#prototypefestival

I've included an image here of myself facedown on the 'puter...because this is what it feels like this morning to approach the task of blogging about Kansas City Choir Boy, Sunken Cathedrals, and YOUARENOWHERE.  I mean, can you know the mighty ocean?  Can you lasso a star from the sky?  But because it is impossible: we must try. (and yes- I just combined Mango quotes and Tadashi Suzuki quotes- deal with it.) 

I'll just go in order, bras.  K.  So first things first: Sunken Cathedrals, by Bora Yoon as part of Prototype (at La Mama).  This was one that I knew nothing about going in, but I purchased the ticket cuz when I see Asian Girls with violins are performing avant garde works, I go there.  The overarching theme in all of yesterday's work was reality/dreams/getting lost/found/space/time, etc.  It was a timey-wimey type of day.  

And yes, I make that Doctor Who reference as whether she knows it or not- Bora Yoon's set was downright Gallifreyan.  Other than that...the best way I can describe this show is that Bora Yoon handles a lot of objects, makes a carrot soup, has a stereotypical Asian mother, is in some kind of dream battle with an impish Korean dancer, she loves her giant diamonds, and she rather rogue-ishly removes articles of clothing each time she goes offstage (but in a very demure, Asian way- I can say this because I am Asian).  There was a kind of (to me) weird and vaguely out of place reference to CUPS?  And while I really enjoyed the projections as a whole- there was definitely one that I think was a live wallpaper from my HTC One M8.  The music and text were haunting and performed with a very cool ease.  The show kept my focus and was rather transportive (some parts more effectively than others).  

AND THEN I GOT ON THE TRAIN AND WENT TO HERE FOR COURTNEY LOVE, YO!!!!! (hahah- saying I went to "here" is really funny.) 

In attendance at HERE were Actual Cannibal Broadway Producer Megan Kingery, Blue Man Group Producer Jennie Ryan, JESSE TYLER FERGUSON, Curator of Theatre and Dance and Director of Theatre Programs at Bard College: Gideon Lester, and Village Voice critic Tom Sellar.  I was also standing in line with a gaggle of parents of the musicians and singers in the show who could not stop talking about how James Franco had been there the night before and their daughters were just going nuts.  Hmm.

The show started about 10 minutes late which gave me the vapors as I had a tiny window as it was to get from HERE to Invisible Dog.  And also because everyone was like, "COURTNEY LOVE PROBABLY KILLED A GUY."  Well okay.  No one was really like that out loud but I know everyone was thinking it, you know like- behind their eyes.  Okay one of the James Franco loving parents did IMPLY this out loud.  Whatever.  Kristen Marting assured everyone it was a mic issue and we held fast- eventually getting in and starting (like I said) about 10 minutes late.

BUT OMG NOW TALK ABOUT COURTNEY LOVE YOU IDIOT.  Okay.  So check it.  Courtney motherfucking Love is a goddamn beast you guys.  I mean...talk about American Realness.  Courtney Love is "the thing you can't fake".  I had heard from someone on opening night that when she made her first entrance, someone audibly gasped or exclaimed, "oh my god."  And that's kind of how it is.  She doesn't look real...or maybe she looks too real?  Being in a small (and i mean small) black box theater with Courtney Love like 5 feet away from you is somewhere between "prothetic hand" and "bunraku puppet" on the uncanny valley.  Seeing Courtney Love standing in a sea of chorus girls who look like they just graduated from Tisch this year is like seeing a Tiger, confused and maybe kind of hungry, in a sea of kittens.  Same species...different animals.

Other thoughts I had while I was watching her: Courtney Love really sees things.  Courtney Love HAS SEEN things...things that the rest of us probably couldn't fathom.  Courtney Love is wearing a lot of make up, but it somehow looks okay.  In the wrong kind of lighting, Courtney Love has a mild case of Iggy Pop.  

Okay okay okay.  So the show?  Does anyone want to hear about the show?  I give the show +1 for use of LED web.  I give the show +100 for it's use of PARTY LASERS (Katie Naka loves a laser like whoa).  There was a fiendishly unfair moment when everyone onstage played a guitar EXCEPT Courtney Love.  The Zach Posen dress: I DIE.  The chemistry between Todd Almond and Courtney Love is laughable and ridiculous and that's like -50, seriously.  The music was good...but newsflash- the show is more about Almond's character than Love's and he has a lot more stage time than she does...

So the last thing I will say (because I want to talk about Andrew Schneider all day and night) is that I think I read that Todd Almond wrote this with Courtney Love in mind- but could someone down the road do this piece as Courtney Love?  And then there's just this crazy stunt casting factor to the whole thing...like what would this piece be with out the real Courtney?  Would it just be some LED web and party lasers?  Deep questions.  Worth consideration.  But you guys:

YOUARENOWHERE WAS SO FUCKING GOOD.  I CAN'T.

Sometimes I see things and I am like, "Why do I even bother trying to make anything?"  This was one of those pieces.  I LOVED this piece.  It was everything.  I want to marry Andrew Schneider.  let's fucking do this- I already planned out the wedding during that Daniel Fish thing.  I'm good to go.  Just tell me when.    

