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The Manhattan Arts Centerpresents

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THE PIECESburst into fames, laugh like children

written and perormed by the whole company

under the infuence o Peter Handke

directed by the directing team

Playing with Fire

written and perormed by Amanda, Emma, Louisa, Katie, Matthew

under the infuence o Laurie Carlos

directed by Chad & Hunter

Pandoras Balls, or the Contemplation o Emotion Insideand Outside o the Box

written and perormed by Alex, Alice, DaMerius, Lydia, Macy

under the infuence o Bertolt Brecht

directed by Chad & Laura

The Mortals

written and perormed by Bailey, Cherokee, Dakota, Miranda

under the infuence o Harry Kondoleon

directed by Gwethalyn & Hunter

INTERMISSION

mighty BOOTS, & cats

written and perormed by Cecilia, Jakob, Joy, Lauren, Rianunder the infuence o Tristan Tzara & the Dadaists

directed by Gwethalyn & Jim

Prometheus Bound

written and perormed by Annie, Faith, Kayla, Kendra, Mary

under the infuence o Jerzy Grotowski

directed by Flinn & Gwethalyn

A Little Viscera

written and perormed by the whole company

under the infuence o Jean Cocteau

directed by the directing team

MXTW STAFFdirector

Gwethalyn Williams

producerJim Hamilton

assistant directorsAshley Flinn

Jim Hamilton

Chad HodgeLaura Reagan

Hunter Rose

lights + soundHannah Atchison

Avery Fowles

Mercedes Santiago

lighting consultantTyler Corsault

graphic design

Ashley Flinn

photographyAshley Flinn

marketingMegan Clark

Ashley Flinn

THE COMPANYMathew Adames

Jakob Borgen

Alex Brase

Alice Davidson

Katie Dixon

Lauren Fischer

DaMerius Ford

Louisa Friedrich

Emma Galitzer

Miranda HairgroveCherokee Hayden

Faith Janicki

Macy Lanceta

Bailey London

Mary Matthews

Kayla McClintock

Lydia Parish

Amanda Pettay

Cecilia Potts-Moore

Dakota Santiago

Anneliese Spence

Joy Spickelmier

Kendra TruittRian Winter

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bird returns every morning to devour the liver. Prometheus, though he knowsthe tortuous uture that awaits him, accepts his ate, and does not reveal theprophecy to Zeus.

In Aeschylus Prometheus Bound, while Prometheus is on the rock Io, who hasbeen turned into a cow by Zeus and set upon by gadies by Hera so that she ischased all over the world, happens by. Prometheus tells Io o where she must goto nally get relie rom her tortures and tells her that the many places she passesthrough on her journey or relie will be named ater her.

OUR INFLUENCESPeter Handke: Austrian, 1949-presentHandkes Sprechstckeocus more on language and sound than on the stage

picture. They are largely non-narrative and lack dened characters. Instead,

language is presented in a owing ormat using simple and powerul sentences.

As audiences listen to the sentences as intently as Handke intends (through his

experiments in sound), what appear initially to be simple explorations o grammar

or mere sound, oten become very pointed statements about the nature o society

and reality. In burst into ames, laugh like children, we use Handkes techniques

to explore our own relation to the work we have done and to allow you to explore

your relation to your own expectations and to our actual work.

Laurie Carlos: American, 1949-presentIn the play White Chocolate or My Father, Carlos explores the diasporic history

between her great-great grandmother who was buried neck high on the shores o

Arica to her mother in America, who was incapable o helping her as a result o the

same colonization and violence. In her play she uses rhythm, song, and gestures to

give voice to the childhood trauma she experienced as a result o these perpetuated

cycles o violence. Though Carlos play is autobiographical, the students in the

Carlos group drew rom the story o Prometheus and Pandora to explore what kinds

o lessons we may be taught as children about curiosity and helping one another

that, in their own way, perpetuate a orm o violence.

