Dearest art.party.blog.friends -

Goodness.  New Year’s Eve, upon us already?

Drew has been terribly remiss at blogging and, well, things got pretty crazy with MEETING, IMPORTANT - which was wildly successful and we dearly hope you made it to one of the 39 performances.  Yeah, 39.  Crazy, right?  How on earth did we survive?
Actually, that answer is a simple one: through the hard work and dedication of the absolutely amazing cast.  Nick Delany, Stephen Travierso, Carolyn McCandlish, Jody Flader, Lauren Jackson, Daniel Kublick, Michael Micalizzi, Dave Ingber, Kristen da Costa… we couldn’t've done it without you guys.  A fantastic team - and featuring no fewer than 5 art.party company members.

For those of you keeping track, that means there’s someone in the cast who’s now a full-time company member that you might not be aware of.  Details to come in the New Year - we have to keep some things a surprise.

We’ll be updating you with an annual report and some fun happenings ahead for art.party - but as we close the books on 2011 and on season.three (and prepare to take a well-deserved break), we just wanted to say thank you.  Thank you for reading, for watching, for partying with us.  Have a safe and happy New Year - we’ll certainly see you soon!

art.party.love,
MB & DB

Hey gang -

We made it back, safe and sound, from the land of Harvard.  It was admittedly touch-and-go when Drew forgot his keys and Nick insisted we stop by a stretch of farmland “just to see” if there were any alpacas… but we made it back.  It was a heck of a week and I, for one, can’t believe it’s over!

But wait! There’s still something more!

The wonderful Sheema Golbaba, a student videographer with the Office for the Arts at Harvard, was kind enough to stop by and film the second performance on Friday night.  She also interviewed one of our audience members and our dear Artistic Director, then edited it all together into this video here:

Harvard Video

Many thanks to Tom Lee, to Melissa Sim, to all of our wonderful hosts for the week, and to everyone who stopped by the workshop or came out to the performances - we hope to see you all again very soon.

Until then,
Good meeting, everyone.

—db

Hey there.

Want to see what we’ve been doing?  I thought you might.  So here are some pictures from the first three days of our Harvard Residency 2011.  Time is flying by… only two days left and so much to do!  So enjoy the pictures - we’re late for class.

— db

PS: the 7pm performance of MEETING, IMPORTANT is sold out.  I told you those tickets would go fast.

Hello, dear readers!

We’re sitting here in the Adams ArtsSpace at Harvard.  Yep.  You heard me correctly: we’re spending the week at Harvard!

So, here we are, eating dining hall food and sleeping on couches.  Sounds just like school, doesn’t it?  Except this time, we’re the ones teaching.  After some healthy consideration last night, we decided that instead of creating something brand new with students, everyone would be best served by working on an existing text - and so we’re happy to announce that Meeting, Important is going to have a special workshop performance in Cambridge on Friday!  This is rare experience for a number of reasons:

1) We’re doing a show in Boston!  The last time that happened, Mary was just coming to love the writing.style.with.periods.  The last time that happened, nobody knew what an iPad was.  The last time that happened, Hillary Clinton was probably going to be the next President of the United States.  Yikes!

2) We’re so thrilled to have a number of talented Harvard students working with us on this production - these guys are the true stars of tomorrow, so you’ll get to see them here first.

3) Nick Delany.  Always.

4) more work-in-progress evidence of how art.party operates.  you loved our New York workshop - well, this is going to be a different show than the one you saw in New York.  It’s the beauty of developing a show and you can watch it unfold before your eyes.

SO:
if you want to join us on Friday at 7pm or 9pm, email artpartytheatercompany@gmail.com and reserve a space.  These things are going to go fast and they’re most certainly limited, so act now to avoid disappointment.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I hear the dining hall has chicken tenders for lunch.

—db

Loyal readers, this is it: part three of our three-part blogsperience devoted to the creation and execution of a workshop production of art.party’s new play Meeting, Important.

First, we teased you.  Then we showed you some pictures of hard-working work in CT.  Now, we take you inside the last week to show you pictures from the workshop itself.  We began with a three-day intensive at the CSV Cultural Center, moved to Space on White for an afternoon, then hit NYU’s Pless Hall for the actual production.  The week featured the art.party minds of MB+JB+LF+DB+MB and the acting stylings of Mikaela Feely-Lehmann, Lisa Birnbaum, and art.party members Dave Ingber, Jojo Karlin, and our newest addition, Nick Delany!  Check out the fotos - and stay tuned…

Let’s table this discussion, then?  It was lovely MEETING everyone who came out for the workshop - Samantha will be sure to let you know when we need you to fly out for the next quarterly meeting.  In the meantime, run the numbers.  We’ll be in touch.

