SOUL LEAVES HER BODY Closes at HERE 11/23

As part of its 2010-11 mainstage season, HERE proudly presents Soul Leaves Her Body, by filmmaker and video artist Peter Flaherty and dance theater artist Jennie MaryTai Liu. This new collaborative work from co-creators and HERE resident artists Flaherty and Liu plays November 5 - 23 at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue). Official Opening is set for Monday, November 8 at 8:30 PM.

Inspired by a 13th century Chinese story, Soul Leaves Her Body is an original work of movement, text and video that explores the soul-body relationship in today's wired culture. The story follows a young woman who rips her soul from her body to pursue her destiny in the city. Her journey is depicted in a highly choreographed work unfolding live onstage through film, dance theater, video and foley sound. International Artists unite with geeks and historians to construct a multi-channel film onstage that surveys the impact of distance and electronic communication on modern life, love, and family.

Peter Flaherty (Director) is a director, filmmaker and video artist whose work has shown in theaters, galleries and museums internationally. His most recent New York credit is Video and Projection Design for the Roundabout Theatre's Sondheim on Sondheim. His award-winning short film, Signal From Shore, shot in South Korea, is currently playing in film festivals. His recent large-scale video installation, Pass Back a Revolver, premiered at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. His work has been shown at over 100 international venues and festivals. Theatre collaborators include: The Builders Association, Complicite, Francois Girard, James Lapine, Chen Shi-Zheng, Basil Twist and Bang on a Can. His video art has been shown at: ICA Philadelphia, MIT Media Lab, Fleisher-Ollman Gallery and the home of Agnes Gund (President Emerita of MOMA). He has received grants from The New York State Council on the Arts, Rockefeller MAP Fund, Doris Duke Foundation and the Jerome Foundation, among others. He has taught at the Yale School of Drama, Carnegie Mellon and CalArts. He has been a resident at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and was Harvard University Artist-in-Residence. More on his work can be seen at www.thefourthefive.org.

English-born, Hong Kong-bred choreographer Jennie MaryTai Liu (Co-Director and Choreographer) has been presented by Dance Theater Workshop, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, HERE, American Dance Festival through Hollins University, the Bushwick Starr, Movement Research at the Judson Memorial Church, American Dance Festival, as well as in international venues such as WUK (Vienna), Ballet de Lorraine (Nancy). She has been awarded residencies at Yaddo Arts Colony and The Djerassi Resident Artists Program and is currently a resident artist at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and HERE. She has had the pleasure of performing with Big Dance Theater, Witness Relocation Company, Cathy Weis Projects, Faye Driscoll and Nellie Tinder. She trained as an undergraduate at the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU and received her MFA from Hollins University.

This production includes Scenic Design by Peter Ksander (2008 Obie Award winner for Jay Scheib's Untitled Mars (this title may change) at PS 122, other scenic and/or lighting designs include: The Brothers Size at The Public Theater, Othello at Theatre for a New Audience and Drum of the Waves of Horikawa and Stanley 2006, both at HERE), Video Design by Austin Switser (New York: Piano Starts Here at The Apollo Theatre, Some Americans Abroad at Second Stage, ¡El Conquistador! at New York Theatre Workshop, My Wandering Boay at Theatre Row), Lighting Design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (The Closest Farthest Away with Chi-wang Yang, Kaspar Hauser: a founding's opera with Elizabeth Swados, Oph3lia and Artifact with Aya Ogawa), Costume Design by Wendy Yang Bailey (apprenticeships with Obie Award winner Ruth Pongstaphone and at the Metropolitan Opera's millinery shop; proprietor of Maiden Hong Kong, Nightmare Haunted House, more), Sound Design by Brandon Wolcott (Equivocation at MTC, Confidence Man by Woodshed Collective, There's So Much Mad in Me by Faye Driscoll at DTW), Film Sound Design by Scott Hirsch (Sundance Film Festival 2010 short The Visitors, Zero Film Festival Short Film Winner Signal From Shore; comic short starring Elijah Wood entitled Boobie; Solitary Release starring James Franco and Holmes Osborne; PBS Documentary Alcatraz Is Not an Island) and Original Music by Luke Fischbeck (founding member of the Los Angeles-based group "lucky dragons," whose performance and installation work has been featured in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Philadelphia Institute for Contemporary Art, The Kitchen, PS1, The Walker Art Center and the 2008 Whitney Biennial, among others).

Soul Leaves Her Body is performed by Leslie Cuyjet (Bessie Award winning Jane Comfort and Company, has appeared with Meredith Monk, Tere O'Connor, Cynthia Oliver, Nicole Wolcott, Hilary Easton and others), Sean Donovan (member Witness Relocation Theater and Bessie Award winning Jane Comfort and Company), Wai Ching Ho (title character in Rosa Loses Her Face, co-production Queens Theatre in the Park and ETC in Scranton; Off-B'way: The Joy Luck Club, No Foreigners Beyond This Point, Carry the Tiger to the Mountain, others) and Jennie MaryTai Liu (as a performer: Faye Driscoll's There is so much mad in me - DTW, Big Dance Theater's The Other Here - Japan Society).

Since 1993, the OBIE-winning HERE, Kristin Marting, Artistic Director and Kim Whitener, Producing Director, has been one of New York's premier arts organizations and a leader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performance work which we view as a seamless integration of artistic disciplines-theatre, dance, music, puppetry, visual, multi-media art. Past productions include Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, Hazelle Goodman's On Edge, Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers, Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, Corey Dargel's Removable Parts and Theatre of 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 they are 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 providing varied levels of artist participation - Resident Artists, Visiting Artists, and Guest Artists through HEREstay, its curated rental program - HERE keeps the artists' vision paramount.
Soul Leaves Her Body was developed through HARP.

Soul Leaves Her Body plays November 5 - 23 as follows: Thursday - Saturday at 8:30 PM, Sunday at 4:00 PM, Monday at 8:30 PM. Additional performance on Tuesday, November 23 at 8:30 PM. Tickets are $18.00 and can be purchased at www.here.org or by calling (212) 352-3101 or at the HERE Box Office (4 PM until curtain on show days). HERE is located at 145 Sixth Avenue, one block below Spring Street. For more info, visit www.here.org.

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