'Arias with a Twist' Extends Through August 31st

Due to wide acclaim and overwhelming audience response, ARIAS WITH A TWIST has been extended through Sunday, August 31.  Originally slated for a 4-week engagement from June 12 – July 13, the show enjoyed its Official Opening Night on Wednesday, June 18.  Created by New York favorites Joey Arias and Basil Twist, this production is presented by HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and Tandem Otter Productions in association with Johnnie Moore.
 
The reviews are in.  The New York Times remarks, "The chanteuses that play Madison Square Garden and football stadiums have never experienced the imaginative heights of spectacle with which Basil Twist surrounds Joey Arias in Arias with a Twist" and Theatermania.com declares the show "a trippy, mesmerizing visual feast…full of imagery that is saucy, clever, and oftentimes simply stunning."  Variety notes "Arias sings with impressive range" while the New York Press hails the show "a glittering, trippy fantasia" and the New York Post states "it's all gleeful, anarchic fun."
 
In Arias with a Twist, two treasures unleash their epic imaginations and creative forces to conjure an intimate modern fantasy.  Basil Twist's signature sights and innovative puppetry unite with Joey Arias' legendary voice to transport audiences to unpredictable worlds, channeling ecstatic desires, lavish nightmares and bizarre premonitions.  A feast for the senses centered on original songs and reinventions of popular favorites, this production marks a long-awaited return to the New York stage for Joey Arias following a triumphant six-year run in Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity in Las Vegas, with Basil Twist staging the visual magic for which he is widely acclaimed.  Arias with a Twist is a special performance celebrating the 10th Anniversary of HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program at the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre, a bejeweled cabinet of curiosities in one of downtown's last enclaves for bohemian New York style.                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                      
Originally from San Francisco, Basil Twist is a third generation puppeteer.  He is the sole American graduate of the Ecole Superieure National des Arts de la Marionnette in France.  His original creations include The Araneidae Show, Symphonie Fantastique, Petrushka, Master Peter's Puppet Show, Dogugaeshi, La Bella Dormente nel Bosco.  Collaborations include Behind The Lid with the late Lee Nagrin and Red Beads with Lee Breuer/Mabou Mines.  Since 1998, Twist has continually expanded the realm of puppetry by creating and touring new works that integrate live music.  He has partnered with such premiere institutions as The Spoleto Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center's Voice and Visions Series,The Los Angel's Philharmonic, Japan Society and Gotham Chamber Opera.  Twist premiered his Hansel and Gretel with The Houston Grand Opera and Atlanta Opera Company.  His work has been recognized with an OBIE Award, three UNIMA Awards for Excellence in Puppetry, two Bessie Awards, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, and an American Theatre Wing/Henry Hewes Design Award.  Twist is a Guggenheim Fellow and is an inaugural United States Artist Ford Fellow.
 
Most recently, renowned drag diva Joey Arias enjoyed a wildly successful run as the emcee "Mistress of Seduction" in the Las Vegas Cirque Du Soleil production Zumanity.  Revered since the 1980s as a central figure in the underground New York art scene responsible for recreating drag as high art, Arias has performed worldwide at venues including Carnegie Hall, The Freedom Theatre in London and on a transatlantic world tour into the cabaret clubs of Paris, Tokyo, Germany, Canada and England.  Off stage, Joey has amassed an extensive resume of media appearances as an actor, vocalist and outrageous personality.  On film, he has appeared in Mondo New York, Big Top Pee Wee, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Wigstock – The Movie, Flawless and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.  Television credits include "Saturday Night Live" with David Bowie, Ann Magnuson's "Vandemonium" (Cinemax), Elvira's MTV Halloween Special, HBO's "Dragtime," HBO's "Real Sex" and "Gayer Than Gay" on VH1, along with numerous appearances on a wide variety of talk shows and programs.  Additionally, Arias has produced several of his own recordings including Arias on Holiday, Strange Fruit, Jazzo Lozo, God Shave the Queen and live recordings of StarLust in Berlin and Bar D'O in New York.
 
Arias with a Twist features costume concepts by Thierry M. Mugler who is also serving as artistic advisor to the production, costume designs executed by Chris March, musical arrangements and production by Eliot Douglass and Jean-Francois Houle (Musical Director of Zumanity), sound design by Greg Duffin, lighting design by Ayumu "Poe" Saegusa, video design by Daniel Brodie.  Alex Gifford of "The Propeller Heads" contributes original songs "Lately" and "The Jungle of Eden."  Neelam Vaswani serves as the production's stage manager.
                                                                       
Arias with a Twist was developed through HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program led by Basil Twist and HERE Co-Founder Barbara Busackino, who is supervising producer for Dream Music, Tandem Otter Productions, and Johnnie Moore on Arias with a Twist.  The Dream Music Puppetry Program was inaugurated in 1998 with the world premiere of Basil Twist's award-winning Symphonie Fantastique, and opened the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre at HERE, an intimate space created specifically for intimate puppetry.  Dream Music seeks to secure the future of puppetry by providing increased development and performance opportunities to puppet artists, and by collaborating with artists from other disciplines to develop new puppetry techniques.  Over the past ten years, Dream Music has presented in the Dorothy B. Williams many exciting artists ranging from eclectic international troupes to The Jim Henson International Festival of Puppetry and has commissioned over 20 full-scale puppetry works from New York based puppeteers.
 
This production, along with Aya Ogawa's oph3lia (currently running), marks the grand reopening of the all-new fully renovated HERE Arts Center.  Since 1993, the OBIE-winning HERE Arts Center has been a premier arts organization in NYC and a leader in the field of new, hybrid performance work.  Under leadership of Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting and Producing Director Kim Whitener, HERE has served over 11,200 emerging to mid-career artists developing work that does not fit a conventional programming agenda.  Work presented at HERE has garnered 11 OBIE awards, an OBIE grant for artistic achievement, three Drama Desk nominations, two Berrilla Kerr Awards, two NY Innovative Theatre Awards, an Edwin Booth Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.  HERE proudly supports artists at all stages in their careers through full productions, artist residency programs, festivals and subsidized performance and rehearsal space.  Work at HERE is curated based on the strength and uniqueness of the artist's vision. HERE's Artist Residency Program (HARP) provides development, commissions and full production for up to 20 artists over one-to-three years.
 
In 2005, with the support of the FJC, a foundation of donor advised funds, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the City of New York, HERE Arts Center purchased its long-time home as part of a five-year "Secure HERE's Future" campaign.  Now nearing the completion of full-scale renovations to the space, thanks to generous support from the City of New York, HERE is poised to continue and expand its role as a downtown haven for the finest emerging art.  Offering a comfortable, eclectic setting for artists and audiences alike, HERE will feature a new and improved café/gallery and two state-of-the-art performance spaces.

To post a comment, you must register and login.