GLOBAL FORMS THEATER FESTIVAL to be Presented by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and New York Theatre Salon

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and New York Theatre Salon will present the 2nd Annual Global Forms Theater Festival. Running June 1-9, 2021, and showcasing over 100 theater artists from 34 different countries, this week-long theatrical event celebrates and uplifts the work of international and immigrant theater artists living in the United States and abroad. Through a series of in-person and online performances, videos, documentaries, workshops, and panel discussions, the Global Forms Theater Festival uses multiple art forms and aesthetics as a means of exploring humanity, freedom, home, and isolationism. This Festival gives a critical opportunity to uplift the voices of International Artists during this global pandemic and to share those works with audiences around the world. All events are free and open to the public.

Festival highlights include Glimpse, an outdoor celebration of life and new beginnings with live theater, music, dance, and art for children, curated by Shadi Ghaheri with over 20 immigrant artists from India, Iran, South Africa, Lebanon and more; Roundabout: Painting a theatrical portrait, created as a form of artistic healing and creative experimentation, this documentary theater event conceived of by Inés Braun tells the stories of how two real immigrants, one Nigerian and one Chinese, have navigated the struggles of the Covid pandemic; The Meltdown, a darkly comic dating ritual by Rawya El Chab and Aline Salloumset against the backdrop of political and economic breakdown in Lebanon; and Time Zone Free, a live-streamed event curated by Chrysi Sylaidi spotlighting the beauty and uniqueness of the many spoken languages and music of the world, available to audiences across the globe.

Workshops, discussions, and a collection of short films complement the performances. All events, except for Glimpse which can be experienced in-person at Prospect Park, will be available online. Please visit https://www.rattlestick.org/ for more information.

"The theme of this year's Global Forms Theater Festival is "Seven Continents Unite," says festival curator and producer Yue Liu, Rattlestick's Managing Director and founder of New York Theatre Salon. "It comes at a time where the pandemic has taught us the importance of coming together for common causes and to fight against xenophobia and outward expressions of racism. The festival highlights our shared humanity and compassion. As an immigrant producer who has experienced various types of discrimination in my life, I deeply understand the pains and struggles that immigrant artists are carrying. I feel a strong sense of responsibility to produce the festival and provide a safe environment for immigrant artists to tell their stories confidently, proudly, and authentically."

Global Forms Theater Festival is generously funded by Faith Catlin and John Griesemer, the Howard Gilman Foundation, and the New World Foundation.

A complete schedule of events follows. All times listed are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

PERFORMANCES

June 2 and 8 at 6:30pm; June 9 at 7:30pm

Through the Door
Through the Door is a performance mixing video, physical theater, naked-hand puppetry, and graphic design. We say that traveling leads us to see differently, to open up, to grow, to be more universal. In a world on lockdown, traveling happens also on the inside. Cut from others, what remains is ourselves. So come dive with us into the inner continents of human. A world that is vast, varied, unpredictable, intense, naughty, heroic, vulnerable, nightmarish, festive and spiritual. Participants include performer Kasper Klop, director Morwenna Spagnol, and cinematographer Peter Azen.

June 2 at 7:30pm; June 4 and 8 at 2:30pm

Ellis Island

Created and Performed by Doireann Mac Mahon & James Clements

Directed by Marc Atkinson

Ellis Island is an interview-based multimedia play that examines why we leave the places we are born, why we go to the places we do and how our sense of self is maintained in our new home. Told through the experience of two immigrants - a Scottish man and an Irish woman - arriving in New York in 1921, in the aftermath of the Spanish Flu pandemic and amongst the wreckage of the First World War, Ellis Island asks prescient questions about belonging, prejudice and what makes our sense of identity. Set in the quarantine hospital on the titular island, a truly global story emerges - one of leaving, arriving and waiting. Folks music is woven through, along with monologues from a range of immigrant voices from across the world.

June 3 at 9am; June 4 at 9pm; June 9 at 6:30pm

Sa Aming Puso / In Our Hearts

Written and directed by Gaven Trinidad

In collaboration with and featuring Regina De Vera

Film edited by Uno Servida

Using texts from three work-in-progress plays, theater artists Gaven Trinidad and Regina De Vera openly interrogate the lasting effects of imperialism on contemporary Filipino identity and what it means to be Filipino today. The filmed vignettes will explore themes of immigration, belonging, citizenship, decolonization, and the continuous search for what unites all people of Filipino descent. The project was filmed on location in New York City, and it will be presented in English and Tagalog.

June 3 at 7:30pm; June 4 at 10:30pm; June 6 at 1:30pm

The Meltdown

Created and performed by Rawya El Chab and Aline Salloum

In Collaboration with Sarah Bitar

Videography by Alia Haju

The Meltdown is a pre-recorded video performance inspired by the ongoing social, political and economic breakdown taking place in Lebanon. It explores the shaken social and gender expectations of a bourgeois couple on their first date, and asks: what will remain after these roles have been performed and exhausted? The piece invites us to witness a dating ritual between a young woman and man who are navigating the crumbling displays of gender and sexulaity during times of economic scarcity, as reflections of their country's rapid collapsing state. Once the superfluous performativity has disintegrated, we are left with an intimate conversation between two Lebanese expats of their longings and frustrations towards their homeland. Beyond Lebanon, the piece is a reminder, and an echo, of the state of collapse of neo-liberal ethics and politics unfolding across the globe.

