11.13.2009

More press...and opening night!

It's Friday the 13th, meaning one thing: ReImagined opens for one night only at 8pm. Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket, and we can't wait to see you there.

Also, we have more press from the Columbia Spectator. Check it out: 'ReImagined' - a play about coming of age in a fairy tale world

-James

11.11.2009

Press!

Hey all,

Check out our first press (we have more coming down the line) from CUArts:


-James

11.07.2009

SHOW WEEK!!!!

hey guys, we can't wait for you to see this. It's show week, and we are in full play mode. Just playing all the time.

That's it, really.

-Ameneh

11.06.2009

Tickets

Quick update on the ticket front: we are now officially sold out. However, if you would like to get on the standby list, please email us to reserve your place.

-James

11.04.2009

Coming Soon...

Hey all,

Our performance date is coming up fast; we go up one week from Friday. The cast and crew are working in overdrive to make this the best show possible, and we're excited to see everyone who's attending. I just wanted to do a quick thank you to all of those who have supported the show and reserved their tickets early.

Two quick bits of info:

1) We're up to 141 reservations, and we have to cap it off at around 155. So please, if you're even the slightest bit interested, email reimagined09@gmail.com to reserve your place. I promise you won't regret it.

2) We're holding one more event this week. If you're in the New York area this Friday, the 6th, at 11pm head over to Campo (113th and Broadway) and have a drink or two with us. We're even holding a raffle: the winner receives two (now-coveted) tickets to the show and, if that isn't incentive enough, 10 free drinks at the bar.

We look forward to seeing you.

-James

11.02.2009





We are having so much fun. I'm sure you guys will too!

10.30.2009

Creating our set!



We are construting our set out of old vintage chairs.
Have a look at all our treasures!

10.28.2009

Thoughts from the cast

With only 18 more days left until the big night, things are gearing up and . What's especially exciting about this entire process is that with every rehearsal, something new and unexpected emerges, whether that's a different take on choreography or a new song, so that, very much like the forest that serves as the setting for our play, our performance is constantly flowering and evolving to the extent that by the time November 13 arrives, the finished product will be as fresh and vibrant in our eyes as it will be in yours. Not to imply that we don't have a stable, overall , vision--in fact we have have a rather wonderful script on which we depend. Nonetheless , Reimagined is about transporting not only us but you the audience back to the era of childhood, when rules were not so much as important as being in the moment and allowing that thing called imagination to be the guiding force. It's this spontaniety we hope to retain and distill into what should be an out of the ordinary and great evening.

-Ausar English

10.27.2009





Here it comes!!!

I can't wait for you all to see the show. We have been working furiously to get it up to snuff, and it's looking really great. All the actors are brilliant, and have taken our script to the next level. I've never seen eight people who are more willing to try crazy, wacky, wonderful things and who succeed at pulling them off!

We've got some amazing things in store for you. Just as a little tease, yesterday we practiced how our dead would rise after our main character kills her lover.

Yep. We went there.

Don't forget to reserve tickets!!! They're really going fast - I know everyone says that, but believe me - the gmail has been blowing up, and people are buying by the bushel!

See you soon,

Love,

Ameneh

10.22.2009

Thoughts from the Cast: The forest is getting deeper

On Monday night, we worked on our celebration in the final scene of "Whitehawk," the tale of an Indian boy who comes to realize his own strength. As we struggled to choreograph a dance for the final scene, we confronted one of the biggest artistic challenges in ReImagined - how to represent the cultural context of the folk tales, while maintaining a unified aesthetic. "Whitehawk" is of American Indian origin - should we make the dance reminiscent of American Indian celebratory dances? If so, in what way? To what degree? Should we sing an American Indian song? Or should we focus more on the archetypal significance of the piece, as a story about a man finding his own strength and coming to the aid of his people? 

We debated and stomped and danced out the question. We are still in the process of wiggling it out.

ReImagined is striving to highlight the archetypal universality of folk tales, while preserving valuable cultural nuances. Now, it is all about finding the right balance.

-Rose duPont

10.19.2009

Tickets Available!

You can now reserve a seat for ReImagined.  Keep in mind that no tickets will be sold at the door; make sure you reserve early before they sell out.  Contact reimagined09@gmail.com to get your ticket.  You won't regret it.

James

10.15.2009

Fairytale Party (and free booze)!



Hey all,

We're hosting an event at Village Pourhouse (Amsterdam b/w 108th and 109th) this Friday, 10pm-2am. Come out and meet the cast and crew! You get 1 free drink with the $3 admission, which basically amounts to a half-price drink. Meet us there, and bring everyone!



James

10.13.2009

Thoughts from the Cast: Lusmore's Song

In the traditional Irish folktale of Lusmore, the Hunchback, the central character finds himself amongst a gaggle of crooning fairies. Tonight at rehearsal one of our several tasks was to select a song for our retelling of the story. We chose Loch Lomond, which, though often used as a drinking song in Scotland, is actually considered by most to be a song of war and loss. Two prisoners of a Jacobite uprising are captured, one sentenced to death, and one released to tell the tale. The 'Low Road' referred to in the text of the song is, in fact, the road to the underworld.

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond
Where me and my true love will ne-er meet again (alternate: Where me and my true love were ever lak/wont to gae)
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.
Chorus:
O you’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye
But me and my true love will ne-er meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.
‘Twas there that we parted in yon shady glen
On the steep, steep sides o’ Ben Lomond
Where deep in purple hue, the highland hills we view
And the moon comin’ out in the gloamin’.
Chorus
The wee birdies sing and the wild flowers spring
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping
But the broken heart, it kens nae second spring again
Tho’ the waeful may cease frae their greeting. (alternate: Tho' the world knows not how we are grieving)
Chorus
-Michael Snyder aka Bluebeard

10.10.2009

Our Space


Here are some photos of our space at Riverside Church. The space features a beautiful fireplace and four gorgeous overhead chandeliers.

