Telling the Bees
Telling the Bees: A new environmental art and theatre project
presented by Lonesome George
as a part of chashama Summer Performance Series 2014
August 18 - September 4, 2014
Falchi Building
31-00 47th Avenue
Queens, Long Island City
The Telling of the Bees was an old farming ritual performed in England hundreds of years ago: When people raised bees, they would enjoy the bee’s honey and wax year after year. They believed that, to repay the debt, they needed to regularly visit the beehive and teach the bees about important events in their life. The beekeeper would gently knock at the hive, and then, when he had the bees´ attention, tell them of important changes in his family-life, like births, weddings, deaths or visits. If the keeper forgot, or took too long, the bees would issue a penalty. They would either stop producing honey, abandon their hive, or die.
Now, in the dawn of a new environmental era, when insects and pollinators are endangered and the honey bees are in fact dying, we revive The Telling of the Bees as a theatrical experience. Our central, fictive question is: What did we forget to tell the bees?
In a story about the everyday crisis of a family, the audience is swept away into a vortex of time and space, brought back to the past of a not just yet futuristic scenario, in which children rule society. Why? We need to find out! We only know that they have been caught in the repetition of a ritual, with having forgotten why and what for.
Performances: Actors, Performers, Designers take the liberty to show excerpts of a work in progress. Monologues, scenic elements, choreographic bits and improvisational interactions become provoking live-elements in the shopping windows and can be "glanced at". This brief act of seeing "sticks" to our by-passing audience: they become witnesses, who will carry creative impulses like pollen and pass them on through energy or words.
Performance times:
Window Displays: Three shopping windows at the Falchi stand for the three parts of the story "Telling the Bees": The Just Now, The Not Just Yet and The Hive. They represent different moments in time and space and allow the viewer to grasp the macro- and microcosmical connections of humans and bees. The remaining three shopping windows will hold a collection of documentation material of our work in progress: Leadership and Education, Exploring the Drama in the Kitchen Sink and a Behind the Scenes of Lonesome George Productions.
The Big Buzz: Sina Heiss (director and co-creator of Telling the Bees) will initiate three humming circles, for by-passers to spontaneously chime in after a long day of work to get a gentle vocal chord massage through vibrations. This will allow participants to calm down and relax. There will be a brief introduction/explanation in the beginning, then no speaking for a 30-40 minute vocal mediation. Little "how to" cards will be handed out to by-passers and allow them to join.
The humming circle is open to people with or without singing experience. They can either chime in or just listen. People can join the circle and leave at any point in time. The only rule is: no talking throughout the course of the meditation.
About the artists:
Sina Heiss (Director, Co-Creator) is an Austrian theatre director, performer and teaching artist. Her work is strongly influenced by music, dance and visual arts and fosters a vibrant, hybrid community of creative minds and curious audiences. As a director, Sina enjoys provoking and triggering discussions that lead to active political and societal engagement. The stage becomes a symbol for breaking barriers, realizing bold visions and solving problems with ease and playfulness. As a teacher, Sina believes in the power of serendipity and “the art of failing”, which leads to success through humor. She is specifically interested in exploring the magical threshold between the performer and the audience and creates work that challenges presuppositions about theatre.
Sina has studied with Anne Bogart, Tina Landau, Robert Woodruff and Brian Kulick at Columbia University, from which she holds a MFA in Theatre Directing. She is a certified voice teacher and has trained with Keith Johnstone and Norman Taylor in Improvisational Theatre and Clowning. She has taught theatre and voice to groups and individuals of all ages and backgrounds in Austria and has been performing as an actress, improviser and singer since 2003. Her secret passion is physical theatre and dance, which has lead her to assisting Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar at Big Dance Theatre NYC since 2013. In the last three years she has directed (and co-produced) four full length plays (Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouse/Brecht, Platonov/Checkov, Far Away/Churchill, The Physicists/Durrenmatt), two short films (Blank and Der Augenblick) and a number of new short plays. She is currently working on an environmental theatre project called Telling the Bees and will be directing a short film for the The New York Shakespeare Exchange (The Sonnet Project NYC) in late summer 2014.
