Auditions for Sitelines, II, September 7 - 22 AND for 'What's Goin' on?,' Generic Ensemble CompanySeptember 28 - 29, 2013

Sitelines, Action II: JOIN US  
We Want YOU--our audience, our extended ensemble, our supporters

As each "Sitelines" action must be in partnership, for this next action, we invite: anyone who has been or currently is affiliated with GenEnCo; anyone who wants to be affiliated with GenEnCo; anyone who supports or believes in our mission of "making the invisible visible through bold, socially relevant theatre" that centers marginalized bodies (particular queers, people of color, gender queers, immigrants and children of immigrants).

“Sitelines” is a series of short, site-specific, free and public performances devised and developed as an ensemble, which includes suggestions submitted by ensemble members and the public. Each Sitelines action will be roughly 15-30 minutes long, with 2-3 week/10-15 hour incubation/rehearsal period for each action. The core ensemble for each piece will be the Generic Ensemble Company, alongside guest performers/partners. We go to the audience, rather than waiting for the audience to come to us. The public is notified of the site and theme less than 48 hours in advance.

Requirements for participation in Sitelines, Action II:

• You believe in our mission
• You wish to perform in front of potentially countless strangers or actively support others doing so
• You attend the three rehearsals
• You like to share your ideas. You are open to listening to others. In short, you can "hold on tightly and let go lightly" and/or "move up, move back"
• You exercise respect and enthusiasm

Rehearsal Times: Saturday, September 7, 1pm-5pm: Bennu Coffee Shop; Sunday, September 15, 3pm-7pm: Place TBA; Sunday, September 22, 3pm-7pm: Place TBA
Performance dates, times, and places will be determined at the first rehearsal and announced to the public 48 hours in advance
This performance and the work of the Generic Ensemble Company is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.

Auditions We are seeking ensemble members for the next iteration of "What's Goin' On?' Become a member of a GenEnCo Production!Auditions: Sept 28 & 29, 2013 from 1-4 pm. Please email ktshorb@hotmail.com for time and location. Include in your email date preference, if any. The Generic Ensemble Company (GenEnCo) seeks performer-collaborators interested in experimental approaches to the work of Bertolt Brecht. Investigating racial representation, the 1970s, simultaneity, joyous chaos, and various modes of story-telling, we will devise an ensemble-based theatre piece for an evening-length premiere at the VORTEX in May 2014. We will build off the work we created for the May 2013 workshop version of our piece. We are looking for people who are: open to collaborative process; interested in progressive, critical, and politically-engaged conversations and actions; willing to work hard in politically, physically, and spiritually demanding ways; engaged in body-centered work; and members of communities that are historically marginalized or disenfranchised. People of color and gender queers are especially encouraged to audition. Experience in physical theatre, movement, mime, and/or ensemble-based work is a plus, but not required. Rehearsals begin on October 5 and will be once a week October through January, twice weekly January through March, and 3-4 times a week March-May.

We are also seeking interested designers and crew. Please email with your interest.
GenEnCo is an Austin-based theatre troupe that makes the invisible visible through bold, socially relevant, body-centered theatre.

Available: Tailored Public Performance Events, Generic Ensemble Company, Austin, TX

Sitelines--Site-specific Performance as Public Art! We are working toward a series of site-specific performances throughout Austin during the summer. If you want to see us perform in any space, please email us! We are also looking for: a theme you want explored, a thing to include in the piece, and potential partners in the process. Each performance will be roughly 30 minutes long, be developed over less than two-weeks, take place in a public place and be announced less than 24 hours ahead. 

TELL US WHAT YOU LIKE, DUDE! Send a message via our Facebook page. . . . and click here to join our mailing list.  Or click the logo to go to our blog.

