ALL THAT DIES AND RISES

Devised by THE ENSEMBLE
Text Excerpted from works by Strindberg, Dostoyesvsky, Gertrude Stein, & Others
Directed by JAMES RUTHERFORD

Featuring
CHRISTOPHER J. CANCEL-POMALES, CAMBER DONAHOE, JON FROEHLICH,
RACHEL KODWEIS, MAURY MILLER, CASEY ROBINSON, & EMILY VIANCOURT

Set Design: KRISTEN ROBINSON
Lighting Design: BRUCE STEINBERG
Costume Design: OLGA MILL
Production Stage Manager: ALEJANDRA MALDONADO
Choreographer: LAURA BUTLER RIVERA
Choral Music: DAVID SKEIST
Sound: MICHAEL COSTAGLIOLA & ALEX CLIFFORD
Stage Management: ALEJANDRA MALDONADO-MORALES
Production Management: MARIEL MARELLI & SUSAN HYON
Technical Direction: HARRISON BEAUREGARD
Assistant Lighting Designer: ANTHONY TORNAMBENE
Master Electrician: EILEEN GODDARD
Wardrobe Supervision: ALEXANDER ALLEN
Press Representative: DAVID GIBBS/DARR PUBLICITY

IATI Theater
64 East Fourth Street
New York, NY 10003
www.M-34.org
December 11 through December 21, 2014

It is all black and white, superficially. Living, that is. The stage and two walls are blaring white. The actors wear close-fitting clothes, a second skin, white on the front, black on the back. This has nothing to do with race. This is about life and its stark contrasts. Between sparse narratives we are entranced by bodies in motion, falling, rising, writhing, contorting, and entangling. It is about how we act in the face of adversity, and how we keep rising from the ashes, most of us, until the real last defeat. Death.

The ensemble cast vocalizes with sighs, moans, and gasps while they mime and do their slo-mo gymnastic interpretation of the struggle of existence. They say our blood is a vision-inducing wine that moves through us through pain and loss, always forward in spite of ourselves.

This production exudes a sense of sheer kinetic power while conveying in clipped words brief snaps of life stories. We fall into the void with them and feel the tension as they reach out, back away, and entwine. Like us, they reach until they find a helping hand, no matter how long and difficult the struggle. Their sheer power is amazing.

-Karen D’Onofrio-