World Premiere of STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS Opens at La MaMa

STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS, the newest work from the Obie Award-winning and MacArthur Fellow
writer, director, multi-media innovator and long-time La MaMa artist John Jesurun. STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS marks Mr. Jesurun's return to La MaMa for the first time in a decade. The production performs at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.), with a press opening set for Sunday, January 22. Heading the cast of STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS is the celebrated downtown actress
Black-Eyed Susan.

STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS -- one of four shows this season being fully-produced by La MaMa as part of its 50th anniversary "Homecoming" season -- runs at La MaMa through February 5 with performances Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Written, directed and designed by Mr. Jesurun, STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS unfolds inside an anonymous globe-circulating jetliner, a modern-age pleasure palace operated by a mother and son. Inspired by 17th century Japanese writer Saikaku Ihara's "floating world" stories, STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS follows the mother and son as they hauntingly travel back and forth between the parallel worlds of the 17th century and now. The mother and son are portrayed Black-Eyed Susan and Preston Martin.

Mr. Jesurun characterizes STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS as "cross-media storytelling." Audience members can enter the piece through the website or the live experience, which layers text, video, music and live internet feeds to reflect the anxiety of spiritual and sexual dislocation of contemporary life.

The play features a variable nightly series of revolving micro-plays and characters that at times will be live-streamed on the web or beamed in from remote locations. Mr. Jesurun anticipates that a featured role will be portrayed each night by a different guest artist thus giving the work yet another
new twist throughout the run.

As well, audiences will be able to follow and browse through the living, growing archive on the STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS website, www.bridgedream.com. Mr. Jesurun considers the website an extension of the live production that charts the geography of the characters' relationships and histories along with commentary and video clips of performances, thus rendering each performance of STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS unique to any other performance of the play -- before or after.

Joining Black-Eyed Susan and Preston Martin in the cast of STOPPED BRIDGE are Claire Buckingham and Ikechukwu Ufomadu.

Telepresence and multi-media production for STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS is by CultureHub, an incubator for creativity focused on the intersection of art and technology, whose vision is to bring artists from diverse disciplines and cultures together to explore art and technology as a means for developing new forms of expression, sharing creative experiences and promoting global
collaboration, learning and innovation.

One of four shows being fully-produced by La MaMa during its 50th anniversary "Homecoming" season, STOPPED BRIDGE OF DREAMS indeed marks a homecoming for Mr. Jesurun, whose numerous works include several ground-breaking works at La MaMa: DEEP SLEEP (1986) starring Steve Buscemi and winner of the Village Voice Obie Award for Best Play, BLACK MARIA (1987), IRON LUNG (1992), SHATTERED HAND MASSACREE (1992), POINT OF DEBARKATION (1993) and CHANG IN A VOID MOON, his most recent production at La MaMa in 2003. 

ABOUT JOHN JESURUN

John Jesurun is a writer/director/media artist living in New York. His presentations integrate elements of language, film, architectural space and media. His exploded narratives cover a wide range of themes and explore the relation of form to content. They challenge the experience of verbal, visual and intangible perceptions.

In 1982 he began his theatrical career at the Pyramid Club in New York with his groundbreaking serial play "Chang in a Void Moon", now in its 60th episode. (Bessie Award). Since 1984 he has written, directed and designed over 30 plays including: the media trilogy of "Deep Sleep" (1986 Obie Award, Best Play), "White Water" and "Black Maria", "Number Minus One", "Dog's Eye View", "Red House", "Faust/How I Rose", "Shatterhand Massacree", "Philoktetes", "Everything That Rises Must Converge", "Slight Return", "Septet" and "Snow".

Jesurun has worked with varied artists including Molissa Fenley, Steve Buscemi, Christian Marclay, John Kelly, Hideo Kanze, Neil Greenberg, David Cale, René Pollesch, Fiona Templeton, Frank Maya, Martin Acosta and Ron Vawter. His music video for Jeff Buckley was nominated for an MTV award. Other projects include the 2000 staging and video design for the concert performance of Roy Nathanson's Jazz Suite "Fire at Keaton's Bar and Grill" featuring Debby Harry and Elvis Costello at St. Ann's, Brooklyn and Royal Festival Hall, London and the direction, set and video design for Harry Partch's opera "Delusion of the Fury" at the Japan Society in 2007.

He is the recipient of numerous grants including the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, NEA Professional Theater Companies, NEA Media Arts, NYSCA, Rockefeller Foundation Playwright's Fellowship, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Fellowship, a U.S.-Mexico Creative Artist's Residency, US Japan Fellowship, and the NEA Playwright's, and Visual Arts Fellowships, Franklin Furnace Award, BAM/Lucent Technologies Arts in Multimedia, MAP Fund. He is a 1996 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.

His company has toured extensively in Europe and the United States. He has also directed his productions in Spanish, Italian, Japanese and German. His work has been produced and presented by numerous venues including La Mama, the Kitchen, the Walker Arts Center, On the Boards, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Wexner Center, Kampnagel Theater, Prater Theater, National Theater of Mexico, Mickery Theater, Maubeuge Festival, De Singel, Theater am Turm, Granada Festival, Eurokaz Zagreb, Bogota International Festival, Vienna Festival, Kyoto Performing Arts Center and Spoleto USA. His short films have been shown at festivals and alternative spaces in Europe and the US. August 2009. Residencies at Macdowell Colony,Yaddo,Bogliasco Foundation's Liguria Study Center, The Bellagio Center, Sundance Theater Lab.

ABOUT LA MAMA
La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a world-wide reputation for producing cutting-edge work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer and legend, Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,000 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.

La MaMa provides a supportive home for artists and takes risks on unknown work. Artists such as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Blue Man Group, David and Amy Sedaris, -and others whose names you haven't heard of yet - began their careers at La MaMa. International artists introduced to America by La MaMa include Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Kazuo Ohno and, more recently, the acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre. La MaMa has been honored with more than 30 OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk and Bessie Awards, and, in 2006, Ellen Stewart was recognized with a special TONY Award for "Excellence in the Theatre."