Katt Lissard & memory lab
Surrogate Traveler
May 19 2013
IN RESIDENCE: May 7-20 2013
A letter home from southern Africa about an ill-conceived “cultural heritage” project veers off the page – the narrative (and actors) hijacked by a fractious national election, ed inept American restructuring of an African university, and villagers’ attempts to capture a runaway coffin. Framing the chaos: a divisive archeological excavation and a looming dam-created flood.
memory lab continues its exploration of performing “experimental conversation” in a new piece, Surrogate Traveler, focused on looking more deeply at the role of the Western outsider and what it means to be on the outside while actually living within. With tacit acknowledgement of the absurd, painful and comic cultural negotiations involved in any “global collaboration,” Surrogate Traveler turns the old-school anthropological stance on its head – shifting the object of exploration from some “other” culture to our own, and gleefully performing those cross-cultural manifestations of the hapless interaction, the missed cue and the impossible plan.
Director: Katt Lissard
Performance:
Sunday May 19th, 2:00
Ticket Price:
FREE
Location: IRT Theater, 154 Christopher st. #3B (third floor)
Running time: 1 hr. 15 min
Surrogate Traveler continues memory lab’s exploration of “experimental conversation,” which the collaborative began in 2010 with its work on Outpost – developed at both Mabou Mines and as part of IRT’s 3B Series –YOUTUBE