A FEW DEEP BREATHS Comes to La MaMa This Week

For the final online experiment in La MaMa's 60th season, seven writers: Erik Ehn (SOULOGRAPHIE: OUR GENOCIDES at La MaMa in 2012), Huntrezz Janos (INFILTERITERATIONS), Adrienne Kennedy (FUNNYHOUSE OF A NEGRO), Haruna Lee (SUICIDE FOREST), Chuck Mee (THE IMPERIALISTS AT THE CLUB CAVE CANEM), Robert Patrick (KENNEDY'S CHILDREN), and Christopher Rivas (THE REAL James Bond...WAS DOMINICAN!), three performers, and an online audience come together for A FEW DEEP BREATHS, premiering May 20-22, 2022, marking, and serving as a poetic reflection of this critical moment in our shared history and a meditation on the road ahead, it has been announced by Mia Yoo, Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning La MaMa ETC, and Billy Clark, Artistic Director of CultureHub, the theatre's innovative art and technology center.

A FEW DEEP BREATHS creates an opportunity for multiple voices, disciplines, and approaches to converge. Each of the writers worked independently to generate dialogue and/or actions for two performers, one playing a 7-year-old and the other a 77-year-old. The non-linear tale that emerges is developed in collaboration with creative technologists, embodied by performance artist Agosto Machado and a puppet by Tom Lee, performed by Leah Ogawa and Maria Camia, and will explore interactivity and connection with the online audience.

A FEW DEEP BREATHS stars the legendary actor Agosto Machado, who has been at the forefront of avant-garde since the 1960's with other trailblazers such as Candy Darling, Jackie Curtis, Ellen Stewart, Holly Woodlawn, John Vaccaro and Ethyl Eichelberger. Mr. Machado, who was a key figure in the first Gay Pride March in New York in 1970, describes himself as "an orphan with a sixth-grade education, and a degree from the university of the streets." He grew up in Hell's Kitchen, until the development of Lincoln Center forced out working class families, and settled in Greenwich Village where he "fell into the most magnificent, wonderful ALICE IN WONDERLAND world of downtown."

According to Ms. Yoo, A FEW DEEP BREATHS "Posed the seven writers with questions about the human spirit and its essence, its god-like qualities. Also, what do we need to be asking as individuals and a global community right now, and how do artists respond at a time like this? Their combined aesthetic will be unique, certainly, and bracing."

A FEW DEEP BREATHS is developed within CultureHub and La MaMa's "Experiments in Digital Storytelling," which incubates story-driven artworks that harness digital distribution platforms, expand online audience engagement, and push the boundaries of current artistic forms.

A FEW DEEP BREATHS will be presented on a new, custom-built streaming platform developed by CultureHub with creative technologists Aidan Nelson and Shawn Van Every that will allow the audience to interact with the performance and with fellow audience members throughout the piece.

The first performance on Friday, May 20, will include a telematic component with Seoul Institute of the Arts performed live by performers in Korea.

This work-in-progress presentation is not open for review, but all are encouraged to watch/participate. A FEW DEEP BREATHS will have its world premiere in the Fall of 2022. Running time is approximately 25 minutes.

For more information and to view A FEW DEEP BREATHS, visit www.lamama.org. Streaming tickets are available online on a Pay-What-You-Can basis starting at $10. A limited number of behind-the-scenes, in-person tickets are available for an audience at The Downstairs at La MaMa in New York City.

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