Theaterlab To Host SHE'S GOT THE BEAT, YEAH! 7/18

Theaterlab (Co-Artistic Directors Carlo Altomare and Orietta Crispino) will host She's Got the Beat, Yeah!, a benefit party celebrating Rwandan poet, director and writer Odile Gakire Katese Monday, July 18th at its Manhattan studios (137 West 14th Street).

She's Got the Beat, Yeah! will feature performances by violist Maryam Blacksher, clown Kendall Cornell, avant-performance artist Karine Fleurima and musician Camila Cano, and The Renegade Cabaret as well as readings of Ms. Katese's poetry by Dominique Morisseau and Amelia Workman. The party begins at 7:00 pm with the performances to follow at 7:45 pm.

Odile Gakire Katese is the inaugural recipient of the League of Professional Theatre Women's Rosamond Gilder/Martha Coigney International Award, named after two leading women in the international theatre community. Ms. Katese will be honored at a ceremony to be held Monday, October 17, 2011 at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at the CUNY Graduate Center, located at 365 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Ms. Katese is the Associate Director of the University Centre for Arts and Drama at the National University of Butare, Rwanda. A student of language and political science at the time the Arts Centre was created in 1999, Ms. Katese found herself drawn more and more to the arts. Her passion for the arts was recognized formally by the university, and she was given a two-year scholarship. She also trained at the acclaimed École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq where she became a playwright.

Ms. Katese's piece Des Espoirs; which has been performed in France, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; mixes theatre and dance. Its focus is on humanity's ability to rebuild itself after trauma. Ms. Katese has also participated in Sundance Institute Theatre Lab East Africa.

Theaterlab, the premier downtown salon for experimental theater and performance, has a long history of supporting and developing international work. Co-Artistic Director Orietta Crispino hails from Italy, where she studied and taught at Piccolo Teatro and worked with the country's revered directors Giorgio Strehler and Massimo Castri. Co-Artistic Director Carlo Altomare was a part of the Living Theatre from 1973 through 1980, and founded the Alchemical Theatre in New York in the early 1980s. He toured extensively throughout Europe with both companies.

Over the past five years, Theaterlab has welcomed Motus (Italy), Ze Celso (Brazil), Carolina Fonseca Morais (Portugal), Linda Olthof (The Netherlands), Teatro Deluxe (Italy), BioMuse Trio (Ireland), Naoki Iwakawa (Japan), Nina Zivancevic (Serbia), Nicole Renaud (France), Serge Ernandez (France), Emrah Kanisicak and Ensemble (Turkey), Leila Gaudin (France), Anna Forsythe (Russia), and Rukiye Sahin (Turkey) into its studios on 14th Street in downtown Manhattan.

Tickets to She's Got the Beat, Yeah! are $10 and may be purchased in advance at www.theaterlabnyc.com or at the door. The event, sponsored by Marcey Brownstein Catering and Beverage Investment Group, runs from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm at Theaterlab (137 West 14th Street, between 6th and 7th Ave., Subway: 1/2/3 or A/C/E or F/M to 14th St. or L to 6th Ave.). For more information about the event, visit www.theaterlabnyc.com.