#radical evolution

R-Evolution / Radical Evolution (English)

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If there is one person who takes this blog even remotely seriously, it is Meropi Peponides (Radical Evolution, Soho Rep). Therefore I get to do awesome things like watch rehearsals for Radical Evolution’s The Golden Drum Year by Beto O’Byrne and write about it.  As goes the saying: #katienakawins

The Golden Drum Year was inspired by and contains poems written by O’Byrne, who produced one poem every day in 2011.  (Do you remember what you were doing in 2011?  I barely do.  It was peak Occupy Wallstreet time though, and that movement makes a timely cameo here.)  The piece has been in development for over three years, transforming from a disparate collections of musings and observations into a touching tapestry of interlocking tales.

The format is that our narrator Eugene (played deftly by Allan K. Washington) provides the context and introduces the characters in prose, while they in turn address him and the audience solely in poetry.  It is a play that was born of a 3 year experimental process that somehow rendered a rich, tight narrative flow (bravo).    Speaking from the perspective of a surly decade+ New Yoker, even I was moved to remember a time when the city not only evoked poetry, but functioned as it.  If The Golden Drum Year does it’s job, you will leave the theatre looking a little more closely at the buildings, the reflections in the puddles, and listening more closely to the rhythm of the trains.  Some of you might be thinking, “But Katie, don’t you normally want to face-shove nostalgia into a tile wall and yell, ‘I KNOW I WAS THERE’?” Yes dear reader, only most of the time. I can assure you that The Golden Drum Year will sneak up on you delicately (like one of those slow moving rats on the subway platform) and before you know it, you’ll be sharing your pita chips with it.

I wasn’t able to see the full tech of the piece.  There is a rich collection of animation, projection, and lighting that will accompany the final performance that I am excited to see layered in.  Lighting designer Yuki Nakase is one of my all time favs.  In my experience, she interprets text and poetry through lighting in the most creative and thoughtful ways.  I didn’t know Yuki was working on this piece till I showed up at rehearsal, but it is no surprise and I am super excited for the Yuki/Radical Evolution collaboration.  The projection (some early versions of which you can see here) by David Bengali also looks totally awesome.  The Golden Drum Year’s performance and text painted with a vivid array of colors and tones with no tech in a rehearsal room, so I can only imagine what that the completed piece will be stunning.

What they did have going in the rehearsal room on the day I visited was a killer score by one-man-band/composer Jonathan Camuzeaux. My understanding is that Jonathan will be a visible part of the action during the show, which is great as he brings with him a few unique instruments that you’re not likely to see anywhere else.  These include the “mandocastor” something akin to an electric mandolin that was custom built for him, and the Sazouki- only invented in the last 10 years- Jonathan owns the 8th one that was ever built.  The score was written through out early workshops in conjunction with the rehearsal process.  The music fits the action like a glove and who hasn’t walked around the city wishing for their own personal jazz scoring? #Birdman #whiplash #milestellersstupidface

At the helm of this groovy little project, is groovy director and all around cool-kat, Simón Adinia Hanukai.  I really have to hand it to Meropi and Beto for putting together a stellar team, many of whom have been involved in this project for years.  Sonia Villani leads the charge there, having been at the very first workshop at the Tofte Lake Center Retreat in 2012.  Her presence, her work, and her booty shorts are a joy in this piece.  If the shorts were only rehearsal clothes, then I apologize for leading you on.

One of the things I love about Radical Evolution is that they have this (to me, it’s always sounded kind of subversive, but maybe that’s just the twinkle in Meropi Peponides’ eye when she tells me about it) mission of “seeding the downtown theatre scene with artists of color”.  What I dig about this particular mission and how they implement it is that in practice it doesn’t look like a mission is being enacted at all.  What it looks like is a great group of artists.  It looks like Brooklyn, USA 2015, man.

So come on down!  Come on out.  Try to figure out where you were in 2011, one poem at a time.

Performances Sept. 26 – Oct. 10 The Performance Project at University Settlement