Productions
Rhinoceros (2014)
theater production
One Thousand and One Nights in "America" (2014)
Drifting Off (2015)
bass, electronics, and video
Rhinoceros (2014)
Rhinoceros is director Robert Wilson's adaptation of the renowned absurdist comedy of Romanian playwright Eugène Ionescu. The production was mounted in Craiova, Romania at the invitation of the Teatrul National "Marin Sorescu." As Ionescu spent much of his life in France, writing primarily in French, this staging marked a unique occasion for his work to be performed in his native tongue and country.
Since its premiere, Rhinoceros has been preformed at the Platanov Arts Festival in Voronezh, Russia, at the Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and live screened at the Grand Cinema in Bucharest, Romania during the Festivalul Național de Teatru.
Rhinoceros
adapted from a play by Eugène Ionescu
directed by Robert Wilson
associate directors: Tillman Hecker and Charles Chemin
assistant director: Bobi Pricop
music supervisor / composer: Adam Lenz
sound designer: Daniel Dragoescu
lighting designer: AJ Weissbard and John Torres
costume designer: Jacques Reynaud
assistant costume designer: Adriana Dinulescu
dramaturgy: Konrad Kuhn
video projections: Tomek Jeziorski
scenographer: Adrian Damian
stage manager: Gina Calinoiu
Monsters of Grace II is the first radio play by avant-garde theater director and designer Robert Wilson. The production takes its name from the 1998 multimedia opera collaboration with composer Philip Glass and was developed during a concept workshop at The Watermill Center in the summer of 2013.
Monsters of Grace II is structured as a set of themes and variations that sit in counterpoint within a four act form. It draws on texts from antiquity, the the early Modern Age, as well as contemporary texts: spanning works from Lucretius and Gertrude Stein to Ezra Pound and Christopher Knowles. As the texts begin to disintegrate and collide, we are left to rethink the development, function, and meaning of language itself. The shear power of language is juxtaposed with its innate limitations, opening a window for us to consider the human condition.
Monsters of Grace II
written and directed by Robert Wilson
production director: Ekkehard Skoruppa
music and sound composition: Dom Bouffard and Adam Lenz
speakers: Isabelle Huppert, Angela Winkler, Jürgen Holtz, Anna Graenzer, and Christopher Knowles.
Recordings were also made with Lady GaGa, Isabella Rossellini, and Inge Keller for the production.
dramaturgy: Iris Drögekamp and Peter Liermann
co-director: Tilman Hecker
producers: SWR2, hr2 Kultur, and the Karlsruhe State
University of Arts and Design
Sponsored by the German Federal Cultural Foundation
Monsters of Grace II (2013)
One Thousand and One Nights in "America" is a performance installation developed during the Watermill International Summer Program in Water Mill, NY. The work presents a tongue and cheek examination of domestic life and American pop culture. Built in 12 scenes, each is accompanied by a wide range of jazz, funk, and big band music from the 1950s through the 1970s.
direction by Gintare Minelgaite and Baboo Liao
music supervision by Adam Lenz
lighting design by Rui Monteiro
mask design by Nectarios Dionysatos
performed by Walter Hanna and Kayije Kagame
Premiered at the 21st Annual Watermill Center Summer Benefit One Thousand Nights and One Night: Sleepless Nights of Sheherazade on July 26, 2014 at The Watermill Center in Water Mill, NY.
One Thousand and One Nights in "America" (2014)
a piece created by Dimitris Papaioannou
by invitation of Robert Wilson
during a workshop at The Watermill Center
presented as part of “Discover Watermill Day”
on 10 August 2014
creative team
Pavlina Andriopoulou and Michael Theophanous
performed by
Pavlina Andriopoulou, Nataliya Andrukhnenko, Alessandra Armenise, Kayije Kagame, Gladstone Makhib, Tristan Mengin, Johann Mittman, Maria Nefpliotou, Brian O'Mahoney, Evangelia Randou, Helena Schindler, Kalliopi Simou, Emil Trybalski
music by
K.Bhta and Max Richter
music consultant
Adam Lenz
costumes designed in collaboration with
Mette Sterre
The Garden (2014)
Drifting off is a multimedia work for bass, electronics, and video projection developed with composer Ken Steen, video artist Gene Gort, and bassist Robert Black. The music is derived from the natural harmonics found on the string bass and sits atop a wash of sound created from manipulated recordings of previous performances of the bass part. The video presents a slowly drifting cloud that gently fades in and out of view in real time with each note performed by the bassist. All of the electronics components are executed with a custom designed Max/MSP interface which is used to trigger the prerecorded sound files, connect the video fades to the amplitude of the bass, and initiate a handover between the original video and the glitch effect video.
Ken Steen, composer
Gene Gort, video artist
Robert Black, bassist
Adam Lenz, programer and technician
Drifting Off (2015)
FLYING POINT is multimedia project focusing on the lives of the Shinnecock Native Americans of Long Island. The rich culture and history of the Shinnecock people is not a subject that has had much light in modern history books and it is a rare occurrence to hear first hand accounts of the tribe's living oral history. The project seeks to document the experiences and modern life on the reservation through video documentation of sites of historical importance, community events, and visits to the homes of members of the Shinnecock Nation.
The collected material was presented in a multimedia installation serving as a living portrait of the contemporary Shinnecock community. Excerpts from the interviews collected during the residency were displayed on video monitors and through video projections across The Watermill Center. This deconstructed approach allows for a greater sense of audience-driven discovery, inviting audience members to develop a connection with the stories and places that have shaped the Shinnecock Nation. Following the completion of the residency, the video and audio collected during the interviews will be housed in the archives of the Shinnecock Nation Cultural Center and Museum to serve as an account of the changing life on the reservation for future members of the Shinnecock Nation.
Flying Point was developed during a residence at The Watermill Center with Tomek Jeziorski (Poland), Shane Weeks (Shinnecock Nation), and Karolina Zielińska (Poland) and first presented on June 13, 2015 at The Watermill Center in Water Mill, NY.
Flying Point (2015)
direction by Gintare Minelgaite
music by Adam Lenz
stage design by Oskaras Gudas
cinematography by Gili Azgad
lighting concept by Rui Monteiro
assistance by Kotryna Calova and Paulius Kairevičius
festival curation by Bar Yerushalmi
cultural attaché Elena Keidosiute
performed by Marijus Mažūnas. Ričardas Myka, Ran Oz, Boniel Ofri, Naama Manor, and Noam Marom
Premiered October 31, 2018 during the Print Screen Festival at Nissan Nativ Acting Studio in Tel Aviv, Israel. Additional performances also took place at the Petach Tikva Museum of Art in Petach Tikva, Israel on November 8, 2018.
Electric Dreams (2018)
