Live Artery: A LIVING DOCUMENTARY work in progress

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New York Live Arts 3rd Floor Studio

Is it possible to earn one’s living as a theater artist in New York? Have you ever had to sacrifice artistic integrity for the sake of financial survival? What are the ethical implications of contributing one’s artistic talents to work one does not support or believe in? Do you believe the ability to earn money and the ability to create great artistic works are two different abilities? Are they related in any way? Are they potentially complementary, or mutually exclusive?

These are some of the questions that will be posed by musical performance artist Cynthia Hopkins during live, unscripted and unrehearsed interviews with Pavol Liska & Kelly Copper of Nature Theater of Oklahoma, in A LIVING DOCUMENTARY (work in progress). Interspersed between the live interviews, Ms. Hopkins will portray a series of semi-fictional comedic characters (some based on previous interviews and some invented), who deliver tales of the struggle to survive as a performing artist in monologue and song. Both the live interviews and the character segments will be videotaped and projected on a movie screen, to enhance viewing and achieve a talk-show atmosphere. A LIVING DOCUMENTARY is the child that might be born from a union between an Anna Deveare Smith show and a Carol Burnett show, if that child were consumed by the trials and tribulations of earning a living as a professional theater artist in the 21st century.