PEAK Performances to Present US Debut of Familie Flöz's HOTEL PARADISO

PEAK Performances at Montclair State University will present Familie Flöz's Hotel Paradiso, May 5-8, rescheduled from 2020 and, for the first time ever, bringing the Berlin-based mask theater company's gorgeously peculiar and awe-inspiring vision to U.S. audiences. Using clowning, acrobatics, magic, and improvisation, Familie Flöz has delighted European audiences for more than 20 years with captivating theatrical experiences. Strange things happen in Hotel Paradiso, a comedic thriller chock full of eccentric characters including a pajama-wearing front-desk clerk, a kleptomaniacal maid, and a cook who chops up more than just pork. Set in a family-run Alpine resort where a struggle of the new against the old unfolds, this fairy tale full of secrets is created by a troupe known worldwide for works that are "wordless and yet somehow so expressive, full of yearning and yet also filled with joy" (The Guardian).

Performances of Hotel Paradiso take place at the Alexander Kasser Theater May 5 and 6 at 7:30pm, May 7 at 8pm, and May 8 at 3pm. Running time is 80 minutes, with no intermission. Tickets are $40 (and free for MSU undergraduates, with valid ID) and can be purchased at peakperfs.org or 973.655.5112. The Alexander Kasser Theater is located at 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, NJ, on the Montclair State University campus.

Familie Flöz crafts their paper maché masks once they have conceived a work, its characters, and the universal human themes it explores. For the creators behind Familie Flöz, the heightening and distorting effects of masks disclose more than they conceal. Says Familie Flöz Co-Founder, Artistic Director, and Hotel Paradiso director Michael Vogel, "They carry a secret and reveal it at the same time. They let us sense what moves us inside before making our exterior move. Masks spur our imagination. They help us use our memories creatively. And the masks make us play. When a mask plays, it awakens to life. Imagination, poetry, and masks open the world inside us."

Relying on meticulous movement, gesture, and angling's ability to completely transform the unchanging (but dynamically and expressively asymmetrical) masks, Familie Flöz's works are wordless-introducing their own poignantly clear language. As Vogel told The Theatre Times, "It is a language in which everyone is a specialist... You use only the body and put the words away, that is a limited thing in a way but in this limitation you have infinite possibilities."

Hotel Paradiso is created by Sebastian Kautz, Anna Kistel, Thomas Rascher, Frederik Rohn, Hajo Schüler, Michael Vogel, and Nicolas Witte, with performances by Marina Rodriguez Llorente, Sebastian Kautz, Daniel Matheus, and Thomas Rascher. It is directed by Michael Vogel. The creative team includes Thomas Rascher and Hajo Schüler (Masks), Michael Ottopal (Set Design), Eliseu R. Weide (Costumes), Dirk Schröder (Sound Design), Reinhard Hubert (Light Design), Matthias Hilke (Sound), Max Rux (Lighting), Silke Meyer (Graphics), Stefan Lochau (Artistic Assistant), Gianni Bettucci (Production Manager), and Dorén Gräfendorf (Production Assistant).

Hotel Paradiso is the fourth of five PEAK Performances presentations that will be captured this season by Alla Kovgan, a filmmaker commensurate with the work being offered-and the state-of-the-art technology used to capture performance-at the Alexander Kasser Theater. Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times called Kovgan's 3D film Merce (2019) "a visual wonder," and Tomris Laffly, in Variety, deemed it "spectacular," writing "this is what an artform celebrating the very nature and a practitioner of another artform should look and feel like." Marina Harss wrote in The New Yorker, "Kovgan's film succeeds in a way that most dance documentaries do not: as an art object in and of itself."

Working with Director of Photography Mia Cioffi Henry, Kovgan captured Donald Byrd and Spectrum Dance Theater's Strange Fruit and Netta Yerushalmy's Movement at the Kasser earlier this season. Prior to Hotel Paradiso, she will capture Gandini Juggling's Smashed2 (April 21-24), and, following these performances and concluding the season, Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company's Curriculum II (June 9-12). The films will eventually screen on PEAK Performances' PEAK Plus platform, which allows remote audiences to engage with the work of visionaries of contemporary performance.

PEAK Performances' Commitment to Health and Safety

To help protect the health and safety of audiences, artists, staff, and PEAK's greater community, patrons are required to wear masks-at all times-for all performances. Additionally, all performances will require proof of full vaccination to attend. Audience members will be asked to show proof of vaccination before entering the theater. These guidelines may evolve depending on health and safety recommendations.

About Familie Flöz

Familie Flöz is a German-based theatre company that uses humor, masks, improvisation, mime and physical comedy to create family-friendly shows. The company was begun in 1994 by Hajo Schüler and Markus Michalkowski, acting and mime students at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen in the Ruhr Area of Germany, and fellow Michael Vogel joined soon thereafter.

Their first production, a comic piece on life on a construction site, premiered at the university in 1994. Beginning with its second production, Ristorante Immortale, in 1998, the Familie Flöz gave up using language in its works, instead relying on visuals and music.

Familie Flöz productions were hits at both the Edinburgh Festival in 2001, 2004, 2015 and 2016 and at the London International Mime Festival. The company first selected the name Flöz Production at the Edinburgh Festival, which later became Familie Flöz. "The name Flöz is from their first play about undergrounders springing out of a hole in the earth, where mines have veins (floz) of gold."

Familie Flöz makes theatre with material that exists, before the need for speech. Every conflict initially manifests itself in the body. Physical conflict is the birth of every dramatic situation. Every production is made in a creative, collective process in which all performers also engage as the authors of their characters and situations. In countless improvisations the group works around its self-chosen theme and collects dramatic material, before the speechless masks come into play. Similar to working with text, the mask brings with it not only a form, but also content. From the development of a mask, into the playful probing and through to the symbiosis of player and mask, the process significantly shapes the result. The fundamental paradox of the mask - one covers the living face with a rigid form in order to create a living character - is at once compelling and challenging for the actor. But not only for him. The mask comes to life initially in the imagination of the spectator, who in this instant also becomes creator. Sensitive to the spectators' responses, and with a critical eye on its own work, all Flöz productions continue to develop and change as they are played and consequently inherit their density and intensity.

Familie Flöz has been based in Berlin since 2001. They have performed in 42 countries. All productions are produced in creative collaboration among the troupe's members.

About Alla Kovgan

Alla Kovgan is a Boston-based filmmaker born in Moscow, Russia. Her films have been presented worldwide. Since 1999, Alla has been involved with interdisciplinary collaborations, creating intermedia performances (with KINODANCE Company), dance films, and documentaries about dance.

Kovgan is the director of Cunningham, a 3D cinematic experience about legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham, orchestrated through his iconic works and performed by the last generation of his dancers. This poetic film tells a story of Merce's becoming Merce and traces his artistic adventures over three decades of risk and discovery (1944-1972). Integrating live action, archival, animation, and graphics allows the viewers to "step inside" the dance, creating a visceral journey into the choreographer's world. A breathtaking explosion of dance, music, and never-before-seen archival material, Cunningham is a timely tribute to one of the world's greatest modern dance artists.

About PEAK Performances

PEAK Performances is a program of the Office of Arts + Cultural Programming (Jedediah Wheeler, Executive Director) at Montclair State University and has been honored by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts with previous Arts Citation of Excellence and Designation of Major Impact. Programs in this season are made possible in part by the Alexander Kasser Theater Endowment Fund, PEAK Patrons, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and the FACE Foundation.

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