La MaMa to Present HELEN. by Caitlin George

La MaMa in association with En Garde Arts will present The SuperGeographics’ production of Helen. by Caitlin George (CAKE: a journey of fluid and frosting at The Chain Theater), directed by Violeta Picayo (The Strangers Came Today at The New Ohio) at La MaMa (66 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003), October 13–29, 2023. Tickets ($30 General; $25 students/seniors; first 10 for $10) are available for advance purchase at www.lamama.org/shows/helen-2023. The performance will run approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission. 

With top-speed language, irreverent humor and dynamic physicality, Helen. is a story you know told in a way that you don’t. A wild adventure of paths crossing – of mothers and myths and memories and monsters – Caitlin George’s new play takes you on a journey whose experience is greater than the sum of its parts. Helen. invites you to leap into the unknown, and revel in the unexpected.

In a world of tightly-bound conventions, the god of chaos watches three sisters talk about laundry, grout maintenance, and family planning as they wait for their mother’s wake to end, or a wedding to begin. Chaos undoes a button…and Helen, the youngest sister, tears loose from the constrictions of home, husbands, and obligations to seek adventure. Again and again, we see Helen grasp at opportunities only to be flung back through time to where she started. As the time loops, accumulates, and bursts, Helen is sent spiraling, banished from home, past the point of no return. A funny, feminist riff on a familiar myth, Helen. excavates our mothers from history and asks what the future holds for our daughters.

En Garde Arts Executive Artistic Director Anne Hamburger met this young company through her longtime friend and collaborator Anne Bogart. These talented young artists met in the SITI training and Bogart sent them her way. Hamburger says, “The minute I met them I wanted to support them. They are a stop at nothing, force of nature group of creators whose innovative and highly choreographed aesthetic appealed to me. I’m proud to play a role in the New York debut of this wildly talented young company and support their artistic growth.”

The cast will feature Grace Bernardo (Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet with Bedlam), Melissa Coleman-Reed (Men on Boats with Son of Semele Ensemble), Lanxing Fu(Bloom Bloom Pow at A.R.T./New York), Jackie Rivera (Fragments, Lists, and Lacunae with New York Live Arts), Constance Strickland (Medea Refracted at The Getty Villa/Baryshnikov Arts Center), and Jonathan Taikina Taylor (Banshee at IRT Theatre). The creative team will include Set & Costume Design by James Schuette(Superior Donuts on Broadway), Lighting Design by Jackie Fox (Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt 2B at the Dorset Theater Festival) with Co-Lighting Design by Connor Sale (Horses Full of Steam with Triskelion Arts), Sound Design by Darron L West (Tony Award-winner for Peter and the Starcatcher), Production Stage Manager Caroline Englander, Assistant Stage Manager Alison Greene, and Dramaturg/Line Producer Megan E Carter (Siti Company). 

Performances are scheduled for Friday, October 13 at 8pm, Saturday, October 14 at 8pm, Sunday, October 15 at 4pm, Monday, October 16 at 7pm, Thursday, October 19 at 8pm, Friday, October 20 at 8pm, Saturday, October 21 at 8pm, Sunday, October 22 at 4pm, Thursday, October 26 at 8pm, Friday, October 27 at 8pm, Saturday, October 28 at 8pm, and Sunday, October 29 at 4pm. 

Caitlin George

(Playwright) (she/her) is an Australian playwright, actor, and theatre-maker based out of Melbourne. Drawn to theatre by its collision of the possible and the practical, her work is driven by a compulsion for gender equality and a love for the explosive potential of language. As a playwright, her curiosity lies in reshaping our inherited narratives to examine cultural assumptions of gendered social roles. Through investigating myth, storytelling structures, and unsung histories, her plays question where we are and where we can go next. She has worked across south-eastern Australia, within the United States, and internationally in India, Mexico, and Canada. She most recently performed her own piece CAKE: a journey of fluid and frosting at The Chain, NYC. Caitlin is a company member of The SuperGeographics and a graduate of the Federation University’s Arts Academy, Australia, and the SITI Conservatory. www.caitlingeorge.website 

