The Rite of Spring, etc.
"Shades of Pina Bausch crossed with Woody Allen." - Donna Perlmutter, Los Angeles Times
"Sakamoto's gift for physical nuance lends a quiet evocative grandeur to the maelstrom of performance elements and nutty script of his Rite." - LA Weekly
Michael Sakamoto and a diverse ensemble of multi-talented performers (including NEA award-winning actress/performance artist, Suzan Averitt, Italian actor Francesco Mazzini and actress/dancer Nurit Siegel) star in a contemporary yet timeless dance theater work using the piano version of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." The Rite of Spring, etc. blends frenetic dance, butoh movement, multiple languages, comedy, melodrama, dream imagery and pop music (from French music hall to Aimee Mann) as four character archetypes - an arrogant actor, an idealistic monk, an absurd harlequin, and an unbridled free spirit - traverse and ultimately transcend a vast terrain of emotion, psychology and culture. Delving into a zeitgeist of fear versus vulnerability and the hard matter of human relationships, the characters love, hate, manipulate, idolize, miscommunicate, reject and ultimately accept themselves and the world around them.
CAST BIOGRAPHIES
SUZAN AVERITT is a recipient of an NEA Performance Art Grant for her Otis Parsons/MOCA-produced version of religious street literature. She directed and adapted a series of plays for legendary landmark, Al's Bar, including the Beat play, "Go" (LA Weekly Theatre Pick-of-the-Week), and Anais Nin's "Erotica." Averitt has had leading roles in many Los Angeles productions, appearing at The Powerhouse Theatre, The Coast Playhouse and The Tamarind, and has performed with COLA Award recipient Melinda Ring, and is featured in the acclaimed short film, "The Hitch-Hikers," with Patty Duke. Most recently, she was seen at the New York International Fringe Festival and at the Ivar Theatre in the ensemble movement performance, "Gärung" (Los Angeles Times Critics Choice), which continues touring in 2004. Averitt is currently directing and co-writing the ensemble theatre work, "Rbitrary," which premieres in January 2004. She has trained with Lee Strasberg and at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Stephen Book and Viola Spolin, and Kim Weild and Anne Bogart's SITI Company.
FRANCESCO MAZZINI is an Italian-born actor and who has performed in film, TV and stage works in Italy, New York and Los Angeles. Films include "Il Mostro" (Roberto Benigni), "Ciao, Marcello!" (Kevin McCarthy), and "The Gothic Line" (A. Taub). Stage works with Mazzini playing lead roles include "The Coffee Shop," "America, America," "Dracula: The True Story," "Beyond Therapy" and many others. Mazzini also played a lead role in the dance theater work, "The Square of Massacred Prayers," which premiered at NYCÕs Danspace and toured twice to Europe.
NURIT SIEGEL is a choreographer, director, dancer, actress and interdisciplinary artist. She has shown at HERE (NY), Zellerbach Playhouse (Berkeley), Sushi (San Diego), and throughout Los Angeles (Highways Performance Space, Wilshire Ebell, California Institute of Abnormality, The Derby, The MET, LATC and many more). Recently, she has been proudly working with Toxic Shock Stage (toxicshockstage.org), an LA-based theater company.
"THE RITE OF SPRING" BY IGOR STRAVINSKY
Premiered Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris, May 29, 1913.
The version known to most audiences throughout the course of the 20th Century has been the orchestral one. The four-hand version of "The Rite of Spring" was composed by Stravinsky himself as the rehearsal version of the piece for two pianists and one piano. Stravinsky, however, quickly realized that it was a valid work in and of itself and had it published in 1913. The orchestral score was actually not published until 1921, after the work had been revived in a restaging by Leonide Massine that was more to Stravinsky's liking than the original choreography by Vaclav Nijinsky.
The four-hand version has been recorded numerous times in recent decades and used by a number of choreographers, including Paul Taylor, Stephen Petronio, Lionel Hoche (MŽmŽ Banjo), and Shen Wei (Shen Wei Dance Arts), among others.
The version used for "The Rite of Spring, etc." is by pianists Benjamin Frith and Peter Hill and available on Naxos Records. (Special thanks to Naxos Records for the use of their recording.)
Special thanks to Artists Management, Inc. for the use of "Save Me" by Aimee Mann.