Bertolt Brecht: German, 1889-1956There are ew areas o modern theatrical culture that have not elt the impact

or inuence o Brechts ideas and practices. Brecht tried to always provoke his

audience to think critically, instead o identiying with emotions or characters on

stage. One o Brechts most important principles was the Verremdungsefekt,

deamiliarization eect, stripping the event o its sel-evident, amiliar, obvious

quality and creating a sense o astonishment and curiosity. This piece takes ater

The Elephant Cal, in that it eatures a arcical judicial system in which power plays

overcome logic.

a git: beauty, grace, ne clothes;but also unquenchable curiosity anddeceitulness, so she would always betrouble or man. The gods named herPandora, or git to all. Zeus oeredPandora to Epimetheus as a wie, andEpimetheus accepted her, despitePrometheus warning to not accept anygits rom Zeus. The gods also gaveto Epimetheus and Pandora a large jar(later mistranslated as box), and askedthem to hold onto it or saekeeping.Beore long, Pandora heard whisperscoming rom the jar. One day, when shecould resist her gods-given curiosity nolonger, she opened the jar, and out othe jar escaped Sickness, Pain, Suering,and all the bad things which haveplagued mankind ever since. Only onething remained in the jar by the time shemanaged to put the lid back on: Hope.Ever since, man has had to toil or breadto survive and suers the duration o histime on earth.

In some versions o the story, manbecomes increasingly evil with eachgeneration and Zeus chooses to destroyall mankind in a ood. Only Pyrrah(Prometheus daughter) and Decucalion

(Epimetheus son) survive the ood.They win the avor o Zeus becausethey are pious, and thereore survive torepopulate the earth.

For Prometheus punishment, Zeusorders Hephaestus to bind him to arock. While bound, Prometheus revealsthat he has seen Zeuss successor. Zeussends Hermes to demand Prometheusreveal the mother o the son who willoverthrow him. However, Prometheusreuses, and in retaliation Zeus sends abird o prey (a vulture or eagle dependingon the version) to eat Prometheus liver.Since Prometheus is an immortal, hisliver regrows during the night, and the

OUR STORYIn Greek mythology, it has been writtenthat the brother Titans Prometheus,orethought, and Epimetheus,aterthought, were tasked withcreating all the creatures on the Earth.Epimetheus rashly gave all the best traitsto the other animals, so when the timecame to create man, having no othergits let, Prometheus ormed him romclay in the image o the gods.

There are two stories concerningPrometheus trickery o Zeus and

the wrath that ollowed. In the earlydays, man was immortal and all wasprovided or man by the gods. However,Prometheus thought man, being madein the image o the gods, deserved tohave the power o re, which the godsselshly kept or themselves. Prometheusplaced re in a ennel stalk, hid it in hisbosom, and took it to man. Zeus soonperceived an unusual light on the Earthand discovered the thet. In someversions, Prometheus thet o resymbolizes his gits o learning,mathematics, and technology.

The second trick occurred during therst sacrice to the gods. Prometheus

slaughtered an ox and made two dierentoerings. One contained all the best cuts,hidden under skin and entrails. The otherwas all the bones and other unsavorybits, but was wrapped in glisteningat. He then asked Zeus which one hepreerred and Zeus chose the portionthat looked best: the one covered withat. Thereater, only bones and at wereburned on altars dedicated to Zeus, andman kept the better portions.

Ater being tricked twice, Zeus vowed topunish both mankind and Prometheus.As mankinds punishment, Zeusordered all the gods to create therst woman. Each god also gave her

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Harry Kondoleon: American, 1955-1994His rst work, The Brides, on which this group modeled their piece, is a series o

monologue-like vignettes that explore the myth o airy tale love and desire, and

the disillusionment that reality brings to seemingly happy endings. Kondoleon

uses sparse, but poetic and lyrical language. The story is told rom a single

perspective, but the speaker imagines what the other characters in the story might

have to say, interpreting those characters behavior through their own experience.

The scenes are not presented in chronological order, but are recalled in an order

inuenced by the emotions o the speaker, like an internal thought process. This

group chose to ocus on the eects o Zeuss punishments on the mortals who

unknowingly incurred his wrath by accepting Prometheus git o re, orever

changing their existence on earth.

