Jody Christopherson
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The So-fi Festival, in association with The Muse Project, proudly presents Kyra Miller’s
BlueBeardGasLight, at Westbeth, Home to the Arts (463 West Street, Room 1209, between Bethune and Bank St) June 15th @ 830pm & June 18th @ 7pm.
So-fi is a festival for cutting edge, low-fi, high concept, multidisciplinary solo work. Westbeth is New York City landmark listed on the National Registrar of Historic Places since Dec 8, 2009, a home to artists and major cultural organizations including the New School for Drama, The Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, the School for Poetic Computation. The location where BlueBeardGasLight will be performed was the location of Bell Labs’ Boardroom where the first talking movie, the condenser microphone, the first TV broadcast, and the first binary computer were demonstrated.
BlueBeardGasLight is very loosely based on a real-life married couple of folklorists and imagines a woman, accompanied in her work by her husband, suddenly doubting the bedrock of her marriage. As her suspicion and his secrecy begin to overwhelm her, her thinking about “BlueBeard” (the subject of her writing) begins to clarify. Alone in her children’s abandoned nursery at night, she uses their toys and dolls to do “embodied research,” exploring the murky emotional territory she cannot discuss with her husband. This work was originally incubated at The Muse Project, Jocelyn Kuritsky Artistic Director.
BlueBeardGasLight plays in rep with Eric Taylor’s A Case Against Peaceful Protest 6/15 and runs on a solo bill 6/18.
Tickets are currently on sale and will be $25 per single ticket, $36 per two-show double bill ticket. (Please note that Westbeth is handicap accessible with ramps and elevators.) Nearest trains to Westbeth are (1,2,3 to 14th Street). Tickets can be purchased at https://www.so-fi-festival.com/, (888) 692-7878, or in person at the box office 30 minutes prior to curtain (463 West Street, Room 1209, between Bethune and Bank St). Full performance line-up listed below. For more info and a full festival calendar please visit: https://www.so-fi-festival.com/
Tell us about your show? In your own words, what is it/ what is it/what is it about?
BlueBeardGasLight is mostly what it’s like to live in a shifting landscape. A folklorist discovers a breach in her own relationship that she has possibly felt, though in her conscious experience, it is a surprise. Alone in her house — her children far away at school and her husband….far away — using her children’s toys as a sort of conveyance into the emotional territory she cannot venture into on her own, she discovers parallels between her own life and the story she is anthologizing.
Actress Jocelyn Kuritsky is the Producing Artistic Director of The Muse Project. She is also a founder and the actor-in-residence of the Lucille Lortel Award-winning immersive theater company, Woodshed Collective. www.jocelynkuritsky.com.
What multidisciplinary elements does it include and how are they used? How are they unique?
This piece is largely a one-person show, using letters and lectures as the main text. But it veers into a sort of puppetry — object manipulation of the toys, Japanese-cart-puppetry-inspired use of dolls, a dollhouse, plus a camera and live-feed projection to take you inside the house, all in the name of bringing this rather didactic character — who desperately needs an intellectual justification for her work — into the murkier emotional territory children live in. She discovers anger. It is a relief.
Why do you make theater? Can you talk about the medium and what it lends to your work?
I think the theater attracts me now for different reasons than it did when I was a kid, or even twenty years ago. You get to say things you’re not quite supposed to say in your real life. The audience gets to hear things they’re not supposed to hear. And as a writer you give this gift to the people who hear your story, not knowing exactly what they’ll walk away with. As an audience member, I feel more excited by work where there’s some mystery, something unexplained — I don’t like all the ends tied up neatly — so I’m letting myself write a little more “irresponsibly” now. But no matter which side of the stage I’m on, I also really like to feel something intense. Catharsis and narrative just don’t get old.
KYRA MILLER is an actor, singer, writer and Alexander Technique instructor living in New York City. Most recently, Kyra played Rebecca in Rags at the Tony-award-winning Theatreworks Silicon Valley. She has worked at Seattle Rep, the Fifth Avenue Theater, A.C.T., Westport Country Playhouse, Southern Rep, the Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Pearl Theater Company. BlueBeardGasLight received a grant from the Muse Project and began workshopping at the Flea Theater last fall. Her solo work includes Chosen at Joe’s Pub (with Matt Ray on piano), Bridge and Tunnel Troubadour (about Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, directed by Barb Jungr) at Pangea. She studies singing with Virginia Grasso. MFA, University of Washington. Proud member AEA.
THE MUSE PROJECT seeks to disrupt the imbalance of opportunity and ownership of work for women actors through the development of challenging, actor-driven theater works and focused research into their participation in American theater. The initiative aims to shift the theater paradigm through the empowerment of women actors as creators and content generators. Notable achievements include the development and production of multiple theatrical pieces. Jocelyn Kuritsky’s Muse project, Stet, written by Kim Davies, directed by Tony Speciale, and starring Jocelyn, premiered at Abingdon Theatre Company – in association with The Muse Project – toward the end of the 2015/16 season, and it enjoyed a successful, extended, Off-Broadway run. In October 2018, The Muse Project’s first collection of “Mini Muses” (a kind of festival) was presented at The Flea Theater. Actresses Vanessa Aspillaga, Lynn Cohen, Jessica Frances Dukes, Déa Julien, and Kyra Miller all took part and presented. www.themuseprojectnyc.com.
