What a gift it was! I was charged with the seemingly impossible task of creating a play in collaboration with a 10 community members of a social justice organization who had no prior theatre experience, with varying working levels of English, and the play had to be “artistically excellent.” I think at about the midway point of the creative process I wanted to tear all my hair out, and I was seriously afraid of having a heart attack on a daily basis. But in the end it was a truly beautiful experience for me and the performers and their community.

More great photos here and here.

Though it’s not technically billed as a knife project, writer/director Aya Ogawa and designer Jeanette Yew are collaborating with Queens-based Nepali advocacy group Adhikaar to create a new piece commissioned by The Foundry Theatre.

Yatra Samudra Samma: Journey to the Ocean is an invented festival for the future in which past stories of injustice and violence unfold to their imagined resolutions. Ritual, song and dance collide with technology in this bilingual performance that posits hope for equity and equality in the community that is New York.

Here is a rehearsal clip!

Cleaning Dance Rehearsal 4/16/2011 from Jeanette Yew on Vimeo.

April 30 + May 1, 2011 at 4:00pm

Free tickets become available at 2:00 pm at the Rubin Museum of Art admissions desk (Four tickets maximum per person, no advance reservations)

Finally ripped it — from Performance Mix Festival, February 2009, Joyce Soho.

Enjoy!

Artifact @ Performance Mix Festival from Aya Ogawa on Vimeo.

Apologies for the long delay.

Thanks first to those who made it out to the PERFORMANCE MIX Festival!  It was great fun all around, and I will get around to posting a video of it soon.

Exciting announcement:  oph3lia has been nominated for a 2008 New York Innovative Theater Award for Best Ensemble!  Awards ceremony will take place on Septmber 21, 2009 — so stay tuned!  If you’d like to cast your vote for the show, visit this link!

Here’s a clip from a run-through at our last ARTIFACT rehearsal.

artifact rehearsal run thru from Aya Ogawa on Vimeo.

knife inc. will present a work-in-progress excerpt of ARTIFACT at New Dance Alliance’s PERFORMANCE MIX Festival on February 24 and 25.

knife inc. presents

ARTIFACT (work-in-progress excerpt)
written & directed by Aya Ogawa
video & lights by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew
sound by Rich Kim
performed by Drae Campbell, Ryan Edwards, Ikuko Ikari, Joan Jubbett Bauer,
Eunjee Lee, Alanna Medlock, Jason Quarles, Sophia Remolde, Adam Rihacek

This movement piece combines video and sound design for an intimate journey through geography and memory.

presented as part of the PERFORMANCE MIX Festival
February 24 & 25 at 8PM
Joyce Soho
Tickets: $18 - small house, will sell out fast! Buy in advance!

I’m so glad you asked.

Aya will be in Spain for much of September for an international collaboration project produced by the New Project Group within the International Theater Institute. Read more about this and other of Aya’s travels and projects here.

knife, inc. will be presenting something (something not yet created?!) for the New Dance Alliance’s Performance MIX Festival in February 2009. Stay tuned for more info!

“extraordinary, astonishing, near-perfect masterpiece.” — Culturebot

“Compelling…Harrowing…Great theater.” — The New York Times

“A smart, beautiful, and touching production that is unpretentious and fun… Do not miss this show, and once you see it, tell everyone you know.” — NYtheatre.com

“airy…lovely…graceful… must not unwatch’d go.” — Time Out New York

“…a brilliant exploration of suspension–in time, in space, between words, and between bodies.” –Obscene Jester

“a riveting experience that succeeds because of its incredible imagery and its ability to access raw emotional territory.” –Back Stage

HERE Art Center and knife inc. present

oph3lia

Written & directed by

Aya Ogawa

An immigrant woman embarks on a mysterious journey through New York where she discovers that she can go through life without ever uttering a word.

In a Christian international school in China, where the students have formed their own hierarchies within the school walls, the arrival of a new teacher and a transfer student sends the fragile microcosm spinning.

Cultures clash in a theatre producer’s office: in the maddening mix of languages in the world of entertainment production, compromises of artistic integrity punctuate the struggle in the creation of ‘art,’ and the interpreter bears the brunt.

Dreams and reality converge in oph3lia, as Shakespeare’s Hamlet inspires a haunting collision of cultures, exploring different facets of Ophelia in contemporary contexts, interweaving three distinct stories that center on themes of isolation and disconnection.

Set and costume design

Clint Ramos

Lighting and video design

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew

Sound design

Rich Kim

Music

Andy Gillis

Assistant Director

Joan Jubett

featuring:

Laura Butler, Drae Campbell, Dawn Eshelman, Connie Hall*, Ikuko Ikari,

Hana Kalinski, Eunjee Lee*, Mark Lindberg, Alanna Medlock, Jy Murphy*,

Jorge Alberto Rubio, Magin Schantz, Maureen Sebastian*

Stage Manager

Stacey Haggin*

*AEA member. Equity Approved Showcase.

____________________________________________

Remaining Showtimes

Mon. June 30@ 7:30pm

Tues. July 1 @ 7:30pm

Wed. July 2 @ 7:30pm

Post-show Discussions

June 26: Immigration - Stranger in a Strange Land

Directions

At HERE Arts Center – 145 6th Ave.

(between Spring & Broome, enter on Dominick)

Google Map

Tickets

www.here.org

212-352-3101

$18 / $15 with student ID

Links

* Listen to Director Aya Ogawa talk about the show on youtube!

* Interview with Aya on WPS1 Art Radio!

Before the show the actors come together in a tight huddle

and count to twenty.  One person for each number, and if two people say the same number, it’s back to one.

“Stunning… superb…” [read the original post here]