Ghost Road Company (Los Angeles) and Warsaw Bauhaus Foundation (Warsaw) present an international real-time collaboration: original works of dance, theatre and film, created to respond to the work of maverick Polish composer and playwright Boguslaw Schaeffer livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Monday 23 November 2020 at 12 p.m. PST (Los Angeles, UTC -8) / 3 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 20:00 GMT (London, UTC +0) / 21:00 CET (Warsaw, UTC +1).
In Warsaw, under the auspices of Aurea Porta — a Polish non-profit organization devoted to disseminating the legacy of Boguslaw Schaeffer’s work through artistic projects—well-known actors Lidia Bogaczówna, Izabela Warykiewicz, Marcel Wiercichowski, Sean Palmer, Witold Jurewicz, and musicians Włodek Pawlik, Michał Urbaniak,Michael Patches Stewart, Janusz Radek, Marcin Wyrostek with Tango Corazon (Piotr Zaufal, Krzysztof Nowakowski, Mateusz Adamczyk, Daniel Popiałkiewicz) will perform Schaeffer’s work Era Schaeffera, while Los Angeles-based actors Peter Mark, Anthony Nikolchev, Paul Outlaw, Izabella Miko and Jessica Emmanuel will interpret an original script adapted from several Schaeffer’s plays by the project’s longtime director, Maciej Sobociński performing in situ at REDCAT | CalArts theatre.
Noted Los Angeles choreographers Heidi Duckler, Laurie Sefton and Micaela Taylor are each creating dance films shot in unique outdoor locations in which company members perform short works inspired by or accompanied by Schaeffer’s music. This ninety-minute live stream from Warsaw and Los Angeles will consist of simultaneous performances being mixed live by the theatre director as a virtual VJ.
Boguslaw Schaeffer (1929-2019) was the most successful playwright among composers and one of the hardest working composers among playwrights. His artistic language and formal concerns in both music and drama put him squarely in the small but vital international group of artists exploring the boundary between music, theatre, and the visual arts going back to the European and American avant-garde of the 1930s.
Schaeffer’s work stretches the boundaries between music and text, acting and musicianship. His unconventional, interdisciplinary style is kept alive now both performances of his compositions and plays, and also, with support from Aurea Porta, by commissioning contemporary theatre and dance artists to create new work inspired by Schaeffer’s inventive, questing spirit.
US Producers:
Ghost Road Company
The ensemble scavenges the current social landscape for objects, language and images that are, in turn, informed by the ensemble’s individual experiences of the world, creating something surprising and unexpected.
Warsaw Bauhaus is an evolving organism engaged in diverse creative activities involving art, design and theatre. Our guiding principle is that design is neither an intellectual nor a material affair, but simply an integral part of life, necessary for everyone who defends humanistic values in a democratic society.
Aurea Porta Friends of Arts Foundation
The foundation promotes the desire to experience culture in the broadest sense of the word. A significant part of our activities focuses on the promotion of the musical, dramatic and graphic works of Bogusław Schaeffer.
Honorary Patronage
Marshal of the Masovian Voivodeship Adam Struzik
Mayor of the Capital City of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski
Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
The event was co-financed by
The Council of the Masovian Voivodeship.
Multiannual Program ‘Independent’ for 2017-2022, as part of the grant program of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute KULTURALNE POMOSTY
Bureau of Culture of the Capital City Warsaw
Polish Cultural Institute of New York
US Partners:
REDCAT | CalArts
Center for New Performance at CalArts
UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television
UCI Department of Drama-Claire Trevor School of the Arts
Polish Music Center, USC Thornton School of Music
