SWIMMING TO SPALDING Previews 12/3 At HERE

Performer Lián Amaris goes in search of renowned monologist Spalding Gray's "perfect moment" in SWIMMING TO SPALDING. Co-produced by East Coast Artists and Colorado College, it is directed by Richard Schechner (formerly of The Performance Group). Previews begin December 3 at HERE with opening night slated for December 6.

Following the map of experience described in Spalding Gray's masterpiece Swimming to Cambodia nearly a generation ago, SWIMMING TO SPALDING recounts one performer's pilgrimage to the sites in Thailand evoked by Gray in his account of the filming of the movie The Killing Fields. Combining Gray's signature "table and notebook" story-telling style with her own theatrical approach, performer Lian Amaris details a year of her experiences all over the world -- from Bangkok brothels to Baghdad bombings, from Mardi Gras to mental institutions. Part homage, part commentary, SWIMMING TO SPALDING reflects on how beauty and grace endure amidst the cruelties of war, prostitution, mental illness, and making art.

The production team includes Lucian Ban (sound), Melissa Mizell (lighting), Angrette McClosky (set design), Yasmine M. Jahanmir (stage manager), and Joy Brooke Fairfield (assistant director).

Lián Amaris has performed at a number of internationally recognized spaces for experimental theater including P.S. 122 and Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theater. Her 2007 project with R. Luke DuBois, Fashionably Late for the Relationship, has been presented at the San Jose Museum of Art, The Guggenheim, and several national festivals. Amaris holds Master's degrees from New York University in Performance Studies and Interactive Telecommunications, and a BA in theater from UMass at Amherst.

Richard Schechner directs both new and classical plays around the world. In New York, he founded The Performance Group and East Coast Artists. With TPG, Schechner directed Spalding Gray in six productions from 1970 to 1979: Makbeth (after Shakespeare), Commune (group devised), Sam Shepard's The Tooth of Crime, Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, Terry Curtis Fox's Cops, and Jean Genet's The Balcony. With ECA and in India, China, and South Africa, Schechner directed Chekhov's Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, Aeschylus's Oresteia, Seneca's Oedipus, Shakespeare's Hamlet, August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Saviana Stanescu's and Schechner's Yokastas Redux. In addition to his directing, Schechner is University Professor of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU and editor of TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies. He is the author of many books including Environmental Theater, Between Theater and Anthropology, The End of Humanism, Performance Theory, The Future of Ritual, and Performance Studies-An Introduction.

SWIMMING TO SPALDING runs December 3 - 19, with performances Wednesday & Thursday at 8:30pm, Friday at 8:30pm & 10:30pm, Saturday at 4pm & 8:30pm, and Sunday at 4pm. Talkbacks will follow each of the Sunday shows. HERE is located at 145 6th Avenue between Spring and Broome Streets -- accessible from C/E to Spring St. 1/9 to Houston St. or N/R to Prince St. Tickets are $25, available at 212-352-3101 or www.here.org. Two-for-one student rush tix will also be available 30 minutes before showtime.

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