Amid cultural divisions and social unrest, a transnational theater event seeks to address the urgent question: What makes us a society?
Public workshop productions will take place at the Walt Disney Modular Theater at CalArts from April 25-29, 2017 before its premiere at La Comedie de St.-Etienne in France in February 2018.
Valencia, CA -- CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP) teams up with La Comédie de Saint-Etienne for the French-American theatrical co-production of Fore!. Modeled after the classical Greek tragedy The Oresteia, Fore! traces the struggles of two contemporary families as they attempt to navigate their relationships to war, power, and disenfranchisement.
The play will premiere at the La Comédie de Saint-Étienne, National Drama Center in France in February 2018 with additional stops at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and The National Theatre in Brussels. U.S. audiences will be able to get a sneak peek of Fore! in a series of fully-staged workshop presentations to be held at the Walt Disney Modular Theater at CalArts between Thursday, April 27 and Saturday, April 29, 2017.
The play is directed by Arnaud Meunier, Director of La Comédie de Saint-Étienne, and is written by CalArts faculty and alumna Aleshea Harris. Harris described the play as “the story of two families dealing with the fallout of personal and political ineptitude as they navigate everyday rituals. This play grapples with the challenges of managing in a family, society and country becoming increasingly difficult to negotiate.”
Fore! culminates a two-year-long collaboration, which has brought ten CalArts actors and artists together with actors from La Comédie de Saint-Etienne in France. Dean of CalArts School of Theater and CNP Artistic Director Travis Preston said, "Fore! asks hard questions: What constitutes our sense of belonging to a society? What is meant by the word ‘nation?’ How have the French and Americans built their national narratives? Their mythologies? Where do we stand in a globalized, hyper-connected world in terms of our values, our identities, our democracies?"
Through a clash of the poetic and the political, Fore! uses investigative theater techniques to interrogate and expose accepted cultural mythologies. According to Harris, the project has “allowed for communal, creative contemplation around major questions regarding culture, citizenship, power, and policy. “As someone deeply motivated by the sociopolitical,” Harris continues, “I’m very pleased to be making work which engages our current moment and hopefully poses relevant questions about our future."
Director Meunier’s previous directorial projects have set out to bridge aesthetic styles and communicate across generations. Harris is an American playwright and the recent winner of the 2016 Relentless Award from the American Playwriting Foundation.
Fore! is a co-production of the Center for New Performance, the professional producing arm of CalArts. Recent notable performances include Shelter, a work channeling the voices of asylum seekers in an age of mass deportation. American Theatre magazine praised Shelter as “[going] after the heart of displacement by delving into the human crisis of immigration.” For more information on the CalArts School of Theater, including a short video, click here.
Calendar Editors Please Note:
What:
Public workshop production of Fore!, a co-production of CalArts Center for New Performance and La Comédie de Saint Etienne, National Drama Center.
When:
Thursday, 4/27 - 8pm
Friday, 4/28 - 8pm
Saturday, 4/29 - 1pm and 8pm
Where:
Walt Disney Modular Theater on the campus of California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)
24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia CA 91355
Price: FREE with reservation.
Click here for directions
For information call 661 253 7825
CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP), the professional producing arm of California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), was established to provide a unique artist- and project-driven framework for the development and realization of original theater, music, dance, media and interdisciplinary projects. Extending the progressive work carried out at CalArts into a direct dialogue with professional communities at the local, national and international levels, CNP offers an alternative model to support emerging directions in the performing arts.
California Institute of the Arts has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater—CalArts has championed creative excellence, critical reflection, and the development of new forms and expressions. As successive generations of faculty and alumni have helped shape the landscape of contemporary arts, the Institute first envisioned by Walt Disney encompasses a vibrant, eclectic community with global reach, inviting experimentation, independent inquiry, and active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines and cultural traditions.