Sina is the founder and artistic director of Lonesome George, a free flowing, international arts collective that sparks, shelters and spreads creative innovations and impulses. Lonesome George produces art that is economically, politically and socially relevant.
Gabrielle Sinclair (Playwright, Co-Creator) is a Southern playwright with roots in journalism and improvisational theatre. She moved to New York City to pursue her MFA in playwriting at the Actors Studio Drama School, and has since created work that has been featured in the city at the Theater at Dance New Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Playhouse, Galapagos Theatre, and the 133rd Street Arts Center. She has studied and performed with The Annoyance Theater in Chicago and iOWest in Los Angeles, as well as performed improv in festivals around the country. Gabrielle has developed new work as a fellow with America-In-Play, as a member of the Playwright-Directors Workshop at the Actors Studio, and as resident playwright for The Adventure Collective. Gabrielle is an associate member of the Dramatist's Guild.
presented by Lonesome George
as a part of chashama Summer Performance Series 2014
August 18 - September 4, 2014
Falchi Building
31-00 47th Avenue
Queens, Long Island City
The Telling of the Bees was an old farming ritual performed in England hundreds of years ago: When people raised bees, they would enjoy the bee’s honey and wax year after year. They believed that, to repay the debt, they needed to regularly visit the beehive and teach the bees about important events in their life. The beekeeper would gently knock at the hive, and then, when he had the bees´ attention, tell them of important changes in his family-life, like births, weddings, deaths or visits. If the keeper forgot, or took too long, the bees would issue a penalty. They would either stop producing honey, abandon their hive, or die.
Now, in the dawn of a new environmental era, when insects and pollinators are endangered and the honey bees are in fact dying, we revive The Telling of the Bees as a theatrical experience. Our central, fictive question is: What did we forget to tell the bees?
In a story about the everyday crisis of a family, the audience is swept away into a vortex of time and space, brought back to the past of a not just yet futuristic scenario, in which children rule society. Why? We need to find out! We only know that they have been caught in the repetition of a ritual, with having forgotten why and what for.
Performances: Actors, Performers, Designers take the liberty to show excerpts of a work in progress. Monologues, scenic elements, choreographic bits and improvisational interactions become provoking live-elements in the shopping windows and can be "glanced at". This brief act of seeing "sticks" to our by-passing audience: they become witnesses, who will carry creative impulses like pollen and pass them on through energy or words.
Performance times:
Monday 8/18, 3:30 - 4 pm "Wanna know a secret?"
4:30 - 5 pm "The Ritual"
5:30 - 6:30 pm "The Big Buzz"
4:30 - 5 pm "The Ritual"
5:30 - 6:30 pm "The Big Buzz"
Wednesday 8/20, 12 - 1:30 pm "No Matter The Size" and "Shadows"
Tuesday 8/26, 12 - 1:30 pm "Do you love this plate?" and "Wanna Know a Secret?" and "Ants!"
4 - 5 pm "The Ritual"
5:30 - 6:30 pm "The Big Buzz"
Wednesday 8/27, 12 - 1:30 "Two Women in the Kitchen"
2 - 3 pm "Corky in the kitchen"
Thursday 8/28, 4 - 5 pm "Two Women in the Kitchen"
5:30 - 6:30pm "The Big Buzz"
Friday 8/29, 12 - 3 pm "Corky in the Kitchen"
Tuesday 9/2, 12 - 2 pm "No Matter the Size"
Thursday 9/4, 12 - 1:30 pm "Peanut Butter" and "Ants!" and "Shaddows"
4 - 5 pm "Two Women in the Kitchen"
5:30 - 6:30 pm "The Big Buzz"
Tuesday 8/26, 12 - 1:30 pm "Do you love this plate?" and "Wanna Know a Secret?" and "Ants!"