—db

Dear art.partiers,

I hope everyone has had an amazing fall. I know that I’ve had a crazy busy time getting to know the Juilliard infrastructure, and working with my uber-talented/enthusiastic students. art.party has had a bit of a breather, which is scary for a young company, but a necessary RESPITE if we are to move ahead.  And you can’t move forward unless you are breathing.

2010 brought two successful original pieces, STARBOX and BAD ROMANCE, both of which involved collaborations with art.party newcomers. 2010 also brought us new company members, Mattie Brickman, Grace Laubacher and Lauren Jackson, wonderful collaborators all. 2010 brought forays into classical music and social media, and coverage in many publications.

HOWEVER, it’s almost 2011, and we’ve got many fun projects in store for the year ahead:

Collaborations with the inimitable Mattie Brickman, the endlessly creative Jeremy Bloom and the searingly smart Susan Stanton. New and old stories, new and old explorations of theatrical space and ritual.

Work with our favorite company members, and certainly new designers, actors and musicians. We’ll continue to breathe, move forward, and explore new territory in performance.

Oh, and if anyone knows an office space that we can have a show in, let me know!

All best,

Mary Birnbaum

artistic director

art.party.theater.company

http://bakingforgood.com/causes/community/artpartytheatercompany

We are this month’s featured cause on BAKING FOR GOOD, a fabulous company dedicated to delicious food and helping nonprofits. There’s nothing not sweet about this venture.
Please order some baked goods to support art.party!

–Mary

ps: many more updates comin’ down the pike, and meeting, important coming in DECEMBER.

I just read an article in NY magazine about how our ADD culture/lifestyle is increasing productivity while decreasing focus (to be totally honest, I only got the gist of this article because I was listening to my ipod and half-watching the movie on the plane at the same time). It made me think of my comment to Jojo about how keeping blog posts simple and focused, something I - and we, as Americans- turns out its a cultural thing, who knew! - have a really hard time with lately. One need only step inside the MOMA, or a downtown theater — anyone see Architecting? - or inside the city’s numerous “fusion” restaurants with ridiculously sprawling menus to experience the confluence of ideas, tastes, influences and cultures Americans try to appease, cater to and acknowledge in our art.Its almost as if we are afraid to ‘leave stuff out’ - like an artistic fact-checker will cite us for our myopia.

Simplicty/singlemindedness can be golden. Sophie Calle ate/photographed one color of food per day of the week (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iSqR72nd6kw/R_xGTXlJl2I/AAAAAAAAADQ/aTzomfH7eic/s400/SophieCalle.jpg) - an very simple idea, but lovingly done- and because her idea was so clear, we are free to read into it all sorts of ways: is it about “synthetic” versus natural? About her mood/tastes changing everyday? About the food of the 1950’s? The simplicity of her idea leaves US free to dream.

Many ideas are important, but focused, simple ideas are the best.

-m

ps: on the outside of the palais de tokyo (best. museum. ever.) : “The Palais de Tokyo is dedicated to the exploration of art which avoids all wistful attempts at a single interpretation.”

I would like to second Carolyn’s post about collaborative art and say: YAY for COLLABORATION!

Theater, by nature is (almost always) a collaborative process and it is why I like being involved with it so much. Most of the work I do in the rest of my creative life is, by nature, a solo job (photography, painting, sewing, etc.). I love having that time to myself to focus, to produce, to meditate and create, but there’s something so exciting about when you get together with one or more other people who are just waiting to pop (!) with ideas. There’s nothing more fun and motivating than egging each other on (creative peer pressure!)–the energy is contagious.

I have a grandiose vision of a DIY community that comes together to play, to exchange ideas and pump one-another up, all in my own backyard… Hmm, note to self: find a back yard…or a boat yard? Anyone, perchance have access to an empty one?

Fundraiser “collaboration art.party” in a __yard this summer?

Let’s DO IT!

-AT

Hiya folks!

As ArtParty begins preparing for it’s upcoming Party experiences, we’re getting the wheels turning on the design side of production! Without giving too much away yet, let’s just say there will be a lot of wires in our collective futures…

Check out these amazing wire-fashion sculptors that are being added to the list of “inspiration”:

Susan Freda: http://www.susanfreda.com/SimpleViewer_v17/index.html

Leigh Pennebaker: http://www.leighpennebaker.com/

Enjoy!

Alex