Tag Archives: Brad Culver

JESSE BONNELL — PARADISE ISLAND

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The texts of Richard Foreman—founder of The Ontological-Hysterical Theater—have long been a defining influence on the work of performance artist, director, and Poor Dog Group co-founder Jesse Bonnell.*

As part of Week Three of Redcat’s NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL 2019, Bonnell presents PARADISE ISLAND, “a new work of theater that compresses a decade of writing into an evening-long performance. We are giving new life back into what could soon be forgotten texts of downtown loft-era performance throughout the ’70s.”

Based on Foreman’s writings from 1973 to 1983, PARADISE ISLAND is “part retrospective, part future-bending reinvention, [bringing] new life to one of America’s most influential experimental artists.”*

Also on the bill at Redcat: Austyn Rich’s BL**DY SPAGHETTI, and Source Material’s new music-theater work A THOUSAND TONGUES, performed by Nini Julia Bang and directed by Samantha Shay.

NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL 2019—WEEK THREE

Thursday through Saturday, August 8, 9, and 10.

All shows at 8:30 pm.

Redcat

631 West 2nd Street, downtown Los Angeles.

Top: Jesse Bonnell. Jesse Bonnell, Paradise Island, August 8, 2019, Redcat, from top: Brad Culver (foreground left); SarahJeen François (left) and Gabriella Rhodeen (2); Alex Barlas (left) and Culver; Pricilla Jin Chung (2); Barlas (left), François, Chung, and Rhodeen; Barlas and Rhodeen; Culver (3); performance; François; Rhodeen and Chung. Performance photographs by Vanessa Crocini (14). Images courtesy and © the photographers, the artists and performers, and Redcat.

POOR DOG GROUP THERAPY

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In April 2015, various members of Poor Dog Group began regular sessions with a licensed therapist, working through some of the issues and questions that invariably come up during the span of a ten-year collaboration.

Sixteen hours of tapes from the sessions—which also covered marriage, divorce, blowups, and alcoholism—have been used to create GROUP THERAPY, a performance piece utilizing different sets of audio prompts each night, changing with each show.

Group members scheduled for the four-performance run at UCLA this week include Jonny Ahmanson, Jesse Bonnell, Brad Culver, Andrew Gilbert, Adam Haas Hunter, Jesse Saler, and Cat Ventura Ahmanson.

POOR DOG GROUP—GROUP THERAPY

Thursday through Saturday, January 11, 12, and 13, at 8 pm.

Saturday, January 13, at 3 pm.

Little Theater at MacGowan Hall, UCLA

245 Charles E Young Drive East, Los Angeles.

Poor Dog Group, Group Therapy, 2017. Image credit: Poor Dog Group and CAP UCLA.

POOR DOG GROUP OPEN STUDIO

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POOR DOG GROUP—acclaimed for its experimental, no-holds-barred approach to performance art—welcomes you to an Open Studio event at the Bootleg Theater.

Their new work-in-progress GROUP THERAPY “draws on 16 hours of audio recordings from the group’s actual therapy with a licensed professional to probe the inner workings of long-term collaboration.”

GROUP THERAPY was commissioned by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA) and created as part of its Artists-in-Residence program, with additional residency support from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Headlands Center for the Arts.

The evening at the Bootleg is co-presented with Los Angeles Performance Practice.

 

POOR DOG GROUP, GROUP THERAPY, Wednesday, April 26 at 7 pm. Free.

BOOTLEG THEATER, 2220 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles.

poordoggroup.org

bootlegtheater.org

losangelesperformancepractice.org

Brad Culver in Dionysia by Poor Dog Group (EMPAC, 2011; a Getty Villa incarnation earlier the same year was titled Satyr Atlas). Conceived, written, and directed by Jesse Bonnell. Image credit: Poor Dog Group

Brad Culver in Dionysia by Poor Dog Group (EMPAC, 2011; a Getty Villa incarnation earlier the same year was titled Satyr Atlas). Conceived, written, and directed by Jesse Bonnell.
Image credit: Poor Dog Group