I've got my head in my hands.  I don't even know how to talk about it.  Okay.  Grad School, don't fail me now.  Everything from the incredibly inventive tech, to the direct address/casting of the audience...the incredibly clear creation of a time and place that's not even an identifiable time and place...the bold self referential humor, the extremely technical explorations of quantum mechanics that somehow managed to still be engaging...the inclusion of both SIA and ROBYN.  The extraordinary coup de theatre.  The shirtless menfolk.  My friend Peter Musante.  The perfect use of the very difficult to use Invisible Dog space.  THE CRAFT, the MF CRAFT.  The fact that it took things WAY too far.  The total exploration of a very difficult theme.  The many questions that I left the piece with.  The fact that I SIGNED UP FOR ANDREW SCHNEIDER'S MAILING LIST THIS MORNING?  Do you understand what that means?  That I actually want to get Mail Kimp updates from this person?  THAT is the ultimate compliment.

In the immortal words of Squiggy in A League of Their Own: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have seen enough to know that I have seen too much."

Wow.  What a fucking Saturday.  This is me.

Oh hey ya'll.  It was a Prototype-ful day yesterday.  I saw the final performance of Toxic Psalms at St. Ann's Warehouse and Timur and The Dime Museum at Joe's Pub!  

In between, I stopped by gallery 247365 at their Eldridge space for the opening of: Believe You Me, featuring works by Frank Benson, Dora Budor, Henry Gunderson, Jamian Juliano-Villani, and Ryan Trecartin.  

Omg so much art.  

So it was great to see some music!  Toxic Psalms was extremely haunting and beautiful to look at.  They have a video trailer HERE.  30 young women and like 5 pages of program notes.  Lots of lemons and some fabulous trousers and dresses.  That's all Katie Naka is going to tell you.  Oh and overheard in the audience, "Would you say this is a hipster crowd?  Or just nerds?  Maybe just culture victims like us?"  I took the above photo of their little rollerboard suitcases.  I asked a friend who worked on this show if they were going right back to Slovenia after the show- she said no- the bags were just for their costumes and props.  And today they are going to see all of NY in one day.  I love the idea of these 30 girls and their big hairdos and combat boots tooling around in a double decker bus somewhere today in the rain.  Listening to Taylor Swift.  I know this probably is not what is happening...but plz.  

Then to the gallery- so full of people.  Art is fun!  I didn't get to watch the whole Trecartin video...but I will soon.  This show is up till Feb 15th- check it out.  

Then to Timur and mind you- January Nonsense Theatre Blogger Katie Naka realizes that it's only the end of week 1 and she is already like WTF.  But I made this filthy BED OF ART and now I have to lie in it.  

Thankfully Timur was a DELIGHT.  He makes the best crazy eyes and all the fashion onstage was on point.  Thus far I feel I can say with out a shadow of a doubt that Prototype festival has the best clothes.  These boys also had great banter (as well as fabulous tunes).  They will be, "Back in the fall...for a festival...we cannot say what it is."  Another top moment, Timur asks with incredible sincerity, "Is anyone here from Kazakhstan?" to complete crickets.  That and, "I'm sorry for sweating so much.  I only sweat when I sing the requiem...you know...it's about global warming."  And they closed with a Klaus Nomi cover (Total Eclipse)...I mean c'mon.  Get out.  I am really excited to check these guys out again when they come back for that unnamed festival in the fall!

Yo.  I saw Cineastas by Marinao Pensotti at UTR tonight!  There is a great write up in the Times about both Cineastas and O Jardim.  And you can look that up AFTER you finish reading my blog, playa.  

SO check it.  Cineastas is the "Birdman" of festival season (thus far) for me.  It's a grand scale, seamless and kinetic, big 'ol mush of stories that all boils down to something quite simple.  And instead of a movie about the practice of doing a theatre show, it is a theatre show about the practice of making movies.  I call 'em like I sees 'em, fellas.  

Things of note: OMG again with the subtitles.  And I usually don't complain about this at all (and I am not complaining now, cuz I was raised better than that).  But usually I am like, "Katie Naka's eyes and brains work at such a superior level that I am taking in all your words, all your design elements, and all your fine, fine, performances."  So maybe it's the illness bringing me down, maybe it's the drugs...ugh...it's always the drugs isn't it?  Or maybe (in this instance) it's the dialogue, coupled with the narration, tripled with the bisected set and overlapping series' of action, that were at times making me yell at myself to GET IT RIGHT NAKA!  Maybe it was the coughing fit I had about 30 minutes in.  Maybe it was the baby in the back row (no seriously, there was a baby in the back row who really LOVES avant garde theatre).  But hey man, I made it through, and I really did enjoy this piece in all it's ambitious glory.

Thus far I have felt a strong thread through most of the work I have seen that pertains to living life- how to live a good life?  Are we living good lives?  And what is left of us when we go?  I will monitor this and try to keep myself from questioning my own choices too hard till this blogging season is over.  Cuz please.  

In attendance tonight were MEROPI AND BETO!  Meropi has (with cavalier glee) suggested that I come to SOHO REP to see Winners and Losers so I can blog about THAT.  You guys.  Being a nonsense theatre blogger is totally paying off.  Tell your kids.  

TONIGHT: I am going to The Blind Date Project (COIL) - last night they had Laverne Cox and Reggie Watts and that was just Friday.  Then I am going to watch some playoff football (cuz I get down like that) and then I am going to go to the KUNT Party (cuz i get down like THAT too and following Susanne Bartsch on instagram is the best decision I've made since James Franco).  Tomorrow: Toxic Psalms & Timur.  Monday I am going to beg, borrow/steal my way into Kansas City Choir Boy if I have wear a body suit of Kristen Marting's hair to do it (why did I say that!)  Tuesday: I'm gonna try and see this Cynthia Hopkins thing becasue MY FRIEND TARA enjoyed it.  (See Tara, I told you I would find you again somehow.)