Fresh Tracks 2019 – 2020: Auditioned Works
A fully produced evening of the auditioned works by the five incoming 2019-20 Fresh Tracks artists: Anh Vo, Annie Heath, Jordan Lloyd, Kayla Hamilton and Stuart B Meyers.
In their solo piece BABYLIFT, Anh Vo conjures the forgotten ghosts of the Vietnam War through storytelling, ritual, and war photography. The 1975 “Operation Babylift” was responsible for the mass evacuation of South Vietnamese orphans to the Western world – the first plane crashed and killed 78 children. BABYLIFT is first a memorial to the unmourned and unremembered. Vo also speculates on the erotic of haunting, both terrifying and pleasurable.
Through a movement and textual collaboration between Fresh Tracks’ artist Annie Heath and Sokunthary Svay, This Mother/land Fabric delves into the relationships of mother/child and land/home. In the folding and refolding of fabric and worn sarongs, Svay delves into memories of motherhood, as well as Heath’s own adoption documents. The pair give space to the loss of identity and roots while conjuring a fantasized womb of safety.
Jordan Demetrius Lloyd’s kinetic dance piece NEIGHBORS, features five performers navigating near-miss encounters and complex, highly-calculated movement phrases. Lloyd muses at a world that is in constant flux but grounds itself in time and space. The choreography highlights formal elements such as shape, design and texture, but hints at a more haptic sensibility as dancers instincts kick in from moment to moment.
To artist Kayla Hamilton, most descriptions are “boring, dry, and ignore race, body type and description delivery” which is why she breathes new life into them through Nearly Sighted/Unearthing the Dark. Hamilton plays with descriptions and repetition in non-traditional ways that encourage awareness and the shifting of audience perspective. The piece is centered around the relationship between mover and describer and using light as a contact improvisation partner.
Stuart B. Meyers creates the interior of a German Expressionist film reel near ruin in KOPFKINO: head cinema. Bringing together horror pictures from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, and Nosferatu, the audience is exposed to the fast, static, repetitive nature of these past works. In reviving German Expressionism, Meyers draws a connection between the post WWI and pre-WWII anxiety to the present day landscape.
Captioning and an ASL Interpreter is provided for works involving spoken word for both performances of Fresh Tracks. During a Caption performance, text will be displayed at the side of the stage with dialogue and summarized dialogue from the production.
Audio Description is provided for both performances of Fresh Tracks through the smart phone application Audiofetch. Click here for more information on using Audiofetch in our theater. During an Audio Described performance, visually impaired patrons are provided recorded commentary and narration which guides the listener through the show with descriptions of scenes, settings, costumes, etc. in between dialogue or songs.
New York Live Arts is wheelchair accessible. There are double doors at the front entrance that can be used. Please alert the staff of when you anticipate on arriving so that the doors can be opened for you. Facilities are all one level with an accessible bathroom open to the public. Rows A and J are reserved for those who identify as disabled. If you need accessibility for a wheelchair seat or any other accommodation please call the box office at 212.924.0077.
Live Arts’ legacy Fresh Tracks performance and residency program continues its 55-year commitment to bringing new voices to the forefront. The program provides five emerging artists with a 50-hour studio residency, a professionally produced shared evening bill in the New York Live Arts Theater, commission fee, one-on-one dialogue sessions with the program’s Artistic Advisor, professional development workshops led by renowned professionals from the field and exclusive access to Live Arts’ Marketing, Production and Programming staff. Through Fresh Tracks, New York Live Arts provides an unparalleled opportunity for new artistic voices to gain professional development, experience and recognition.
