Theaterlab Presents:
My Dinner with Morgan at Remedy Diner: Chapter 2
Yoshiko Chuma and The School of Hard Knocks
Yoshiko went to a party with tables full of chocolate. She ate all the chocolate. Food is something you cannot bring back.
Morgan Jenness joked that she had committed many acts of dramaturgy and had not been arrested yet.
The headquarters of the brain of the school of hard knocks is
Practiced by military and children alike.
It is the first snow of the season
We are not in a warzone.
The beloved figure of the downtown community, dramaturg Morgan Jenness was scheduled to be on stage with Yoshiko Chuma and Timothy Buckley as part of Christmas in Nickyland, an annual holiday celebration hosted by Nicky Paraiso at LaMaMa on December 21 and 22, 2024. However, Jenness – who nurtured the work of countless playwrights – passed away suddenly in November. In a touching personal tribute to her, Yoshiko Chuma and The School of Hard Knocks staged My Dinner with Morgan at Remedy Diner: Chapter 1 in the form of a dramatized Zoom meeting from the headquarters of The School of Hard Knocks, with performers Timothy Buckley, Yoshiko Chuma, and Melissa Flower.
Chapter 2, presented at Theaterlab, the memory deepens and weaves through dimensions. Yoshiko Chuma is joined on stage by Melissa Flower, Deniz Erkan Sancak, Rosa Wolff, Coco Karol, and Shoko Nagai. Timothy Buckley provides the visual memory.
PERFORMERS:
Yoshiko Chuma, Melissa Flower, Deniz Erkan Sancak, Rosa Wolff, Coco Karol, Shoko Nagai, and Yang Sun
Visual design by Timothy Buckley
Performance Date/Time:
Thu, Jan 9, 2025, 7:30 pm
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Tickets:
General Admission: $25
Cutting-edge choreographer, director, instigator, movement explorer, and performer Yoshiko Chuma continues a lifetime obsession with the mythology of danger. Landing in New York in 1976, Chuma settled in lower Manhattan, then labeled a dangerous place. Devoid of the culture and inflation you see now, Yoshiko managed to begin her career in lower Manhattan, spanning an impressive 45-year career to date. Creating over 100’s productions, including company works, commissions, and site-specific events, Chuma constantly challenges the notion of performance for both audience and participants. Crossing physical and metaphorical borders, Chuma has placed herself in danger’s way for the sake of art. She has crossed the border between East and Central Europe in the early 80s to 90s, the border to Palestine for over 10 years since 2005, the border between Albania and Kosovo in 2007, the border to Afghanistan in 2014, and the border to Maracaibo, Venezuela in 2014, among many more. Forbidden realms for some but centers of creation for Chuma, these visits challenge preconceived ideas of danger and have brought about some of the most beautiful experiences. Chuma intentionally confuses documentation with history, recreating segments from her documented events. She never gives herself boundaries or lets them interfere with her work. Making art is not her intention at all; all her efforts are oriented toward giving performances that have never been seen before. Having received no formal dance training, she pursues spontaneous and experimental techniques and methods of construction. Her creative process begins with a single movement (dance) or abstract image conveyed to her filmmaking pattern. She once presented a crumpled piece of drawing to her team and requested a single movement that expressed similar qualities. Project after project, year after year, she upends conventional notions of dance and disrupts accepted characteristics of performance. Her performances not only stand apart from the genealogy of dance but also resist definition and confound interpretation – endless peripheral borders.
COVID-19 policy: In guidance with the city and state COVID-19 policies, we will no longer be requiring masks, but strongly recommend them.