Bootleg Theater Presents the World Premiere of DAEDALUS' DAUGHTER

Bootleg Theater presents the world premiere of Daedalus' Daughter, by Carol Katz, in association with Rosanna Gamson/World Wide, an original movement theatre piece for five performers. Opening on Thursday, September 21st and running through Saturday, September 30, 2017, Daedalus' Daughter uses the Greek myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus as its primary metaphor for mental illness: the story of struggle, escape, flight and falling, as told from the point of view of an imagined female figure - Daedalus' daughter. Both intimate and epic, the poetic performance piece weaves original and found text with rich visual imagery and full-bodied, choreographed movement, to create a poignant meditation on a secret family history. The abstract new work was inspired by playwright and director Katz's own lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder and the journey it took her on. For more information, please visit https://www.carolkatzprojects.org.

"I have created this story, Daedalus' Daughter, as a way to talk about madness and suicide that can run through family lines; its survivors, its legacy, its gifts, its ghosts," explains Katz. "It is a meditation on my own family history, and how it has affected some or all of us in deeply personal ways. I did not find out that my grandfather had taken his own life until relatively late, yet I have been touched, if not defined, by his death all my life. This piece is for those who follow in these footsteps without ever knowing why, and for those we leave behind."

With a one-hour run time, Daedalus' Daughter will open on Thursday, September 21st and run for six performances over two weeks - on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm - through September 30, 2017. Pre-sale tickets are $20 ($15 for students/seniors) and will be $25 at the door ($20 for students/seniors). Bootleg Theater is located at 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057. For tickets, please call 213-389-3856 or visit http://www.bootlegtheater.org/event/1554271-daedalus-daughter-los-angeles.

Daedalus' Daughter brings together a collaborative team of Los Angeles theatre and dance artists under the direction of Carol Katz, assisted by critically acclaimed choreographer, Rosanna Gamson. Created though an extended and deeply collaborative process, the piece was very much devised in partnership with the ensemble of actors and dancers: Sean Spann, Kirk Wilson, Clementine Gamson Levy, Lavinia Findikoglu and Kearian Giertz. Mallory Fabian is on board as Associate Creative Producer and Tom E Kelley is engineering the props and set construction. Lighting Designer, Darius Gangei, Sound Designer Simon Greenberg, and Scenic Designer Tanya Orellana, all from CalArts, round out the creative team.

SYNOPSIS: Daedalus' Daughter, an original dance theatre piece by Carol Katz, is a retelling of the Icarus myth from the point of view of his sister, interwoven with a secret family history. This half-bird, half-girl is an embodied metaphor, a symbolic way to talk about the madness and suicide that can run through generations of families. So while this is an intimate story about one woman's real family, it speaks to countless others who have dealt with the pain and sorrow of mental illness in their own. It is a story about the costs of keeping things hidden in shame and silence - yet ultimately it is about the hope and redemption that are possible when these secrets are acknowledged and claimed. There is a powerful and healing magic when someone speaks their own truth, and realizes that they are not alone. Told through movement and text, both poetic and prosaic, this piece is a surreal, dream like journey through myth and memory.

Excerpts of Daedalus' Daughter have been shown in progress at Mimoda Studio as part of Terra Nova, at Bootleg Theater, and as part of REDCAT's Studio series.
CREW: • Carol Katz, Writer/Director • Rosanna Gamson, Creative Producer & Dramaturge • Mallory Fabian, Associate Creative Producer • Tanya Orellana, Scenic Design • Darius Gangei, Lighting Design • Simon Greenberg, Sound Design • Tom E Kelley, Props & Set Construction
PERFORMERS: • Kirk Wilson • Sean Spann • Clementine Gamson Levy • Lavinia Findikoglu • Kearian Giertz

BIOS:

Carol Katz, Writer/Director - Carol Katz is a theatre maker, writer, director, and performer, born in Philadelphia, PA. Katz - who holds an MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University - devises original work in collaboration with artists across different disciplines especially dance. Her work has been presented at The New York International Fringe Festival, REDCAT, Bootleg Theater, and Highways Performance Space. While at Naropa, she studied with and was a featured performer in pieces being developed there by Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Company and by Dan Safer and his Witness Relocation Company. Among numerous other projects, she has also appeared in the world premiere of Becket Butoh, a movement theatre piece by Katsura Kan.

Katz, along with Elizabeth Watt, was the co-founder of Paloma Street Studio, a work/performance space in DTLA dedicated to new performance work. She was a longtime member of the legendary Rachel Rosenthal Company and Co-founder of Los Angeles-based movement theatre company, "Gaerung" - named "One to Watch" by LA Weekly. She has performed in LA with Zoo District in its Ovation Award-winning productions of The Submission by Eugene Ionesco, and Home by Steven Haworth. Appearing with Band of Toughs of Boulder, CO, in its production of Chuck Mee's Big Love, the Daily Camera called her performance "soulful, otherworldly, and sensitively played."

Rosanna Gamson, Creative Producer & Dramaturge - As Artistic Director of Rosanna Gamson/World Wide (RGWW), Rosanna Gamson has created bi-national collaborative projects in Poland and Mexico, and toured her dance theater works in North America since 2000, and Europe since 2012. RGWW has been presented and commissioned by museums, theaters, and alternative performance spaces both locally and abroad; including REDCAT, the Luckman Theater, Skirball Cultural Center, Getty Center and Grand Performances in LA; Teatro Raul Flores Canelo de CENART, and UNAM, in Mexico City, the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and numerous dance and theater festivals in the US and Eastern Europe. RGWW's creation, touring, and travel support includes awards from National Dance Project, National Performance Network, the NEA'S US-Mexico Initiative, Cultural Exchange International, Contacto Cultural and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Gamson earned her BFA and MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She is on faculty at the Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance at CalArts, and founded Terra Nova, an annual choreographic residency for Los Angeles area dance makers.

For tickets and more information visit http://www.bootlegtheater.org/event/1554271-daedalus-daughter-los-angeles.

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