January 09-10, 2020
This year’s edition of Special Effects Festival asks
How do we combine difference?
How do we assemble coalition?
and what is the power of togetherness.
Artist driven and oriented, Special Effects gathers experimental performance works by practitioners exploring contemporary issues. Drawing on a network of over 8K artists who are part of contemporaryperformance.com, the festival samples the diversity and richness of the discipline of performance and presents an open forum for critical thinking on the issues of the day.
January 9, 2020 @ 8pm
Packing and Cracking
created by Rachel Karp and Joseph Amodei
Directed by Rachel Karp
Designed by Joseph Amodei
Do we choose our politicians, or do our politicians choose us? PACKING AND CRACKING is an interactive mapmaking event about gerrymandering: the pervasive practice of politicians choosing their voters rather than the other way around. Through participatory drawing and map-drawing games, PACKING AND CRACKING uses critical cartography, historical accounts of the first gerrymanders, and interviews with people dealing with gerrymandering today to show how easy and disenfranchising gerrymandering can be and ask what, if anything, we should do about it.
January 10, 2020 @ 8pm
Gray Spaces: Rally
Curated and hosted byLisa Clair
Kristin Worrall
The Recipe: The Transformation of Milk
A brief investigation into the potentialities of milk.
Kristin Worrall is a pastry artist, performer, and musician who lives in New York City.
kristinworrall.com
IG: @kristinworrallbakes @kristinworrall @cushionsband
Sauda Aziza Jackson / April Sweeney
I DIGRESS: The intimate insights of a childhood weirdo
Written & Performed by Sauda Aziza Jackson
Directed by April Sweeney
Produced by *Necessary Digression
Sauda Jackson weaves together personal tales from her childhood
with the media and memorabilia that defined her past in this multimedia performance piece, part memoir, a sliver of music, a quarter bio-drama, and a dribble of her own special sauce. I DIGRESS, a performance memoir, explores the weight of inheritance and the recollection of memories and material things once lost to time.
Sauda Aziza Jackson has appeared in many theatre productions during her 20 plus years in New York City. The Chicago native has participated with Little Lord (Now is the Time), International Wow lead by artistic director Josh Fox (Expense of Spirit, Limitless Joy) and Sponsored by Nobody (The Arts(original cast), Behind the Bullseye). Sauda studied theater at Eastern Illinois University, graduating with a B.A in Theater Arts. She continued on to The Neighborhood Playhouse summer program (Ron Stetson Scene study) and finally matriculated to the MFA program in acting at Brooklyn College (F. Murray Abraham, master class instructor).
April Sweeney is a performer and theater maker who has performed internationally in theaters and festivals in Belgium, Hungary, Argentina, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Her U.S. performance projects have been seen at P.S 122, The Kitchen, Under the Radar, La Mama, Boom Arts, Montana Rep, Arkansas Rep, and various NYC downtown venues. As a director, her work has been seen in Argentina, Belgium, NYC, and Upstate New York.
Artist Websites:
https://www.necessarydigression.org/
https://www.facebook.com/IDigressIntimateInsightsofAChildhoodWeirdo/
Joey Weiss and Kate Benson
PDF on painting
Written by Joey Weiss
Performed by Kate Benson
In the past painting was slow. In the future painting was free in the future without a job. PDF on painting is a presentation on painting.
Joey Weiss is an artist with a background in painting and sculpture – recent work appearing at The Brick, Dixon Place and The Exponential Festival. He is a partner in Songs to Live By with composer Marco Panella. www.joeyweiss.com
Kate Benson is a writer and performer who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Performances include: Variations on the Main (Jack), [Porto](Bushwick Starr & WP Theater), I’ll Never Love Again (Bushwick Starr), Tiger, Tiger (on the Nature of Violence) (Dixon Place), Fondly, Collette Richland (Elevator Repair Service at New York Theater Workshop), Running Away from the One with the Knife(the Chocolate Factory), Nomads (the Incubator), and Good Person of Szechwan (the Public & LaMama). Writing includes: [Porto](Bushwick Starr), A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes (New Georges with Women’s Project, OBIE-winner), Desert (for Now), and Super Magic Wild Forest. She has an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College.
Braulio Cruz
The Braille of the Soul
The Braille of the Soul piece aims to connect themes of home, ancestry, and intimacy within the songs to a video collage running on shuffle.
Braulio Cruz is a writer and performer who originates from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Recently, he has been playing his synths in small locations around New York. His new record, The Braille of the Soul, will be released February 2020, and sees him mixing Brazilian influences into dreamy soundscapes. Many of his songs revolve around the gay experience. He released his first LP, Pool, in 2018 on cassette and digital. brauliocruz.bandcamp.com
InstIG: @brauliocruzmusic