Tristan Tzara (Dadaist): Romanian/French, 1896-1963In the wake o the devastating violence o WWI, the Dadaists elt all logic had let the worldand that bougeois nationalism and colonialism was to blame. The ar t establishment

at the time was viewed as being complicit in this violence, and so the Dadaists

wanted to start anew. They rejected logic and rationality, embracing disorder and

chaos as the nature o the world. They aimed to demystiy the role o the artist

by suggesting that anyone can create art and anything can be art. Perormances

purposely didnt include a clear meaning or message and were oten created using

chance practices. The Dadaists aimed to provoke their audiences by undermining

the very notion o what can be considered art.

Jerzy Grotowski: Polish, 1933-1999The essence o theatre, according to Grotowski, is the actor-spectator relationship

o perceptual, direct, live communication. He thought o the intimate revelations o

the actor to be something like a git rom the actor to the audience, and spoke o his

actors burning like ames in ront o an audience o witnesses. Grotowski worked

with classic texts, paring them down to only what was essential, ending up with justenough o the plot and characters rom a given story to help the audience recognize

what they are witnessing. Actors grimacing their aces into xed masks is one o

the many techniques this group borrowed rom Grotowski. This group imagined

Prometheus in his state o being bound, and put together lines taken rom our source

texts, to explore both his deance o his ate during his daytime torture and his

contemplation o what led to his state each night as he awaits the coming o morning.

Jean Cocteau: French, 1889-1963This piece is inuenced by Cocteaus early scenario or the stage, The Wedding

on the Eifel Tower, in which Cocteau uses theater to rejuvenate the mundane by

heightening the truth o the everyday to absurd ends. He presents a surreal world

where there is no clear boundary between reality and illusion and there is a schism

between narration and action wherein the perormers speaking the characters lines

are not the perormers who are acting out the characters actions. Cocteau uses this

dream logic to subvert both storytelling conventions and the accepted social order

in an outrageous comedic manner.

UNDERWRITERSAnonymous

Tom & Mary Elizabeth Atwood

Enid & Lew Cocke

Jim & Sharon Coman

Olivia Collins

John & Judy Exdell

Melisa & Seth Galitzer

Steven & Jan Galitzer

Jan & Fred Gibbs

Barbara & Dick Hayter

Bill & Faye Kennedy

Mark & Ann Knackendoel

Robert & Janet Kruh

David Margolies

& Shiela Hochhauser

Deborah Murray & Jerome Dees

Debbie Nuss & Brad Fenwick

The Oviatt Family

Sharon & Charles Reagan

Rich & Penny Senten

Gabrielle Thompson

& Larry WeaverPatricia Weisenburger

The Trust Company o Manhattan

SPECIAL THANKSTravis Hopkins

John Utho

Cim Roesener

Carol Habermeier

Charlie Sutterlin

Trevor Bashaw

Felix Amanor-Boadu

SPONSORSSandy Chastan

Sheldon Edelman

Jane Gibson

Varneys Book Store

SUPPORTERSPhil & Dawn Anderson

Sally BaileyMichael Donnelly

& Jackie MacDonald

Gene Ernst

Enell Foerster

Steven & Cheri Graham

Gene & Sue Klingler

John & Karen McCulloh

Jan & Maureen Olewnik

Martha & Dick Seaton

Karen Mestrovich Seay

& David SeayRix & Phyllis Shanline

George & Julie Strecker

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The Wonderul Staf o theManhattan Arts Centerexecutive director: Penny Senten

education + marketing director: Kim Belanger

ofce manager: Sandy Mead

The Manhattan Arts Center isunded in part by the City o

Manhattan and Friends o MAC.

Smoke FreeWheelchair Accessible

MAC Dance Attack IISaturday, July 27 7:30 pm

Back or its second year. Experience a variety o dance and

music styles perormed and choreographed by local talent.

Tickets: Adult $10; Military/Student/Child $5

2nd Annual One Act Play FestivalAugust 16 & 17 7:30pm

Rated PG-13: Not recommended or children

Tickets: Adult $10; Military/Student $5

Festival Director: Brent Sigman

Blind Date by Samara Siskind directed by Randy Rhoten

At Home by Conrad Bromberg directed by Jacob BeldenTheyre My People Too by Shel Edelman directed by Rachel Braddy

H.I.M. - written and directed by Amy Tichy

Untitled by Eric Spears, directed by BeckiJo Neill

or more inormation please visit manhattanarts.org