Tag Archives: Christina Robson

Henson Awards Showcase at Clarice Smith, Apr 23, Online

Henson Awards Showcase at Clarice Smith, Apr 23, Online

Henson Awards Showcase
Friday, April 23, 2021 . 7:30PM EDT

Venue: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Online

The talented student recipients of the Jim Henson Fund for Puppetry will perform/present their funded projects.

The School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies hosts an annual competition and recipients are awarded funds to create a puppet project or performance. The Jim Henson Fund for Puppetry was established by Jane Henson ’55 to honor the memory of Jim Henson ’60, creator of the world famous Muppets.

Aqua and water walk into a bar by Christina Robson
Aqua and water walk into a bar, a collaboration between Christina Robson and Shane Rutkowski, uses found objects to animate an unforgettable journey made by a group of chemicals. Washers, nuts and bolts transform into charismatic representations of chemical structures, and thimbles become a gaggle of bachelorette party attendees. This short film blends choreography, comedy, puppetry and chemistry to bring everyday objects to life.

Exousia by Bill Kassay
Exousia is Greek for “authority” or “power.” In the piece, the protagonist is a rich and powerful creature with overstuffed pockets and a greedy nature. He uses his resources to inflict pain and suffering on innocents with the hope of gaining “prizes.” This is indicative of a civilian-operated military complex whose sole purpose is the accumulation of more wealth. There are far too many conflicts in the world that are being fought under this context. To soften the story, this piece uses a “whack-a-mole” machine to narrate—but the metaphor is the same.

Untitled by Tristan Koepke
In response to isolation and lack of face-to-face collaborators during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tristan Koepke sets out to create a new dance partner: a robot named Armando. What arises is a sly and humorous investigation of the possibilities and limits of puppetry and robotic technologies to replace missing human connection.

Channing Tucker (description coming soon)

Tickets: Free; Tickets Required. Click here.

Clarice Smith presents Martius and crash test, Nov 5, Online

“Martius” and “crash test”

Thursday, November 5, 2020 7:30PM

By: Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Online.

Martius
Written and composed by Beth Rendely
Directed by Abigail Olshin

Martius, a musical inspired by Shakespeare’s play Coriolanus, follows the breakdowns of family relationships against a backdrop of political conflict and warfare in Rome. Martius, a decorated soldier, is forced by her mother into a political career. What happens when the people reject her? What happens when Martius herself rejects being a pawn in the city’s battles, the senators’ political games and her mother’s ambitions? Will this Roman family—and by extension, Rome—break out of a cycle of glorifying bloodshed?

crash test
Choreographed by Christina Robson

Using the sheet music for Paganini’s “24 Caprices for violin in B-minor,” Robson created a series of movement-based rule systems that generates a series of unexpected and interrupted movement sentences to challenge habitual understandings of weight shift and momentum. As the choreographer, Robson provided her own movement notation made up of hand-drawn geometric symbols to her collaborator, cellist and composer Lily Gelfand, to generate a new musical composition for cello. In this piece, Robson and Gelfand perform their two original compositions simultaneously without revision.

Free, No Tickets Required, Online here.