KENTUCKY CANTANA
January 22- February 8, 2016
Here
145 Sizth Avenue
New York, NY
About The Show:
In this multidisciplinary performance, actors and musicians share the stage to tell the story of a young actress who leaves her rural Kentucky home for New York, where she is raped in a parking lot. The play depicts a mother's emotional battle as her daughter leaves home, a father's passionate support for his child, and a young woman's determination to follow her dream. Her naive ambition collides with the struggle of an illegally immigrated Egyptian cab driver.
Kentucky Cantata explores a new and innovative style of performance practice that forges a deeper connection between the musical and theatrical arts. In this production, the actors and musicians collaborate as equals by sharing the stage and delivering a dialogue in which each voice is balanced. The text is never sung. The artists, instead, accentuate each line by allowing the musical material to interlace with the natural flow and rhythm of speech: the musical aesthetic complements the text. The production requires the performers to be engaged in each others' art forms. Like the players in a chamber music ensemble, the actors respond in their pace and articulation of the text to the musical material. The musicians in turn inhabit the stage as physical presences and perform in support of the actor. Together, the actor and musician create a unique dialogue that is visually and aurally enhanced and extends the artistic potential of both art forms.
To enhance the room for the audience’s imagination, the production will be played on a visually provocative, nonrealistic set designed by the installation artist Franklin Evans. In October 2014, we workshopped the performance at Emerging Artists Theatre New Works Festival, in the category Nontraditional Forms and are preparing for our January 2015 debut at HERE.
CREDITS
Written by Paul David Young
Directed by Kathy Gail MacGowan
With Dan Patrick Brady, Chris Funke(Guitar), Rebecca Kuehl (Flute), Tony Naumovski* (Kareem), Marta Reiman* (Dora), Hayley Treider* (Carolyn),
Music Composition and clarinet by Ashleé Miller
Set design by Franklin Evans
Costume Design by Scout Isensee
Lighting Design by Kia Rogers
Movement Consultant - Kristin Swiat
Stage Manager - Bethany Clark
* Actors Equity Association. Kentucky Cantata is being presented as an Actors Equity Showcase.
Press
Talkin' Broadway - Kentucky Cantata
Theatre Review by Howard Miller
Imagine you are the parent of an 18-year-old daughter, a recent high school graduate eager to leave her home in rural Kentucky and head to New York City to study acting. She has talent, a dream, the promise of a sofa to sleep upon, and an appointment with the Stella Adler Studio. And what if you reluctantly let her go alone to that place about which you have nightmares? And what if your very worst nightmare comes to pass?
This is the premise of playwright Paul David Young’s devastating new play Kentucky Cantata, now at the HERE Arts Center. It is about a brutal rape committed by an undocumented immigrant, a cab driver who picks up the young woman, Carolyn (Hayley Treider), at the airport and takes her to a deserted parking lot off the highway.
The rape, which occurs early on in the 70-minute play, is not directly depicted, but we are given first-hand accounts of it from Carolyn and from the rapist, Kareem (Tony Naumovski), who says of himself, “I am the one you cannot hear or see, the dark water that envelopes you.” Kareem has his own sad tale to tell, but, really, he should not go looking for sympathy from the audience. For the rest of the play, our hearts are entirely with Carolyn and her parents, Larry (Dan Patrick Brady) and Dora (Marta Reiman).
Kentucky Cantata is a brilliantly-composed play in which the metaphorical fourth wall separating the actors from the audience is raised and lowered at various times, so that the effect is one of alternately looking through the two ends of a telescope. Some of the story is deliberately distancing, with an expressionistic tone and narrated directly to the audience. At other times — especially in the scenes between Larry and Dora (exceptionally well acted by Mr. Brady and Ms. Reiman) — the play takes on a naturalistic tenor. Collectively, the two styles engage the heart and the mind throughout.
The play is rich with both imagery and down-to-earth detail. The family is not vaguely from Kentucky, but specifically from Monkeys Eyebrow, Kentucky (a real place). The route the driver takes from the airport is named, as is the business where the parking lot is located. Any New Yorker who has taken that well-traveled route will have no trouble envisioning the locale. The relationship between Larry and Dora is explored as well, and we can see that their marriage is as complicated as any, but that their ties to one another are unbreakable, even in the wake of the shattering events that unfold after one of them convinces the other to allow Carolyn to make the trip.
The performances are supported by a trio of talented musicians: Chris Funke on guitar, Rebecca Kuehl on flute, and Ashleé Miller, who composed the moody score, on clarinet. The musicians remain onstage and walk among the actors throughout the well-crafted production, directed by Kathy Gail MacGowan. Kentucky Cantata is a masterful work that is likely to stay with you for a long time after the final bows.
New York Innovative Theatre Awards nomination announcements, 20 July, 2015. Tony Naumovski for Outstanding Actor in a Feature Role.