WHAT'S GOING ON? (from Brecht's Good Person of Szechuan), Generic Ensemble Company at the Salvage Vanguard, May 3 - 11, 2013

Generic Ensemble Company in conjunction with the Lucky Chaos Theatre Project presents

What’s Goin’ On? (Workshop)

Friday-Saturday May 3-4; 10-11, 8 pm

Salvage Vanguard Theatre (2803 Manor Rd, Austin, TX 78722 - click for map).




 








 
What’s Goin’ On is a an ensemble-based, original performance reinterpreting Bertolt Brecht’s classic play, The Good Person of Szechwan, exploring binary notions of Good/Evil, Male/Female, Wealth/Poverty, Coercion/Consent and Artifice/Authenticity. Simultaneously critiquing Brecht’s treatment of gender, sexuality and orientalism in Szechwan while also drawing inspiration from it, this show examines the question: What does it mean to be virtuous in our current historical moment, when societal pressures and inequality continue to marginalize our bodies and lives?
Created from scratch by the performance ensemble, What’s Goin’ On? employs new text created by ensemble members layered with activist aesthetics, choreographed movement, indeterminate games, quotidian rituals made extraordinary, and simultaneous conflicting actions to present a dense and complex collage. Drawing material relevant to ensemble members’ daily lives, What’s Goin’ On? reflects the individual identities and personalities of each collaborator, while also reflecting The Generic Ensemble Company’s continued commitment to make the invisible visible through bold, socially relevant, body-centered theatre that showcases mostly-queer identified, mostly-people of color who are mostly women-identified.
This piece is an in-progress performance featuring: Morgan Robyn Collado, Kimberly Curette, Kirsche Dickson, Ashley Hicks, Anna McConnell, James McMaster, Julie Moore, Julián Padilla, Saray de Jesus Rosales, Wendy Vastine, Leng Wong, and kt shorb with support from Kimberly Alidio, Margaux Binder, Paige Binder, and Laura Khalil.
Tickets are sliding scale $5-10.
What’s Goin’ On? is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division.
 
(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: The Experiment, Generic Ensemble Company, May 4 - 13

The Generic Ensemble Company is thrilled to present its fifth production, The Experiment, an evening-length play asking the question, “What does it mean to be human?” Answers to this question are explored through the play’s surprising, complicated characters: a cyborg, an immortal mutant, and a singing, perverse scientist/lab assistant. The Experiment draws its structure from world’s fairs and vaudeville, creating a speculative future reminiscent of the turn of the 20th century. The play showcases performances by (queer) women of color investigating the relationship between modern human subjects-experiments, turn-of-the century freak shows, and anecdotal narratives of masculine/butch women.

The Experiment

by Ana-Maurine Lara & kt shorb
Directed by kt shorb
Choreography by Tonya Pennie

Fri-Sun, May 4-6; Thu-Sun, May 10-13. 8 p.m. all evenings

Thursday, May 10 & Sunday May 6 – “Pay What You Can” Night Tickets can be purchased in advance for $12 at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/239694
Or at the door for $15 (Cash, Check, Credit accepted)

Blue Theatre,916 Springdale Road (click for map)

Want to support this production? Donate to our IndieGoGo Campaign!

Featuring: Saray de Jesus Rosales as Lucy, Krysta Gonzales as Dolly, and Smalls McCoy as Dora; with dancing by Kimberly Caterino, Kaitlyn Jolly, and Kirsche Dickson.
Dramaturgy by Kimberly Alidio
Stage Management by Margaux Binder
Lighting Design by Paige Binder
Set Design by Joshua Baker and Ethan Stover
Costume and Prop Design by Camille Deprang and Love and Monsters
Poster Design by Armand Alidio

Tumblr: http://experimentbygenenco.tumblr.com

Background: The Generic Ensemble Company (GenEnCo) makes the invisible visible through bold, socially relevant, body-centered theatre. We are a team of artists devising and producing innovative adaptations and new work. As such, we strive to promote, foster, and engage performance, writing and ideas of/with people of color, queers, gender queers, women, working class people, immigrants and youth.We create work in dialogue, both within the company and with the community in which we work, treating performance as a critical intervention for change in our local and global communities.

