festival).

Suzanne Bocanegra lives and works in New York. Her recent work involves large-scale performance and installation, frequently translating two-dimensional information, images, and ideas from the past into three-dimensional scenarios for staging, movement, ballet, and music. A recipient of the Rome Prize, her work has shown at the Serpentine Gallery and the Hayward Gallery in London, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum and Houston's Museum of Fine Arts. Bocanegra's most recent work, Studio Visit, is an artist's studio visit as a theater performance staged in her own studio in Brooklyn, NY. A major show of Bocanegra's work titled I Write the Songs opened at the Tang Museum and traveled to SITE Santa Fe. A solo exhibit of her work opens at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia in September, 2018.

Lili Taylor's credits include Broadway: Three Sisters, Marvin's Room (Roundabout); and off- Broadway: The Library, Mourning Becomes Electra, Aunt Dan and Lemon (Obie), Landscape of the Body, Dead Eye Boy (Drama Desk Nomination), Avenue Boys, What Did He See, Love Talker, Fun, Mud. Her many films include Mystic Pizza, Say Anything, Dogfight, Arizona Dream, Born on the 4th of July, Household Saints, Shortcuts, Pre?t-a-Porter, Cold Fever, The Addiction, I Shot Andy Warhol, Girls Town, Ransom, The Haunting, The Imposters, Julie Johnson, A Slipping Down Life, Factotum, The Notorious Betty Page, Public Enemies, Brooklyn's Finest, The Conjuring, Blood Ties, A Woman Like Me, and To The Bone. Taylor's television credits include X-Files, Six Feet Under, and American Crime (Emmy Nomination).

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, offers varied light fare and bar service prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. Limited commercial parking lots are located near BAM. For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

Pictured: Lili Taylor, photo courtesy of the artist