Rachel Rosenthal Company's Instant Fairy Tales, the latest offering in Rachel Rosenthal's remarkable career, is a brand new quarterly series of original fairy tales for the 21st century. Instant Fairy Tales: The Longest Winter, the series' inaugural offering on January 25th and 26th at Espace DbD in Los Angeles, features an allegorical tale about learning to care for the environment. This first quarterly installment features costumes and sets in a visual style based on the "ukiyo-e" woodcuts of Hokusai and Hiroshige, which depict the Japanese "floating world" of the theatre, restaurants, teahouses, geisha, and the natural world.?
The new series marries Rosenthal's Instant Theatre concept with the enchantment of the fairy tale tradition. Echoing Barrault's and Artaud's revolutionary notions about theater, Rosenthal's performance aesthetic integrates movement, voice, choreography, improvisation, costuming, music, lighting, and sets into seismic experiences. The Rachel Rosenthal Company's TOHUBOHU! Extreme Theatre Ensemble includes visual artists, dancers, storytellers, a martial artist, sculptors, and an award-winning cake designer who will supply a cupcake for every child after the Instant Fairy Tales performance. Amy Knoles, of the acclaimed electro acoustic chamber ensemble the California EAR Unit, will perform live music.?
Fairy tales have been delighting the imaginations of children and adults alike, for centuries, in cultures around the globe. These enchanted folk stories, full of magic and mystery, take place in faraway lands, once upon a time, and happily ever after. In this strange realm, mythical beasts make the seasons change, a single apple will sustain through winter, and it's generally best to stay out of the woods. These tales inspire our imaginations and teach us to see with new eyes.
Instant Fairy Tales are particularly well suited for children and families. Seating in the intimate performance space is limited to 35 patrons per show.
WHERE:
The Rachel Rosenthal Company's venue:
Espace DbD
2847 South Robertson Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Street parking is available.
Map/Directions -
http://goo.gl/maps/Zxe6l
ABOUT:
Rachel Rosenthal -
Rachel Rosenthal, a leading figure from the Southern California arts movement in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, has been inspiring audiences for decades. Born into an affluent Russian-Jewish family in Paris, Rosenthal's father, Léonard Rosenthal, was a gem merchant widely known as "The King of Pearls." During World War II, her family escaped France, moving to Rio de Janeiro by way of Portugal. After losing his material wealth to the Nazi's, her father had to start over at age 65. In 1941, the family left Brazil to settle in New York where Rosenthal graduated from the High School of Music and Art and became a US citizen.
She studied art, theater and dance in Paris and New York after the war with such teachers as
Hans Hoffmann,
Erwin Piscator, and
Jean-Louis Barrault. Her circle included Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Merce Cunningham, and
John Cage, whose Zen sensibility informed and influenced Rosenthal's aesthetic. With this foundation, she moved West and began her theatrical career in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s as artistic director and performer for the ten-year run of the totally improvised and influential underground Instant Theatre which created pieces that drew upon notions of chance.
Rosenthal has presented over 40 of her own original performance pieces - thought provoking works centered on humanity's place on the planet. According to Artweek Magazine, "Rosenthal defines what differentiates quality performance art from mundane theatrical exercise ... she took us into her reality, and for that brief and precious moment, she altered our vision of the world. This is what great art can and should do."
Rosenthal has performed in over 100 venues around the world including documenta 8 in Kassel, Germany, The Helsinki Festival, ICA London, The Performance Space in Sydney, The Whitney Museum in New York City, and Museum of Contemporary Art here in Los Angeles. The Pompidou Centre recently included her in its 2006 show Los Angeles 1955-1985. Her pioneering performances have earned Obie, Rockefeller, Getty, NEA and CAA awards, among others.
In 1999, Rosenthal received an Honorary Doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and in 2000 she was honored by the City of Los Angeles as a "Living Cultural Treasure of Los Angeles." Critics have called her "a monument and a marvel" and Richard Schechner, editor of The Drama Review (TDR), put Rosenthal into the same category as
Robert Wilson,
Ping Chong,
Richard Foreman,
Meredith Monk, and
Laurie Anderson.
She opened her studio, Espace DbD, on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1980. From 1980 to 1983, Rosenthal presented performances by many emerging and established performance artists including
Barbara Smith, Eleanor Antin, Cheri Gaulke, Alan Kaprow,
John White, Joyce Cutler Shaw,
Tom Jenkins, Stelarc, and many others. Rosenthal founded The Rachel Rosenthal Company as an educational non-profit arts organization in 1989.
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