Violeta Picayo

(Director) (she/her), is a bilingual Cuban-American director, actor, and choreographer. A born and raised New Yorker, she is passionate about creating works of and for her home city. Guided by a deep interest in the inherited body, Violeta has made her artistic home with some of New York’s most dynamic theater companies. She is a company member at Bedlam, OYL, The SuperGeographics, and an associate artist of Siti Company. Recent directing credits include the world premiere of The Strangers Came Today by Emily Zemba (Society/The New Ohio). Violeta has worked at NYC venues including BAM, the Public, Second Stage, the Gym at Judson, La MaMa; regionally at the American Repertory Theater, Portland Center Stage, City Theater, the Fisher Center; and internationally in Argentina, England, Greece, India, Scotland. Violeta is a proud graduate of Vassar College, the National Theater Institute, and the SITI Conservatory. www.violetapicayo.com

The SuperGeographics 

create bold new works which build equity between traditionally dominant and pervasively marginalized cultures & bodies. They exchange images and ideas across disparate cultures and challenge form through works that are highly athletic, textually bold, and intellectually rigorous. Built of artists from across the globe, the company’s work has been seen in the US, Chile, Sweden, and India. www.supergeographics.org

En Garde Arts 

was founded in 1985 by Anne Hamburger leading the site-specific theatre movement in New York City. Its significant legacy of producing site-specific work featuring ground breaking productions by Anne Bogart, Tina Landau, Reza Abdoh, Mac Wellman and others has given the company the unique ability to bring people together to experience theatre in unlikely spaces. When theatres across the city were shut down due to Covid-19, En Garde Arts produced A Dozen Dreams, a multimedia immersive installation that brought to life the pandemic dreams of 12 playwrights spanning multiple generations, including Ren Dara-Santigo, Liza Jesse Peterson and  Emily Mann, among others. Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes), a music-theatre production produced in 2020 and created by an all Latinx team was written by playwright Andrea Thome with music by Sinuhé Padilla and direction by José Zayas. It premiered at La MaMa and was followed by a five borough tour before it was shut down by the pandemic. En Garde remounted the piece in Brooklyn, toured to Penn State and the University of Maryland and was presented by the La Jolla Playhouse which incorporated a week-long tour to communities throughout San Diego. Fandango ended each performance with an outdoor celebration engaging the audience to join the cast in a “fandango,” a celebration of music and dance. In 2021 they launched a partnership with the Downtown Alliance business improvement district, for the creation of Downtown Live, a festival of 36 outdoor performances of music and theatre, followed by Downtown Stories, a series of three theatrical offerings which invited New Yorkers to rediscover Lower Manhattan and its rich and complicated history. www.engardearts.org

La Mama Experimental Theatre Club 

is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa's 62nd Radical Access Season comes on the heels of our 61st season when we re-opened our newly renovated, original theater at 74 E. 4th St. The building's $24 million makeover provides the return of the fully accessible Club, a new Community Arts Space for neighboring groups in the East Village, and an expanded public lobby and galleries. As an experimental theatre, La MaMa is always adapting to the needs of its community. In this time of deep division in our society and around the world, La MaMa felt an urgency to create a way for artists to respond. The Radical Access Initiative (RAI) was born out of this need. RAI connects local artists and audiences to people and communities around the world in shared artistic experiences to spark creativity and human understanding that wasn't possible before.

La MaMa has been honored with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, the 2018 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and most recently a 2023 New York Drama Critics' Circle Special Citation. We are a creative home to artists and resident companies from around the world, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ed Bullins, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Playhouse of the Ridiculous, Tom Eyen, Pan Asian Rep, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Mabou Mines, Meredith Monk, Peter Brook, David and Amy Sedaris, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O'Horgan, Andrei Serban, Liz Swados, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa's vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961. www.lamama.org 

Photo credit: Jeff Harris

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