U.S. Premieres of Two Works by Italian Experimental Theater Company Dewey Dell at Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts September 9, 10 and 16
U.S. Premieres of Two Works by
Italian Experimental Theater Company Dewey Dell:
September 9 & 10 - à elle vide
September 16 - Cinquanta Urlanti Quaranta Ruggenti Sessanta Stridenti
Middletown, Conn., August 21, 2011 - Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts will present the United States premieres of two different works by the young Northern Italian experimental theater company Dewey Dell as the opening performances of the fall Performing Arts Series. The company's visually stunning and musically arresting performances at first resemble pure dance, but ultimately possess a dramatic structure that brings them closest to theater:
à elle vide is a twenty-minute work that focuses on the void between two characters, the red Rooster and the white Scorpion, featuring rhythmic movement set to haunting electronic music. The Friday night performance will be followed by a dance party for the audience featuring a live performance by Black Fanfare, DJ and composer Demetrio Castellucci's exploration of electronic music and tribal sounds, featuring Dewey Dell soundtracks and other original selections. à elle vide will premiere Friday, September 9 and Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 8pm in the Patricelli '92 Theater located at 213 High Street on the Wesleyan campus in Middletown. Tickets are $10 for the general public; $8 for senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty and staff, and non-Wesleyan students; and $5 for Wesleyan students. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. To purchase tickets or for more information, please visit www.wesleyan.edu/cfa or call the Wesleyan University Box Office at (860) 685-3355. You can watch an excerpt of this work on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHbtaCz7wFI&feature=player_embedded
Cinquanta Urlanti Quaranta Ruggenti Sessanta Stridenti (Furious Fifties, Roaring Forties, Shrieking Sixties) are the proper names of three groups of winds that blow over the seas of the Antarctic. Set to industrial music, this production is a surreal reflection on how the borders between the sailors, the ship, the wind and the sea are blurred upon leaving the harbor. Cinquanta Urlanti Quaranta Ruggenti Sessanta Stridenti will premiere on Friday, September 16, 2011 at 8pm in the CFA Theater, located at 283 Washington Terrace on the Wesleyan campus in Middletown. Tickets are $18 for the general public; $15 for senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty and staff, and non-Wesleyan students; and $6 for Wesleyan students. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. To purchase tickets or for more information, please visit www.wesleyan.edu/cfa or call the Wesleyan University Box Office at (860) 685-3355. You can watch an excerpt of this work on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsrOSEhWtWg&feature=player_embedded
Over the course of a two week residency, Dewey Dell will engage in numerous activities exposing the ideas of theater's next generation, including creative projects with theater majors in Associate Professor and Theater Chair Claudia Tatinge Nascimento's classes, and cultural exchange with Italian language and literature students, coordinated by Professor and Chair of Romance Languages and Literatures Ellen Nerenberg.
These American debut performances by Dewey Dell are Outside the Box Theater Series events presented by the Theater Department and the Center for the Arts. The company's performances and residency at Wesleyan University are made possible in part by a generous grant from the Catharine and Thomas McMahon Fund in partnership with the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and with support from the Dance Department.
About Dewey Dell and Black Fanfare
Named after a character in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Dewey Dell was formed in 2007 by Teodora, Demetrio and Agata Castellucci, along with Eugenio Resta. Sharing the important formative experience of studies at the Stoa, a rhythmic movement and philosophy school of the Sociètas Raffaello Sanzio based in Cesena, Italy, each has strong skills in different areas. Teodora Castellucci choreographs and performs in the company's works as well as designs the costumes; Agata Castellucci performs the kind of stage presence the company researches; Demetrio Castellucci composes the music; and Eugenio Resta designs the lights and sets. For more information, please visit http://www.deweydell.com/.
Demetrio Castellucci's project Black Fanfare moves on two parallel tracks: between melodic songs with a pop inclination, following a rhythm that evokes the sound of an imaginary battle, and a purely electro-acoustic sound (self-described on the project's Facebook page as "harsh acoustic funeral downtempo"). Through his experience with dance performances, Mr. Castellucci has developed a dialogue between choreographic gesture and sound, elements which permeate each other and shade their respective contours, meeting on the same ground. For more information, please visit http://www.blackfanfare.com or http://www.myspace.com/blackfanfare
About the Performing Arts Series
The "Performing Arts Series" at the Center for the Arts brings a wide array of world-class musicians, cutting-edge choreography, and groundbreaking theater performances and discussions to Wesleyan University. This season's performances include the New England premiere of AnDa Union (September 23, 2011), Rennie Harris Puremovement (September 30 & October 1, 2011), Joy Harjo with Larry Mitchell (October 14, 2011), the New England premiere of Water is Rising: Music and Dance from the Pacific Atolls of Kiribati, Tokelau, and Tuvalu (November 10, 2011), Bebe Miller Company: History (November 18 & 19, 2011), Joshua Roman (November 18, 2011), Lionel Loueke Trio (February 25, 2012), the Connecticut premiere of Chunky Move: Connected (March 30 & 31, 2012), and Fernando Otero Quartet (April 14, 2012). For more information, please visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/cfa.
Save 10% when you buy tickets to four or more "Performing Arts Series" events. Save 15% when you buy tickets to six or more "Performing Arts Series" events. Call or visit the Wesleyan University Box Office at (860) 685-3355 to take advantage of these discounts.