Actress Jocelyn Kuritsky is the Producing Artistic Director of The Muse Project. She is also a founder and the actor-in-residence of the Lucille Lortel Award-winning immersive theater company, Woodshed Collective. www.jocelynkuritsky.com.
 June 15th @ 830pm & June 18th @ 7pm. So-fi is a festival for cutting edge, low-fi, high concept, multidisciplinary solo work. Westbeth is New York City landmark listed on the National Registrar of Historic Places since Dec 8, 2009, a home to artists and major cultural organizations including the New School for Drama, The Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, the School for Poetic Computation. The location where BlueBeardGasLight will be performed was the location of Bell Labs’ Boardroom where the first talking movie, the condenser microphone, the first TV broadcast, and the first binary computer were demonstrated. BlueBeardGasLight is very loosely based on a real-life married couple of folklorists and imagines a woman, accompanied in her work by her husband, suddenly doubting the bedrock of her marriage. As her suspicion and his secrecy begin to overwhelm her, her thinking about "BlueBeard" (the subject of her writing) begins to clarify. Alone in her children's abandoned nursery at night, she uses their toys and dolls to do "embodied research," exploring the murky emotional territory she cannot discuss with her husband. This work was originally incubated at The Muse Project, Jocelyn Kuritsky Artistic Director. BlueBeardGasLight plays in rep with Eric Taylor's A Case Against Peaceful Protest 6/15 and runs on a solo bill 6/18. Tickets are currently on sale and will be $25 per single ticket, $36 per two-show double bill ticket. (Please note that Westbeth is handicap accessible with ramps and elevators.) Nearest trains to Westbeth are (1,2,3 to 14th Street). Tickets can be purchased at https://www.so-fi-festival.com/, (888) 692-7878, or in person at the box office 30 minutes prior to curtain (463 West Street, Room 1209, between Bethune and Bank St). Full performance line-up listed below. For more info and a full festival calendar please visit: https://www.so-fi-festival.com/ Tell us about your show? In your own words, what is it/ what is it/what is it about? BlueBeardGasLight is mostly what it's like to live in a shifting landscape. A folklorist discovers a breach in her own relationship that she has possibly felt, though in her conscious experience, it is a surprise. Alone in her house -- her children far away at school and her husband....far away -- using her children's toys as a sort of conveyance into the emotional territory she cannot venture into on her own, she discovers parallels between her own life and the story she is anthologizing. What multidisciplinary elements does it include and how are they used? How are they unique? This piece is largely a one-person show, using letters and lectures as the main text. But it veers into a sort of puppetry -- object manipulation of the toys, Japanese-cart-puppetry-inspired use of dolls, a dollhouse, plus a camera and live-feed projection to take you inside the house, all in the name of bringing this rather didactic character -- who desperately needs an intellectual justification for her work -- into the murkier emotional territory children live in. She discovers anger. It is a relief. Why do you make theater? Can you talk about the medium and what it lends to your work? I think the theater attracts me now for different reasons than it did when I was a kid, or even twenty years ago. You get to say things you're not quite supposed to say in your real life. The audience gets to hear things they're not supposed to hear. And as a writer you give this gift to the people who hear your story, not knowing exactly what they'll walk away with. As an audience member, I feel more excited by work where there's some mystery, something unexplained -- I don't like all the ends tied up neatly -- so I'm letting myself write a little more "irresponsibly" now. But no matter which side of the stage I'm on, I also really like to feel something intense. Catharsis and narrative just don't get old. KYRA MILLER is an actor, singer, writer and Alexander Technique instructor living in New York City. Most recently, Kyra played Rebecca in Rags at the Tony-award-winning Theatreworks Silicon Valley. She has worked at Seattle Rep, the Fifth Avenue Theater, A.C.T., Westport Country Playhouse, Southern Rep, the Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Pearl Theater Company. BlueBeardGasLight received a grant from the Muse Project and began workshopping at the Flea Theater last fall. Her solo work includes Chosen at Joe’s Pub (with Matt Ray on piano), Bridge and Tunnel Troubadour (about Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, directed by Barb Jungr) at Pangea. She studies singing with Virginia Grasso. MFA, University of Washington. Proud member AEA. http://www.kyramillernyc.com/ THE MUSE PROJECT seeks to disrupt the imbalance of opportunity and ownership of work for women actors through the development of challenging, actor-driven theater works and focused research into their participation in American theater. The initiative aims to shift the theater paradigm through the empowerment of women actors as creators and content generators. Notable achievements include the development and production of multiple theatrical pieces. Jocelyn Kuritsky's Muse project, Stet, written by Kim Davies, directed by Tony Speciale, and starring Jocelyn, premiered at Abingdon Theatre Company - in association with The Muse Project - toward the end of the 2015/16 season, and it enjoyed a successful, extended, Off-Broadway run. In October 2018, The Muse Project's first collection of "Mini Muses" (a kind of festival) was presented at The Flea Theater. Actresses Vanessa Aspillaga, Lynn Cohen, Jessica Frances Dukes, Déa Julien, and Kyra Miller all took part and presented. www.themuseprojectnyc.com. Actress Jocelyn Kuritsky is the Producing Artistic Director of The Muse Project. She is also a founder and the actor-in-residence of the Lucille Lortel Award-winning immersive theater company, Woodshed Collective. www.jocelynkuritsky.com.){kind=link}