Anne Bogart, Artistic Director of the SITI Company, and award-winning stage director has said, “I love what kt shorb does and how she does it, both onstage and off. Whatever she is up to is not to be missed.”

The Experiment was made possible by a generous grant from the Open Meadows Foundation. This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division believing an investment in the Arts is an investment in Austin’s future. Visit Austin at NowPlayingAustin.com

Video and Fundraiser: The Experiment by Generic Ensemble Company

A fundraiser at IndieGoGo for The Experiment, to be presented by the Generic Ensemble Company, May 4 - 13

Goal: $3000 by April 29

(click here or on IndieGoGo logo to go to donations page)

The Experiment by Ana-Maurine Lara & kt shorb

directed by kt shorb, choreography by Tonya Pennie
Featuring Saray de Jesus Rosales as Lucy, Krysta Gonzales as Dolly, and Smalls McCoy as Dora; with dancing by Kimberly Caterino, Kaitlyn Jolly, and Kirsche Dickson.

The Experiment is an evening-length play asking the question, “What does it mean to be human?” THE EXPERIMENT draws its structure from worlds fairs and vaudeville, creating a speculative future reminiscent of the turn of the 20th century. It incorporates theatrical dialogue between a cyborg and an immortal mutant; singing by a perverse scientist/lab attendant; and a silent dancing chorus. THE EXPERIMENT showcases performances by (queer) women of color investigating the relationship between modern human subjects experiments, turn-of-the century freak shows, and anecdotal narratives of masculine/butch women.

The Experiment showcases the work and stories of primarily queer-identified women of color. Austin needs more shows like ours. Our approach is physical and experimental--delving into aesthetics and rehearsal processes that are innovative and new both locally and nationally.

How We Will Use Your Funds Donations from this campaign will go directly toward paying creative collaborators, which include more than 15 creative people. Thanks to the City of Austin Cultural Contracts and a generous grant from the Open Meadows Foundation we have enough to cover some venue costs, materials, travel, and some of the honoraria. It is the Generic Ensemble Company's goal to make this work sustainable for all collaborators. To do so, we hope to compensate all collaborators as well as possible.

Why We Are So Cool The Generic Ensemble Company (GenEnCo) is one of the few troupes in Austin, and nationally, that showcases queer-identified women of color in physcially engaged, experimental, ensemble-based performance. The Experiment is the third collaboration between Lara and shorb, the previous two collaborations both garnering awards. This is the most recent project aimed at asking profound questions toward social change through rigorous, dangerous, and community-conscious theatre.

Other Ways You Can Help If you cannot help out with donating to our cause, we are looking for volunteers to run the house, be backstage, and distribute media material. Do you have a blog, radio show, or column? Talk to us and share our project with your audience!

Upcoming: The Experiment, staged reading by Generic Ensemble Company at theVortex Repertory, August 11

Found on-line:

Generic Ensemble Company

presents

The Experiment

an in-progress reading of the work

written by Ana-Maurine Lara and kt shorb

featuring: Krysta Gonzales, Saray De Jesus Rosales, and Julianna Wright

Thursday, August 11 at 7 p.m.

at The Vortex Repertory Company, 2307 Manor Rd. (click for map)

What does it mean to be human? The imaginations and desires of Dolly the Cyborg and Lucy the Mutant come together in a laboratory ruled over by Dora the Attendant. The Experiment explores historical legacies of colonialism, world's fairs, and scientific inquiry by drawing from personalized stories of queer and racialized resistance. This staged reading will showcase an in-progress script written by co-founders of the critically acclaimed Stamp Lab, Ana-Maurine Lara and kt shorb.

Donations encouraged, but none turned away for lack of funds.

