THE CHERRY BOWL, adapted from Chekhov by Ben Schave, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, November 8 - 23, 2013

November 8–23, 2013

Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.
$15 General Admission, $8 Students and Seniors; Thursdays Pay-What-You-Wish

tickets available via Eventbrite

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road, Austin, TX 78722 (click for map)

A commedia-inspired adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard by Ben Schave, one of Austin’s preeminent physical comedians. Chekhov’s masterpiece, boiled down to a whole mess of clowning fun.

No dialogue; 100% Chekhov; A good time for all ages

Featuring Adrianne Shown, Meghan Morongova, Kerri Lendo, Jessica Arjet, Kelly Hasandras, Zac Carr, Austin Alexander, Nate Dunaway, John Cook, Michael Jastroch, Joey Hood, Dave Alley

Stage Manager: Keith Sechrest; Set: Leslie Turner; Sound: Michael Joplin; Costumes: Courtney Hopkin; Lights: Zac Crofford'; Technical direction: Clifton Highfield; Assistant TD: Ash Nunley

Profile by participating artist Dr. David Glen Robinson: Art Show/Model Show, Paper Chairs at the Off-Shoot, August 29 - September 14, 2013

(www.paperchairs.com)

by Dr. David Glen Robinson


A Participating Artist's Impressions

The artists stood at easels or sat at drawing tables in the well of the theatre, downstage center, or more aptly, house center. The stage was multilevel, rising before us and offering sightlines better than in most figurative art workshops. The lighting on the models was also much better than in any workshop. My choice of oil on canvas as the medium ensured no relaxation on my part. I sweated and labored continually, and my brushes and charcoals hummed throughout the show; I panted through the entire five-minute break the artists were given in the middle of the performance. But my earnest efforts had actually begun before the show, with hauling four loads of art equipment and supplies from my pickup into the theatre. And I thought I had a minimal setup! Lesson: Oil painting never allows a minimal setup.

I was a guest artist for one evening performance of Paper Chairs’ Art Show/Model Show at the Offshoot Theatre in East Austin, where creativity seemsy always to find new and brilliant expression. This show simulated in its setting an art class or workshop, where artists actually strive for, well, something in the realm of figurative art. The workshop setting gave rise to the need for working artists in the show, and so I signed up. But it was the art models/actors who controlled the action and gave all the lines and spoke all the texts in the show. The only artists who spoke were those who did so in projected video interviews on a screen above the stage.

(photo from Paper Chairs)

The art models, you may surmise, showed some attitude, i.e., ‘tude, and with good reason. Artists and art models exist in an archetypical relationship. They have left their traces on Paleolithic cave walls and in every succeeding stage of world art since that time, with the possible exceptions of Hebraic and Islamic art. In all those eras, expression and communication were the province of the artists, while the fully exposed models remained silent, ultimately and ironically invisible in terms of their identities, female or male. The model merely provided a useful form for the visual telling of allegories and mythic adventures. The exception of portrait art proves the rule: there, the dominance of the artist fell away when painting a fully empowered and clothed king, queen or aristocrat as portrait subject, not model. The portrait titles are the names of those depicted.

The models who created Art Show/Model Show raged against all of that. They spoke and the artists remained silent. Art instruction videos contextualized their world, and then the models offered commentary on it all, never more hilariously than when model Kelli Bland walked among the artists in faux art teacher mode giving ironic, almost snide, instructions in how to draw body parts, mostly by making impersonal and insensitive comments about “the model.” (“You can’t see that bone on that model, but it is there under all her fat.”) All models have heard such brutally clinical and basically rude comments in the course of their modeling careers.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Video Promo: Art Show Model Show by Paper Chairs at the Off-Shoot, August 29 - September 14, 2013

paper chairs enthusiastically presents

ART SHOW/MODEL SHOW

a play about art modeling and the creative/human questions found in a figurative drawing session

The show will run at
The Off Shoot. 2211 Hidalgo Street.
Thurs, Fri, and; Sat: Aug 29- Sept 14th
(all shows at 8pm &doors open at 7:30pm.)
Special Sunday Benefit Performance Sept 8th.
(must be 18+ to attend. There will be nudity.) 

 
Tickets on sliding scale, $15-$30 plus fees via






or for more details please see www.paperchairs.com

ART SHOW/MODEL SHOW is a multi-media performance that has been in development over the past year, earning a listing as one of the “Six stops to make your 2012 East Austin Studio Tour extra special” from Austin Chronicle’s Robert Faires and running a workshop performance in FronteraFest’s Mi Casa es su Teatro. Devised by performers who work as models in Austin’s visual arts community, this collaborative performance is also an exploration in documentary theatre, with interviews of local artists and models as well as live drawing and painting. It will also include a gallery show, curated by the Austin artists who hire these models.

ART SHOW/MODEL SHOW aspires to be: an honest representation of this (usually) very private world, a life drawing session, a living gallery, an exercise in perspective and time, a conversation about the purpose of art in society, and an intimate look at the singular relationship between the artist and model in the creative process. 

Devised by: Kelli Bland, Meghan Morongova, Michelle Keffer, Jorge Sermini and Jen Brown Directed by: Kelli Bland, Meghan Morongova Assistant Director: Rachel Dendy Technical Director/Design By: Steven Shirey Video by: Eric Graham, Tag Simler, Eliot Haynes Features interviews and work of: Jennifer Balkan, Eve Larson, Dave Larson, Chris Chappell, David Ohlerking, Karen Maness, Matt Stavsrowsky, Pablo Taboada, George Anderson, Steve Dubov, Heather Tolleson, and more!

ART SHOW/MODEL SHOW, Paper Chairs at the Off-Shoot, August 29 - September 14, 2013

[click logo above to visit paper chairs on Facebook; click HERE for website -- www.paperchairs.com]

presents
Art Show/Model Show

August 29 - September 14
at the The Off-Shoot, 2211-A Hidalgo Street, near E. 7th Street and Robert Martinez (behind Joe's Bakery) 

paper chairs’ upcoming multi-media performance that will explore the usually private experience of art-modeling and the human & artistic queries that are encountered through the discipline. Created by Kelli Bland, Meghan Morongova, Michelle Keffer, Jorge Sermini and Jen Brown, ART SHOW/MODEL SHOW is based on their experiences as art models as well as interviews with local visual artists and other art models in the Austin community.

ART SHOW/MODEL SHOW aspires to be these things: an experiment in documentary theatre, a living art gallery, a life drawing session, a voyeuristic adventure, an exploration of figurative art in the context of both art history and contemporary times, an honest conversation on body image, and an intimate look at the relationship between the artist and inspiration in the creative process. This collaborative performance will include live drawing and painting by local Austin artists.

paper chairs is excited to present this new devised work at at the OffShoot Aug. 29 through September 14th. Stay tuned to paper chairs’ Facebook and website for more details as we get closer to the production! 

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)