4 - 5 pm "The Ritual"
5:30 - 6:30 pm "The Big Buzz"
Wednesday 8/27, 12 - 1:30 "Two Women in the Kitchen"
2 - 3 pm "Corky in the kitchen"
Thursday 8/28, 4 - 5 pm "Two Women in the Kitchen"
5:30 - 6:30pm "The Big Buzz"
Friday 8/29, 12 - 3 pm "Corky in the Kitchen"
Tuesday 9/2, 12 - 2 pm "No Matter the Size"
Thursday 9/4, 12 - 1:30 pm "Peanut Butter" and "Ants!" and "Shaddows"
4 - 5 pm "Two Women in the Kitchen"
5:30 - 6:30 pm "The Big Buzz"
Window Displays: Three shopping windows at the Falchi stand for the three parts of the story "Telling the Bees": The Just Now, The Not Just Yet and The Hive. They represent different moments in time and space and allow the viewer to grasp the macro- and microcosmical connections of humans and bees. The remaining three shopping windows will hold a collection of documentation material of our work in progress: Leadership and Education, Exploring the Drama in the Kitchen Sink and a Behind the Scenes of Lonesome George Productions.
The Big Buzz: Sina Heiss (director and co-creator of Telling the Bees) will initiate three humming circles, for by-passers to spontaneously chime in after a long day of work to get a gentle vocal chord massage through vibrations. This will allow participants to calm down and relax. There will be a brief introduction/explanation in the beginning, then no speaking for a 30-40 minute vocal mediation. Little "how to" cards will be handed out to by-passers and allow them to join.
The humming circle is open to people with or without singing experience. They can either chime in or just listen. People can join the circle and leave at any point in time. The only rule is: no talking throughout the course of the meditation.
About the artists:
Sina Heiss (Director, Co-Creator) is an Austrian theatre director, performer and teaching artist. Her work is strongly influenced by music, dance and visual arts and fosters a vibrant, hybrid community of creative minds and curious audiences. As a director, Sina enjoys provoking and triggering discussions that lead to active political and societal engagement. The stage becomes a symbol for breaking barriers, realizing bold visions and solving problems with ease and playfulness. As a teacher, Sina believes in the power of serendipity and “the art of failing”, which leads to success through humor. She is specifically interested in exploring the magical threshold between the performer and the audience and creates work that challenges presuppositions about theatre.
Sina has studied with Anne Bogart, Tina Landau, Robert Woodruff and Brian Kulick at Columbia University, from which she holds a MFA in Theatre Directing. She is a certified voice teacher and has trained with Keith Johnstone and Norman Taylor in Improvisational Theatre and Clowning. She has taught theatre and voice to groups and individuals of all ages and backgrounds in Austria and has been performing as an actress, improviser and singer since 2003. Her secret passion is physical theatre and dance, which has lead her to assisting Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar at Big Dance Theatre NYC since 2013. In the last three years she has directed (and co-produced) four full length plays (Saint Joan of the Slaughterhouse/Brecht, Platonov/Checkov, Far Away/Churchill, The Physicists/Durrenmatt), two short films (Blank and Der Augenblick) and a number of new short plays. She is currently working on an environmental theatre project called Telling the Bees and will be directing a short film for the The New York Shakespeare Exchange (The Sonnet Project NYC) in late summer 2014.
Sina is the founder and artistic director of Lonesome George, a free flowing, international arts collective that sparks, shelters and spreads creative innovations and impulses. Lonesome George produces art that is economically, politically and socially relevant.
Gabrielle Sinclair (Playwright, Co-Creator) is a Southern playwright with roots in journalism and improvisational theatre. She moved to New York City to pursue her MFA in playwriting at the Actors Studio Drama School, and has since created work that has been featured in the city at the Theater at Dance New Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Playhouse, Galapagos Theatre, and the 133rd Street Arts Center. She has studied and performed with The Annoyance Theater in Chicago and iOWest in Los Angeles, as well as performed improv in festivals around the country. Gabrielle has developed new work as a fellow with America-In-Play, as a member of the Playwright-Directors Workshop at the Actors Studio, and as resident playwright for The Adventure Collective. Gabrielle is an associate member of the Dramatist's Guild.