Upcoming: Before This Was Texas, Generic Ensemble Company at Cohen New Works Festival, March 28

Received directly:

presents

Before This Was Texas

an in-progress showing
with kt shorb, Saray de Jesus Rosales, Krysta Gonzales, and Carole Metellus
With poetry by Kimberly Alidio
Monday, 2/28 at 8:15; Kayim Atrium (Trinity Street entrance to the Visual Arts Center in the Art Building on University of Texas at Austin campus)


Part of the Engaging Research component of The Cohen New Works Festival presented by the University Co-op.

Arts Reporting: Sarah Pressley Interviews kt shorb about Una Corda, Daily Texan, September 10

Found on-line at the Daily Texan:

One-woman play explores the rituals of cancer

Loss of relatives, friends because of cancer inspires woman to create play

By Sarah Pressley, Daily Texan Staff
Published: Friday, September 10, 2010

kt shorb portrays a woman who must deal with knowing a terminally ill loved one in “Una Corda” at The Blue Theatre on Thursday.

According to the American Cancer Society, one in three women and one in two men will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. K.T. Shorb, a local writer and performer, has known three such women.

This weekend, Shorb will debut her new one-woman play, “Una Corda,” which centers on the feelings she dealt with while watching her mother and two of her close friends as they battled cancer and ultimately succumbed to the disease.

Shorb actually considers “Una Corda” to be a ritual because it focuses on the daily repetitive trials of dealing with loved ones that have cancer.

Read more at Daily Texan on-line. . . .

Upcoming: Conjure, kt shorb and GenEnCo, Resistencia Bookstore, March 27

Received directly:

CONJURE: Calling up the Spirit of Struggle, Resistance, & Liberation

Saturday March 27, 9 p.m.
Resistencia Bookstore, 1801-A South First St., 416-8885
$7 dollar suggested donation.

We invite you to a forum for progressive artist/activists: a series of experiments in jazz music, spoken word, and theatre. This session will feature kt shorb & the Generic Ensemble Company (GenEnCo) with black improvisational music by the 3Collective.

Rooted in the tradition of improvisation, revolution, and blues, Conjure is a sovereign site for artistic/exploratory/spiritual collaboration, expression, and rejuvenation. Each jam session will highlight the “Afrological improvised music” of the 3Collective along with a featured spoken word performer, dancer, and filmmaker inspired by the jazz aesthetic.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Stuck on GeeDot, Generic Ensemble Company, January 22 - 30

Their choice of a company name offers a hint of the deadpan drollery of their approach to art and to the audience. In a town that whelps new theatre companies as if it were a puppy mill, these young women label themselves the "generic ensemble company."

Generic as in "common" and "absolutely typical" or as in "no longer under patent" or, reaching a bit, as in "an embodiment of an abstract ideal." And generic as in "gender," for their credo states in part, ". . . we strive to promote, foster, and engage performance, writing and ideas of/with people of color, queers, gender queers, women, working class people, immigrants and youth."

There's a bit of swagger in that but no arrogance toward the audience. Unless you count the moments when the two young actresses in their bowler hats and nondescript (generic) costumes peered at me with close-up, polite curiosity from several angles and pronounced themselves puzzled. "It must be a piece of modern art."

This thoughtful and creative re-interpretation of Beckett's Waiting for Godot takes place in a frame house on a dark street in east Austin near the intersection of Pleasant Valley and Webberville Road. The company painted the house number on a banner and hung it in the front yard so we wouldn't miss them completely in the darkness.

The public space was the living/dining room area and part of the kitchen space. Walls, windows, beams and bar were draped with blank, white sheets. As the 10 or so of us gathered, a woman wearing a bowler hat was sitting slumped forward in the middle of the playing space, for all the world like a Bolivian market woman who had forgotten her traditional costume. She re-animated as another, more alert and taller young woman, also in a bowler hat, joined her. We learned quickly that the shorter of the two was "Gohgoh"; the more animated was "DeeDee." The names directly mirror the nicknames given by Beckett to their prototypes Estragon and Vladimir.

Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .