Intermedia Arts Naked Stages has found a new foster home at Pillsbury House Theatre for the 2009-2010 season. Pillsbury House Theatre is pleased to develop this partnership and support emerging performance artists through this nine-month creation process. Naked Stages is being led by Laurie Carlos as the Artistic Director and supported by Molly Van Avery as the Administrative Director as well as PHT's co-artistic director Noel Raymond and Artistic Program Associate Kurt Mattsen.
Naked Stages is an intensive program designed for emerging performance artists and funded by the Jerome Foundation. The uniqueness of Naked Stages as a commissioning opportunity is that it is a period where performance artists are encouraged to focus on their process of creation, as opposed to the final product. Artists meet monthly to show each other work and learn how to give and receive feedback that is artist centered, meaning they are supporting one another to make the kind of work they want to make by, for, and of themselves. In addition to showings, the artists participate in workshops with local creators like Hijack, Pramila Vasudevan, and creative intensives with nationally renowned artist Sharon Bridgforth. Once a month artists also have production meetings focused on the business side of art where the focus is on things like audience development, press materials, and working
with technical support teams. The final Naked Stages performances are just one element of a multi-layered program that is designed to empower artists and prove that when you focus on process, the final product is inevitably more powerful for both artists and audiences.
Tickets to Naked Stages are available at the door, by phone at 612-825-0459 or online.
Two-Show Ticket Packages are available to see all four Naked Stages
artists. For only $20 for adults or $15 for students and seniors, audience members can get a ticket to a performance on April 1, 2 or 3 and a ticket for April 15, 16 or 17. To purchase a Two-Show Ticket Package to Naked Stages, CLICK HERE.
ARTISTS BIOS
Julia Elizabeth Babb - A Fool’s Paradox
Julia received the Jerome/Minnesota Book Arts Center’s Fellowship for Non-Book Artists in 2006, with mentor Paulette Myers-Rich; and with mentor Jantje Visscher, participated in the Women’s Art Registry of
Minnesota Mentor Program’s 2007-2008 cycle. A Minneapolis-based artist,
Julia has been a member of the Longfellow 7 Artist Collective for 2+
years, and worked primarily with photography and collage for the past
ten. She has been a poet and calligrapher most of her life. This is her
inaugural foray into the realm of performance art.
Julian McFaul - Disappearing Trick
Julian McFaul is an actor, teacher and sculptor. A founding member
of Bedlam Theatre, he was a leading actor and designer for the
company's first ten years, where he wrote, directed and designed Terminus (2002).
Julian has been involved as an actor notably with Mabou Mines,
Improbable Theatre, Open Eye Figure Theatre, Theatre de la Jeune Lune,
Children’s Theatre Company and In the Heart of the Beast’s “Mayday
Celebration.” He is looking forward to several productions with Theatre
Novi Most in 2010. Julian McFaul continues his kinetic approach to both
acting and sculpture, this time in a piece that attempts to put both
acting and sculpture simultaneously to the task of performing. Joy,
Liberation, Trash, Deception are continual themes of exploration for
McFaul who relishes peeling away onion-skin-layers of trickery and
truth on the perhaps noble but ultimately unachievable crash toward
truth and existential authenticity.
Kelley A Meister - Seducing Those Who are Afraid
Kelley is a founding member of the radical multi-gendered,
sex-positive, queer-positive, feminist political performance troupe
BenchPress Burlesque. For two years, ze traveled and performed with BPB throughout the Midwest and the upper east coast. Concurrently, Kelley worked on hir MFA in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design
and created a mixture of video, performance, and site-specific
installation work. Presently, Kelley has joined forces with two other
former BenchPress Burlesque members to create Wreck Family Productions.
The trio performs around Minneapolis at myriad queer performance
cabarets, including Dykes Do Drag, Queertopia, and the Dirty Queer
Show. Kelley creates site-specific time-based media installations that
merge spontaneity, accessibility, and a hand-crafted aesthetic.
Miré Regulus - KnotDrawn: My Goodness, the Milk, and the Daddy(body)
KnotDrawn marks Miré Regulus' return to art-making and performing. Past projects include @rkology, a spoken word/music group, Red Eye’s Works In Progress,
June Wilson’s Circle of Choice Dance Company, performances at Patrick’s
Cabaret, the Center for Independent Artists, and at Laurie Carlos's
original Late Nite series. Miré has directed a staged reading at the
College of St. Catherine and performance art pieces at C4IA. She
participated in the Change Exchange program on L.A.’s Skid Row - one of
her most intense artistic experiences.
All Naked Stages artist photos by Ann Marsden.