'Border Towns' Plays at HERE, 9/10-9/18

Kicking off its 2010-11 season, HERE proudly presents Border Towns from Nick Brooke/The Cabinet, playing September 10-18. With music and sound as the driving force, this productionjourneys through the psychological landscape of the U.S., creating a theatrical reflection onrecording, location and culture. Border Towns is created and directed by HERE Resident ArtistNick Brooke, with co-direction by Jenny Rohn. Official Opening Night is set for Sunday,September 12 at 9:00 PM at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue).

If you traveled to a town, and started asking "what's listened to here?" -- where would you end up?A collision of recordings from the borders, this production melds musical sampling, live singing andtheater into a genre all its own. Yodels, anthems, ambient sounds and fringe broadcasts arelayered in lockstep with seven performers, who mimic sampled collages of sound effects, pop songs and musical ephemera. With myopic precision and a sprawling map of sound, Border Townsreconstructs musical Americana one town at a time while exploring how locality is conveyed throughmusic.

In his approach to theater, Nick Brooke blurs the line between recording and live performance.His work Tone Test received its premiere at Lincoln Center Festival in 2004, where it drew mediaattention for its innovative aesthetic. His works have been performed across the U.S. and in Europe, and featured at the Lincoln Center Festival, Mass MoCA, the Spoleto Festival and theMATA Series. He has received awards and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, ASCAP,the Rockefeller Foundation, Djerassi and the MacDowell Colony. Brooke's instrumental works havebeen performed by the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, Toronto's Continuum NewMusic, the Nash Ensemble of London, Orchestra 2001, Dan Druckman and New York's GamelanSon of Lion. During a two-year Shansi Fellowship to Central Java, he studied gamelan andcollaborated on musical projects with Javanese composers, dancers and visual artists. He teaches at Bennington College.

The Cabinet is a production company that creates, workshops and performs Brooke's experimentalmusic theater works. The company boasts an ensemble that is uniquely trained in vocal and actingtechniques, and collaborates with larger venues to co-produce works. The Cabinet uses extensiveworkshops in experimental theater techniques to create live performances. The performers are firstrehearsed musically to meld their voices with a sampled collage. Next, co-directors Nick Brookeand Jenny Rohn develop the movement and theater based on each individual performer. In collaboration with the co-directors and performers, the sound engineer gradually chisels theelectronic collage, something like a hand-colored photograph, to create moments of presence anddistance with the live performers.

Co-director Jenny Rohn draws on a variety of experimental theater approaches in creating work with The Cabinet. She graduated from New York University's Experimental Theater Wing andstudied with Jerzy Grotowski at UC Irvine. Rohn has appeared in director Robert Wilson's Hamletmachine, Quartet, Salome and the CIVIL warS, and appeared in director Anne Bogart's productions of Another Person is a Foreign Country and Spring Awakening. She has appeared on Broadway in The Kentucky Cycle and The Crucible, and has a Dallas Theater Alliance Award for her work in Arms and the Man and was nominated for a Barrymore Award for her portrayal of Lil'Bitin How I Learned to Drive. She has collaborated in the direction of numerous productions includingUbu Roi with Steven Wangh and Mud Angel with Kevin Kuhlke. She is a founding member of thePoint of Entry Theater Company. She teaches at Bennington College.

Border Towns features performers from The Cabinet: Laura Bohn, Michael Chinworth, Laryssa Husiak, Kamala Sankaram, Laura Stinger, Dax Valdes and Ricardo Vazquez. Sound Design is by Jeremy Wilson, Set Design is by Sue Rees, Lighting is by Design Michael Giannitti and Costume Design is by Simone Duff. The Music Director is Mary Montgomery Koppel.

Since 1993, the OBIE-winning HERE has been one of New York's premier arts organizations and aleader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performance work which we view as aseamless integration of artistic disciplines-theatre, dance, music, puppetry, visual, multi-media art.Past productions includes Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Basil Twist's SymphonieFantastique, Hazelle Goodman's On Edge, Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers, YoungJean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, Corey Dargel's Removable Parts and Theatreof a Two-headed Calf's Drum of the Waves of Horikawa, among many other standout works.HERE's work is challenging and alternative and offers audiences the opportunity to feel that theyare part of something new and fresh. Its core program is the HERE Artist Residency Program(HARP), which invites artists to develop complex hybrid work at HERE over three years.

Each season, HERE produces 4 to 6 Resident Artist productions as mainstage works. By providingvaried levels of artist participation - Resident Artists, Visiting Artists, and Guest Artists throughHEREstay, its curated rental program - HERE keeps the artists' vision paramount.

Border Townswas developed through HARP.Border Towns plays September 10 - 18 as follows: Tuesday through Sunday at 9:00 PM. Tickets are $18.00 and can be purchased at www.here.org or by calling (212) 352-3101 or at the HERE BoxOffice (4 PM until curtain on show days). HERE is located at 145 Sixth Avenue, one block belowSpring Street. For more info, visit www.here.org.Border Towns is also made possible by Bennington College, The Field, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space program; space at 14 Wall Street is donated by Capstone Equities.

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