Open Dance Project At The Moody Presents RED LANDSCAPE: GEORGIA O'KEEFFE IN TEXAS 1912-1918

The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University and Open Dance Project (ODP) present Red Landscape: Georgia O’Keeffe in Texas 1912 - 1918, an immersive dance theater performance devised by the ODP ensemble under the choreographic direction of Annie Arnoult. Twelve ticketed performances will run at the Moody’s Lois Chiles Studio Theater beginning June 7, 2024.

“Red Landscape is the third Open Dance Project performance hosted at the Moody and we’re excited to partner with their brilliant team again this season,” said Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director Alison Weaver. “Their innovative use of dance, stage design, and sound to convey thought-provoking themes that directly engage the audience aligns with our goal to offer unexpected entry points into the arts.”

Red Landscape: Georgia O’Keeffe in Texas 1912-1918 surrounds audience members with a three-dimensional, multi-sensory collage of O’Keeffe’s memories and experiences in Texas. Inspired by the artist’s personal letters, journals, interviews, sketches, photographs, and works of art, this immersive multimedia experience invites audience members to walk through theatrical recreations of the bedroom, art studio, school, and West Texas town where O’Keeffe lived and taught. ODP ensemble members perform the roles of O’Keeffe, her admirers, and her adversaries through movements that echo both the “bigness” and “emptiness” of O’Keeffe’s landscapes and the intimacy of her written correspondence.

“Georgia’s time in Texas is ripe source material for ODP. Georgia found her artistic voice in Texas, and that voice is modern, feminist, disruptive, provocative, and important,” said ODP Executive Artistic Director Annie Arnoult. “Like Valeska Gert, whose life and work inspired Open Dance Project’s DADA GERT, also presented by the Moody, Georgia O’Keeffe was a brilliant female artist in a man’s art movement. She knew she was a rebel, and she wore that badge proudly. Lucky for us, she wrote it all down.”

The performance weaves in and out of a visual, tactile, and sonic experience of O’Keeffe’s worldview created by set designer Ryan McGettigan, scenic artist Lauren Davis, projection and lighting designers Bryan Ealey and Tiffany Schrepferman, and sound designer Edgar Guajardo. A Texas-inspired score by Winter Barn (Garreth Broesche and Jason Stumpf) and produced and engineered by Paul Beebe infuses the piece with the dramatic pull between O’Keeffe’s Texas landscapes and New York skyscrapers. The show benefits from the extensive local and national design experience of this team specializing in interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative use of movement, music, space, and form. This is the seventh immersive performance built with production manager Christina Maley and ODP artistic director Annie Arnoult.

“Like our previous productions, Red Landscape is designed and choreographed to invite active, physical exploration by guests, who stand and walk in and among the performers,” said Arnoult. “Immersed in the words, images, and ephemera of O'Keefe, both dancer and attendee break the conventional divisions between artist and audience.”

Tickets

The twelve intermission-free, hour-long performances will take place June 7 and 8 at 7 and 9 p.m.; June 9 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.; June 12 and 13 at 7 p.m. and June 14 and 15 at 7 and 9 p.m. at the Moody’s Lois Chiles Studio Theater. A free pre-show director/designer set tour and talk will take place Saturday, June 15 at 6 pm. Tickets are $35 for the general public and are available at moody.rice.edu.

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