June 5 at 12-2pm (Part One) ; June 6 at 11-1pm (Part Two)

Time Zone Free

Director and Curator: Chrysi Sylaidi

Musical Director: William Karras

Time Zone Free will be a virtual live streaming show brought together by live and virtual performances, devised projects and short films spotlighting the beauty, uniqueness, and musicality of the many spoken languages of the world, as well as the musical culture of the places these languages originate from. This show will connect International Artists with audiences from all over the globe and a cabaret in New York City fittingly serving as the epicenter of it all. Actors, musicians, singers, performers, and many more will break Time Zone limitations by passing the artistic baton from one country to the next.

June 5 and 6 at 3pm

Gera sa Droga (War on Drugs)
Written and performed by Dorothea Gloria

Directed by Ma'moon Tebbo

Gera sa Droga (War on Drugs) is a self-devised piece created by Filipina writer and performer Dorothea Gloria. Having been raised in a family filled with journalists, Gloria aims to translate news articles into stage performances. Gera sa Droga (War on Drugs) focuses on the current administration of President Duterte and his response to drug use in the Philippines. Gloria wants to highlight the different Filipino voices, from the victims of the drug massacre, to the family members left behind, to close friends and relatives, to the police that implement rules, to the journalists that cover the killings, to the president himself. This piece questions if peace and order can truly be attained through violence and killing.

June 5 at 3:30pm (Rain Date: June 6)

Glimpse

Director and Curator: Shadi Ghaheri

Music Curation in Collaboration with Sadra Shahab

Glimpse is a celebration of life, joy, and new beginnings within the community through art of storytelling, music, dance and more. The festival will be held in the Peninsula, the beautiful field of Prospect Park on June 5th with four major outdoor performances all created and curated by immigrant artists. These artists from all around the world will bring folklore stories from India, Iran, South Africa and Lebanon, Puppet shows and stories for young audiences, Music from Columbia, Middle East and Jazz world plus dance and rituals from different cultures. Glimpse will be presented in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance.

June 8 at 8pm

Roundabout: Painting a theatrical portrait
Conceived by Inés Braun
Six immigrant artists, each from a different country, bring their talent and expertise to the project of creating a theatrical "portrait" of another immigrant who entrusts them with their story. Roundabout combines interview footage with a virtual theater piece, written and staged in response to and inspired by the subject's story. The pre-recorded piece will be followed by a live, virtual discussion panel featuring the interview subject and the artists: they will reflect on the process of remote collaboration, and what it feels like to see their experience interpreted and embodied by others as theater.

GLOBAL DIALOGUE

June 3 at 10:30am

We Hear You: A Global Dialogue With Climate Artists and Activists

Join four youth artists and activists from around the world in dialogue about their experiences of organizing and creating in response to the climate crisis. This dialogue is part of We Hear You-A Movement, a women-led performance project centering youth voices in the movement for climate justice. Drawing inspiration from climate strikes, block parties, and environmental science, We Hear You aims to cultivate global connections between ecosystems of performance and action.

WORKSHOPS

June 2 at 11am

Honoring your Health with Viveca Chow

In this workshop, Viveca will share some tips and tricks that have helped her throughout the years and find the joy in being a human first, rather than being an actor first. Let's normalize prioritizing ourselves and really listening to what we, and our bodies need at every moment.

June 3 at 12pm

Breath and Meditation with Sneha Sakhare

This workshop will specifically focus on Vedic Mantras, Yogic Meditations, Base of Pranayama i.e breathing exercises and subtle warm-ups and their effects on our body and mental health. The workshop is open to everyone.

June 5 at 10:30am

The Songwriter's Toolkit with Andrew Strano

A hands on (or as hands on as zoom will allow) deep dive into the fundamental nuts and bolts of songwriting as a lyricist... structure, pattern, hooks, details and sensory information, and dramaturgical questions. Get back to basics if you're experienced, or come along and leave with the tools to feel ready to write, even if you never have before.

June 7 at 2:30pm

Playing the Changes: Text Analysis for Theatre with Marc Atkinson Borrull

Marc Atkinson Borrull will work with participants to unpack how a director approaches texts for theatre. Using a range of classic and contemporary plays, this hands-on workshop will explore how to break down scenes and uncover their hidden secrets - searching for the practical tools that the writer has given us to breathe life into the play as it is embodied on stage. Uninterested in dogmatic approaches, the session will instead focus on tools which artists can manipulate to further their own interpretative freedom.

Visit https://www.nytheatresalon.com/ for more information.

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