10.04.2009

Thoughts from the Cast: ...And Sunday Was the Day of Rest...

Or, rather, it wasn't.

With strains of the giggle-punctuated voice of Peter Yarrow wafting through the window, today's rehearsal took on an odd quality. Wading through the tiny bodies and gratuitous strollers of the annual Great Read at Columbia was a warm-up exercise in itself. It was as if the ReImagined collective effort to embody and understand children had malfunctioned and exploded. So it suffices to say that things were a little loopy today.

Amanda and Ameneh did tremendous work over the week creating a storyboard and a narrative structure to work with, and the fruit of their labor is a sensitive and delicate story of Child, a precocious protagonist whose experience is interwoven with eight storybook characters. Through their interactions, the ever-evolving Child learns what it is to rely on himself, to love another, and to live.

This is going to be big.

10.01.2009

Thoughts from the Cast: Kill the Demon

Tonight was our final rehearsal before we begin to storyboard in earnest. So far in the rehearsal process, actors have been bringing in floods of stories and folklore from religious, ethnic, historical and personal backgrounds to share with each other. After much deliberation, we’ve narrowed the pool down to the eight stories we’ll be using in the show. In tandem with the script-related elements of our show, our two directors have been helping the entire cast explore new and different ways of conveying narratives. Rehearsals so far have produced everything from chalkboard explanations of maidens lighting on fire to children forcing each other to play their favorite game of Kill The Demon, among many, many other methods. The cast is really coming together and learning how to play off of each other well, and the entire crew is looking forward to this Sunday, when we will begin to weave our eight narratives together. Also, this weekend will be the first of many bar nights in support of reImagined! We’ll be at La Negrita (109th and Columbus) this Friday and we’ll be hoping to see any reImagined enthusiasts drop by to say hello and maybe hoist a few with the cast and crew!

Henry

9.30.2009

...followed by a few more.




-James

We present to you the first photos of reImagined...

 

Week two

We have just finished our second week of rehearsal for reImagined, our original theater piece of fantastical tales from around the world. So much has happened since Amanda and I started this project. (maybe I should begin there!) Amanda Stoffel and I (Ameneh Bordi) worked together two semesters ago on "I Am My Own Wife," which turned out really well. This semester, we wanted to do something again, so Amanda proposed the idea of making a play out of German fairytales. After playing with the idea all summer, we finally decided that a play based on fairytales from around the world would be more interesting and complex, and we dove in head first. We looked at tons of spaces, finally deciding on Riverside Church's 9T, a magnificent room with marble columns, a fireplace, and chandeliers. We assembled a glorious cast, a great team, and got working. In the past two weeks, things have really started to take shape, and after last night, I feel confident saying we are going to have an amazing show on our hands. We've basically picked the tales that are going to be in the show; they come from all over the world, so it will be a challenge to figure out how to mesh them together coherently. So far, what we want to do is have each of the characters represent a theme like "self discovery," "rebellion," "betrayal," "sexual awakening," "exploration," and the like, and then follow these characters' journeys to see how they interact with each other and grow over the course of the show. Not every one will be a hero - in fact we almost didn't have any heroes in the plot - and some characters will turn into the villains in the story due to their bad choices earlier on. Our actors have spent the last two weeks finding stories, sharing them with us and with each other, and presenting them in so many new and creative ways. We did one exercise where each of our 8 actors had to present the same story, and even though there was really only one main character, no one told it from the same point of view! It was amazing to watch. Yesterday, one of the presentations of a story did the whole thing with only 4 phrases, but the entire story was conveyed with no loss of detail. It's amazing how fluid these stories are. In terms of production, we are well on our way as well. Our amazing producers, James Rathmell and Ajit Pillai, have been coming up with ideas I've never had. We have a blog (reImagined2009.blogspot.com) where we will be posting stories, pictures, and rehearsal notes, and are almost done with our logo. We also have some fundraisers in the works (La Negrita this Friday!! October 2nd) and other revenue ideas. And we finally have the contract for the space, so everything is locked up. Basically, this project is flowing and I couldn't be happier. I can't wait for you to see it when it's done!

~Ameneh

9.28.2009

The Golden Key

"The Golden Key," by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
*This is the final tale in the Grimms' collection of fairytales...*
this text taken from http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm200.html

"Once in the wintertime when the snow was very deep, a poor boy had to go out and fetch wood on a sled. After he had gathered it together and loaded it, he did not want to go straight home, because he was so frozen, but instead to make a fire and warm himself a little first. So he scraped the snow away, and while he was thus clearing the ground he found a small golden key. Now he believed that where there was a key, there must also be a lock, so he dug in the ground and found a little iron chest. "If only the key fits!" he thought. "Certainly there are valuable things in the chest." He looked, but there was no keyhole. Finally he found one, but so small that it could scarcely be seen. He tried the key, and fortunately it fitted. Then he turned it once, and now we must wait until he has finished unlocking it and has opened the lid. Then we shall find out what kind of wonderful things there were in the little chest."


So here we are, reImagined 09, imagining those wonderful things...


9.25.2009

We're live!

reImagined is a theatre piece unlike any you've ever seen.  Now, you can follow us on our blog.  Check in daily for updates straight from the cast and crew: fairytales, teaser images, videos, contests, dates of our upcoming events in NYC, and so much more.