Tony Naumovski was nominated for New York Innovative Theatre Awards Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role for Kentucky Cantata! Tony was one of only seven actors nominated out of the hundreds of shows and actors for 2015. Congratulations, Tony!
TALKBACKS AND RELATED EVENTS
RE:GENDER AND LEGAL MOMENTUM:
TWO TALKBACKS ON RAPE AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, AND TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3
Our fiscal sponsor Re:Gender, along with Legal Momentum, will host two talkbacks during our run. After the performances on Thursday, January 29, and Tuesday, February 3, Re:Gender and Legal Momentum will lead a public discussion immediately in the theater immediately after the end of the performance. These two leading advocacy organizations will address rape and violence against women, using the play as a springboard for the discussion.
For more information on Re:Gender (formerly National Council for Research on Women, click LINK.
For more information on Legal Momentum (formerly National Organization for Women), click LINK.
DR. VICTORIA SANFORD:
TALKBACK ON IMMIGRATION
SATURDAY, JANUARY 31
Dr. Victoria Sanford, a member of the doctoral faculty at City University of New York, Director, Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies, will lead a panel discussion on immigration on January 31, 2015, after the performance at HERE.
In addition, Dr. Sanford will host a public discussion on immigration at Lehman College on March 5, 2014.
COMPOSER ASHLÉE MILLER (SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1) AND VISUAL ARTIST FRANKLIN EVANS (SUNDAY, JANUARY 25):
TWO TALKBACKS ON COLLABORATION
*Kentucky Cantata* will reach the theater, music, and visual arts communities, especially those interested in experimental work, as well as the audience for interdisciplinary work, which includes the audience for art performance. We believe that the development process for Kentucky Cantata can serve as a model for other creative collaboration. Composer and clarinetist Ashlée Miller and visual artist Franklin Evans will hold talkbacks during the run on the collaborative process.
Franklin Evans: Visual Art and the Stage, after the performance on January 25, 2015
Ashleé Miller: Musical Collaboration, after the performance on February 1, 2015
Off Off Broadway, New Play
Runs through 2.8.15
HERE Arts Center, 145 6th Avenue
by Angel Lam on 1.27.15
BOTTOM LINE: A dark, poetic play about a young woman's dream to become an actor in New York City colliding with a mentally troubled illegal immigrant taxi driver.
Kentucky Cantata is a fictional story about a young woman named Carolyn from Monkeys Eyebrow, Kentucky (this is a real city). Her mother Dora (performed by Marta Reiman) has been worried and warns Carolyn (Hayley Treider) not to make the trip to the dangerous city. Dora dreams of her daughter working in a steady, stable occupation in rural Kentucky, but Carolyn is determined to leave. With the support of her father Larry (performed by Dan Patrick Brady), she sets out to New York City alone, not knowing that her life will soon come to a distressing halt.
The opening of the play describes a brutal rape scene, where the entire ensemble (including musicians) suggests the ominous event through body language, movements, and sounds. The scene sizzles with a disturbing sexual energy. Musicians intertwine between the actors, and the sounds/melodic lines punctuate the actors' speech. The score (performed by three musicians, composed by Ashleé Miller who also plays the clarinet) is sparse and hollow. Guitarist Chris Funke performs gracefully and with subtle charm in a scene interacting with Dora's sultry monologue.
The story unfolds non-chronologically, with a few long, bare monologues that depict detailed portraits of individual characters. Tony Naumovski does a great job with the difficult role of Kareem the taxi driver, a torn-hearted, lonesome visitor who is illegally staying in the country. As Carolyn, Hayley Treider performs well with choreographic movements as a young and distressed soul, moving between the physical world and the non-physical. Playwright Paul David Young's poetic writing moves comfortably between the psychological world of the characters (where a character speaks directly to the audience) and the traditional dialogue between a pair of actors at a specific time and place. The play is directed with nuanced details by Kathy Gail MacGowan, with movement consultation by Kristin Swiat and Marjorie Folkman.
(Kentucky Cantata plays at HERE Arts Center, 145 6th Avenue, through February 8, 2015. Performances are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7PM and Sundays at 2PM. Tickets are $18 and are available at here.org or by calling 212.352.3101.)
http://www.theasy.com/Reviews/2015/K/kentuckycantata.php
Bwaytunes.com
“And then there’s Kentucky Cantata, at Here Arts Center, which tells the story of a young actress from rural Kentucky who moves to NYC and is raped in a parking lot. Written by Paul David Young, whose ingenious play In the Summer Pavilion greatly impressed me Off-Broadway in 2012, Kentucky Cantata will feature onstage musicians and a nonstop musical score interacting with the actors, hoping to combine music and language in new ways.”
— Erik Haagensen, Bwaytunes.com